Crashing within 5 Minutes of Playing - nVidia GTX 970

[HaydenZammit]

Since I went back to the 344.11 drivers I've had no crashes in about 25 mins compared to every 10 mins on latest nvidia drivers. I'll keep updating.

 

[mrhUK]

I'm crashing to desktop every 10 minutes without error. MSI GTX 970 with latest driver on Windows 8.1.

 

[HaydenZammit]

Alright, so on those 344.11 drivers I got about 40 mins in. Never froze once when I was riding around or fighting. Then it finally froze during a conversation.

---------- Updated at 11:07 AM ----------

Yeah, the 344.11 drivers are definitely better for me. Getting no crashes at all. Just that one single one in a dialogue part, but that's it. I'm losing a few frames on this older driver though compared to the latest. Hopefully Nvidia can fix this soon.

 

[VPoluektov]

Game crashes like every other cutscene or dialog, while being completely stable in the world. All crashes are different; either "The witcher 3 has stopped responding", "Display driver stopped responding and has successfully recovered", or freezes without any error messages, allowing me to kill it using task manager, however. Two titan X in SLI, latest 352.86 drivers (not like I have a choice with SLI).

What is kind of strange is that these cutscenes/dialogs run at 60 fps, when they are supposed to drop down to 30, since I have not edited any config files outside of making adjustment in game GUI. Maybe these cutscenes are running at 30 fps by default for a reason?

 

[defiance340]

Only solution i managed to find so far is downclocking the gpu if it has any sort of overclocking, including factory overclocks, this reduces the amount of crashes a fair bit and make the game somewhat playable but they still occur from time to time. If i use my regular overclock the game crashes roughly every 1-2 mins.

 

[Lobotomy3yes]

Same deal for me. GTX 970. Happening to everyone else too, not just people with 970s. Happens to my buddy with GTX 780 SLI, though not as frequent. Been around enough new releases to know that this the sort of thing you don't fix yourself. Hopefully they patch it up soon. It sucks, but to be honest I was expecting this cuz that's just the state of PC gaming releases these days...

 

[HaydenZammit]

While the 344.11 gave me better results, it didn't run as good as the latest or even the GTA 5 drivers.

Another thing to note: when it freezes and I alt tab or ctrl shift delete and bring up the task manager, it shows me a screen of earlier in my playtime. Like when I'd last saved or something.

 

[aradian51]

Same problem with my GTX 970, i try to use the latest drivers 350.12 with no succes. My game crash after 1 or 2 mins of playing. When i restart my computer i can play 20 - 40 mins but just that

 

[Tar-Aellin]

Same problem with GTX 970 here as well. The game is minimizing to desktop, sound still on, (if it's during a dialogue) dialogue going on and there is a black little rectangle on the upper left corner of my screen representing the game. Closed down many other programs running in the background, closed windows error reporting but still to no avail, it keeps happening.

I was able to play for 1 hour or so at first, then after the first time freeze, i could not even play for 5 minutes. It keeps happening.

 

[shockmob]

FYI, this solution seems to work for me. I've been playing for 90 minutes without freeze/crash now.
GTX960 with 352.86 driver, Core i5 2500k, Win7 64bit SP1.

 

[aradian51]

Just an question, all guy who have the same problems, you play with GoG version or steam version ?

 

[Sooxzay]

Same here. Got an overclocked 970gtx and got around 6 crash until now. freezing in inventory, just closes the game while in fight and freeze in dialouges. glad im saving 24/7

Edit: Steam version here.

Second edit: Game crashed 3 times now in a row in the nekker cave in velen..

 

[Ryba7]

I have the origin version and a 770, the rest is the same, 5min in the game ->destop->witcher 3 stoped working -> close proces -> repeat

 

[Homer86]

GOG Version

i hope it will help to find the error CDPR

Spoiler: Red Engine Crash Log

Red Engine Crash Log
--------------------------------------
Build: Not Set [ Compiled May 17 2015 ]

Crash reason: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (3221225477), Error reading location 0x00000000

Crashed Thread:

Thread ID: 5360

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x104997 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0xd3af9 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::System::~System() + 0xf31df - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::System::~System() + 0x329c6 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::System::~System() + 0x326e3 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::System::~System() + 0x34561 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::System::~System() + 0xb88de - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::System::~System() + 0x97737 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb69074 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb52b60 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb53140 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb4d914 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c7b - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x5c8fe - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c00 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

Debug Information
================================================================

Commandline: "C:\Program Files(x86)\The Witcher3\bin\x64\witcher3.exe"  

Thread ID: 4620

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xce28a - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0x69b324 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x110fa6 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xaeec1 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x10bcda - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xaf1c7 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0x9f6 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0x21a6d - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xc59 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xd4c - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x267d38 - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5228

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb17477 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c00 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5728

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c00 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5124

callstack:
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 1984

callstack:
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5428

callstack:
DllUnregisterServer() + 0x45ad - <Unknown File>(0)
DllUnregisterServer() + 0x48a6 - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 2356

callstack:
GetScrollBarInfo() + 0x1dd - <Unknown File>(0)
MsgWaitForMultipleObjectsEx() + 0x2e - <Unknown File>(0)
Ordinal9() + 0x1d96 - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5304

callstack:
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 2176

callstack:
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5196

callstack:
Scaleform::System::~System() + 0x3c6eb0 - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 1132

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c00 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 4532

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c00 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5012

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c00 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 3736

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c00 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 3952

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c00 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5904

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0x811ac - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix4x4<float>::SetIdentity() + 0xb29c00 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 6028

callstack:
OpenAdapter12() + 0xc1c40 - <Unknown File>(0)
OpenAdapter12() + 0xb9f3d - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x79a4a - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x4268b7 - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x426a5e - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 4896

callstack:
OpenAdapter12() + 0x19110f - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x4268b7 - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x426a5e - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5620

callstack:
OpenAdapter12() + 0x19110f - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x4268b7 - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x426a5e - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 4496

callstack:
OpenAdapter12() + 0x19110f - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x4268b7 - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x426a5e - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 3528

callstack:
OpenAdapter12() + 0x19110f - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x4268b7 - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x426a5e - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 3808

callstack:
OpenAdapter12() + 0x19110f - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x4268b7 - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x426a5e - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5724

callstack:
OpenAdapter12() + 0x19110f - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x4268b7 - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x426a5e - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 4596

callstack:
OpenAdapter12() + 0x19110f - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x4268b7 - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x426a5e - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 5144

callstack:
OpenAdapter12() + 0x19110f - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x4268b7 - <Unknown File>(0)
NVAPI_Thunk() + 0x426a5e - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 4452

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 6096

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 1436

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 3512

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 3216

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Thread ID: 1740

callstack:
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fc57 - <Unknown File>(0)
Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4<float>::Prepend() + 0x26fdfe - <Unknown File>(0)
BaseThreadInitThunk() + 0xd - <Unknown File>(0)
RtlUserThreadStart() + 0x21 - <Unknown File>(0)

================================================================

Game

Last opened world: prolog_village.w2w

================================================================

Game

Last opened world: prolog_village.w2w

================================================================

 

[LuckyLIVE]

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti GIGABYTE with the latest NVIDIA driver ... screen is freezing but sound (music, dialogues, e.t.c.) continues.

My System got a clean install just a week ago ... but your support keeps telling me to update my drivers ... and then, they do not even answer any more.

 

[Xylant]

had the same problems too till i underclocked my GTX 970 +40 mhz memory and clockspeed

 

[Daggerborn]

I had a BSOD on Windows 8.1 after only 15 minutes of playing. It was a watch dog error. Disabling the fast boot option in Windows seems to have helped. Sorry if this is not helpful.

 

[jonorta]

Same issue here. They are definitely working on a fix. My rigs old but its been running all latest gen games with 2k graphics on ultra and rarely a black screen crash.

i7 @2.6ghz
12gb ddr3
Evga gtx 970

In game medium/high graphics @ 2k resoulution

Runs smooth... As soon as I step outside on the balcony I get the black screen that locks up the PC.

I have RMAd my evga gtx 970 before due to these black screens. Starting to feel stupid putting all that money into this card when I should have just bought a ps4.

But alas... This is why we should never buy a ported to PC game for at least a month after its been released.

Its a cool looking game, can't wait to play it.

 

[combaticus93]

you are the first other user that I have read about having an identical problem to me. I also have the gtx 970 and when my witcher 3 "crashes" the screen goes black, my keyboard and mouse and controller all become unresponsive and I have to hard reset my comp as well. This had happened to me about 8 times on launch day which casued me to stop playing the game after only progressing through about 20 minutes of the story. Yesterday, however, I noticed that before I launcehd the game again there was a 50MB update file, and after that installed, I seemingly had no problems running everything on ultra for almost 3 hours of gameplay, then the problem began to happen again. Hope there is a permanent fix soon

 

[Xylant]

I thought the patch had solved the problem but after 3 hours again a driver reset.