Game crashing / artifacting on AMD 6000 series

[Maxou09DuBled]

Game keeps crashing instantly (RX 6700 + i7-9700)

Hi everyone,
I recently upgraded my PC (new PSU and new CPU), but I keep running into crashes with Cyberpunk 2077. The game sometimes crashes instantly when launching, or after a few minutes of gameplay.


Here are my specs:

• CPU: Intel i7-9700 (just installed, coming from i5-9600)
• GPU: AMD RX 6700 (non-XT)
• RAM: [put how much you have, e.g. 16 GB DDR4]
• Motherboard: ASUS TUF B360
• PSU: [put your PSU model here, the new one you bought]
• OS: Windows 11

What I’ve tried so far:

• Clean reinstall of GPU drivers using DDU
• Updated BIOS and chipset drivers
• Disabled all overlays (Steam, Discord, AMD Adrenalin)
• Monitored CPU/GPU temps (all normal)
• Verified game files on Steam

Do you think it could be an issue with the RX 6700 itself, or something else I should try? Any help would be appreciated because I’ve already spent quite a bit upgrading my system and I’m running out of ideas.


Thanks!

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Game keeps crashing instantly (RX 6700 + i7-9700)

Hi everyone,
I recently upgraded my PC (new PSU and new CPU), but I keep running into crashes with Cyberpunk 2077. The game sometimes crashes instantly when launching, or after a few minutes of gameplay.


Here are my specs:

• CPU: Intel i7-9700 (just installed, coming from i5-9600)
• GPU: AMD RX 6700 (non-XT)
• RAM: [put how much you have, e.g. 16 GB DDR4]
• Motherboard: ASUS TUF B360
• PSU: [put your PSU model here, the new one you bought]
• OS: Windows 11

What I’ve tried so far:

• Clean reinstall of GPU drivers using DDU
• Updated BIOS and chipset drivers
• Disabled all overlays (Steam, Discord, AMD Adrenalin)
• Monitored CPU/GPU temps (all normal)
• Verified game files on Steam

Do you think it could be an issue with the RX 6700 itself, or something else I should try? Any help would be appreciated because I’ve already spent quite a bit upgrading my system and I’m running out of ideas.


Thanks!

HI,
If it's not already done, check if you tried everything suggested by the support and send directly a ticket to the support ("contact us" button).

Game crashes — Cyberpunk 2077 | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

support.cdprojektred.com

CPU/GPU temps are normal, but did you check your CPU/GPU/RAM usages in case. Like something which would hiting 100% or would drastically dropping before a crash)
No crash on other games (games about equally demanding as Cyberpunk)

 

[SigilFey]

Grab the Microsoft Visual C++ Studio All-in-One.

Install both the x86 and the x64 versions.

 

[Maxou09DuBled]

HI,
If it's not already done, check if you tried everything suggested by the support and send directly a ticket to the support ("contact us" button).

Game crashes — Cyberpunk 2077 | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

support.cdprojektred.com

CPU/GPU temps are normal, but did you check your CPU/GPU/RAM usages in case. Like something which would hiting 100% or would drastically dropping before a crash)
No crash on other games (games about equally demanding as Cyberpunk)

J’ai 32 Go de RAM, donc je ne pense pas que ce soit un problème de mémoire. J’ai déjà vérifié les usages en jeu, et ni le CPU ni le GPU n’atteignent 100 % ni ne montrent de gros pics ou de chutes avant le crash. Les températures sont bonnes aussi. Les crashs arrivent uniquement sur Cyberpunk, les autres jeux gourmands tournent sans problème.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

J’ai 32 Go de RAM, donc je ne pense pas que ce soit un problème de mémoire. J’ai déjà vérifié les usages en jeu, et ni le CPU ni le GPU n’atteignent 100 % ni ne montrent de gros pics ou de chutes avant le crash. Les températures sont bonnes aussi. Les crashs arrivent uniquement sur Cyberpunk, les autres jeux gourmands tournent sans problème.

Ok,
If you didn't, check what @SigilFey suggested :

Grab the Microsoft Visual C++ Studio All-in-One.
Install both the x86 and the x64 versions.

____

We're on the english part of the forum, so english only

 

[Maxou09DuBled]

Ok,
If you didn't, check what @SigilFey suggested :

____

We're on the english part of the forum, so english only

Sorry for writing in French earlier, I didn’t realize this was an English-only forum.


Here’s what happened: I installed both the x86 and x64 versions of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (All-in-One). After that, I tried to launch Cyberpunk again, but I didn’t even manage to load into my save. During the loading screen, the game froze and I got a lot of crazy visual artifacts all over the screen. It never actually entered the game, it just stayed bugged like that.


Before this, I could at least get into the game and play a bit before it crashed.


Also, quite often when the game crashes, I get a message saying that there was a “driver timeout” with my AMD graphics drivers. Not sure if this is related, but I thought it might help to mention.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Sorry for writing in French earlier, I didn’t realize this was an English-only forum.


Here’s what happened: I installed both the x86 and x64 versions of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (All-in-One). After that, I tried to launch Cyberpunk again, but I didn’t even manage to load into my save. During the loading screen, the game froze and I got a lot of crazy visual artifacts all over the screen. It never actually entered the game, it just stayed bugged like that.


Before this, I could at least get into the game and play a bit before it crashed.


Also, quite often when the game crashes, I get a message saying that there was a “driver timeout” with my AMD graphics drivers. Not sure if this is related, but I thought it might help to mention.View attachment 11424539

Annoying
I just saw that on Steam for Space Marine, but worth to check in case.
Constant Crashes with AMD Driver Timeout

 

[SigilFey]

During the loading screen, the game froze and I got a lot of crazy visual artifacts all over the screen. It never actually entered the game, it just stayed bugged like that.

That's not good. Have you seen this behavior (or similar behavior) in any other game? Do you ever see any artifacting occur on the Windows Desktop (without running a game or application)?

Is there any "flickering" to the artifacting that occurs. Is anything on the screen changing colors, appearing or disappearing, or somehow seeming to move around when you mouse over it?

Worst-case scenario: that's close to the type of artifacting that I would expect to see if a GPU started dying. But, better-case scenario: since yours is new, it could simply be a matter of the board not being properly seated in the slot or something. I'm leaning more that way for now.

_______________


Where are you getting your drivers from? Downloading directly from AMD (reference drivers) or are you using a manufacturer's drivers, tweaked drivers, etc?

Annoying
I just saw that on Steam for Space Marine, but worth to check in case.
Constant Crashes with AMD Driver Timeout

Ah, yes...more "Boost" technology.

It would very much be worth reading through this, as this can very, very likely fail to play nicely with some games. In general, be sure that all hardware, CPU and GPU, is running at default clock speeds and voltage settings. Any form of overclocking or underclocking can exacerbate technical issues.

 

[SigilFey]

Also, posts moved to a new thread.

 

[Maxou09DuBled]

That's not good. Have you seen this behavior (or similar behavior) in any other game? Do you ever see any artifacting occur on the Windows Desktop (without running a game or application)?

Is there any "flickering" to the artifacting that occurs. Is anything on the screen changing colors, appearing or disappearing, or somehow seeming to move around when you mouse over it?

Worst-case scenario: that's close to the type of artifacting that I would expect to see if a GPU started dying. But, better-case scenario: since yours is new, it could simply be a matter of the board not being properly seated in the slot or something. I'm leaning more that way for now.

_______________


Where are you getting your drivers from? Downloading directly from AMD (reference drivers) or are you using a manufacturer's drivers, tweaked drivers, etc?


Ah, yes...more "Boost" technology.

It would very much be worth reading through this, as this can very, very likely fail to play nicely with some games. In general, be sure that all hardware, CPU and GPU, is running at default clock speeds and voltage settings. Any form of overclocking or underclocking can exacerbate technical issues.

Thanks for the detailed reply. To answer your questions:

• I haven’t seen this kind of artifacting in any other game, only in Cyberpunk 2077. I also don’t see any artifacting or flickering on the Windows desktop when not gaming.
• The artifacting I got happened only in the loading screen, right before my save was supposed to load. And yes, when I moved my mouse over it, some of the blocks/colors seemed to change or react to it.
• My GPU is brand new, so I hope it’s not dying already. I’ll try to reseat it in the PCIe slot just to be sure.

As for drivers, I always download them directly from AMD’s website (the Adrenalin reference drivers). No manufacturer-tweaked or modded drivers.
Regarding clock speeds, I haven’t done any overclocking or undervolting. Everything should be running at default settings.

Post automatically merged: Aug 27, 2025

I just tested with The Last of Us Part I and the game also crashed. After the crash I got this message from AMD software:

“AMD Software detected a driver timeout on your system. A problem report has been created. It can be sent to AMD to help improve our software. Would you like to report this issue?”

So it looks like the problem is not only happening in Cyberpunk 2077, but also in other demanding games.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

So it looks like the problem is not only happening in Cyberpunk 2077, but also in other demanding games.

Oh, it doesn't sound good if other games also crash when they're a bit demanding, above all after seeing the big weird artefacts you posted previously. It still possible that even new, you got a "faulty" GPU

 

[SigilFey]

My GPU is brand new, so I hope it’s not dying already. I’ll try to reseat it in the PCIe slot just to be sure.

You can, but if it were such an issue, you'd be seeing sporadic artifacts with almost everything that uses any form of 3D rendering. Plus, the artifacting is not exactly what I would expect to see if there were a problem with a damaged GPU.

• I haven’t seen this kind of artifacting in any other game, only in Cyberpunk 2077. I also don’t see any artifacting or flickering on the Windows desktop when not gaming.
• The artifacting I got happened only in the loading screen, right before my save was supposed to load. And yes, when I moved my mouse over it, some of the blocks/colors seemed to change or react to it.

What changes when you mouse over the artifacts? Is it pixels moving around, or does it just seem to "erase" the artifacting under the mouse cursor as you move it?

If the latter, it looks like it's just garble trapped in the frame buffer. I'm heavily leaning that way, as it only seems to affect CP2077.

As for drivers, I always download them directly from AMD’s website (the Adrenalin reference drivers). No manufacturer-tweaked or modded drivers.

Good -- that rules out tweaked funkiness.

Regarding clock speeds, I haven’t done any overclocking or undervolting. Everything should be running at default settings.

Also good, but double check that the "boost" software is disabled as well. These new, dynamic "boost" or "overdrive" features are actually a form of dynamic overclocking, and there are types for both CPU and GPU. In general, they're not necessary, and can actually create a lot of hitching, performance fluctuations, and instability depending on how nicely the rest of your system wants to play with them.

I just tested with The Last of Us Part I and the game also crashed. After the crash I got this message from AMD software:



So it looks like the problem is not only happening in Cyberpunk 2077, but also in other demanding games.

But no artifacting? Just crashing?


_______________


Alright, maybe try a total driver and Registry sweep, as it's quite possible that there are leftover switches being thrown from the prior Windows config for the older hardware:

You're familiar with DDU, so I'd do that again, but with a few extra steps:

1.) Download the installation package from the AMD drivers. I'd just use whatever the latest version is.

2.) Download CCleaner (free version is fine) and install that.

3.) Restart your PC in Safe Mode with no networking. If possible, unplug your LAN cable, wireless dongle for the modem, etc. We want to ensure the PC cannot connect to the internet. I'd stay in Safe Mode for the rest of the process.

4.) Go ahead and run DDU to gut absolutely everything: video, audio, and physics.

5.) Once that's done, run CCleaner to scan and fix empty Registry keys. (This is not as scary as it may sound. I've haven't even bothered backing up the Registry before using it for years now.) It will simply remove any empty Registry keys it can find, which don't point to anything anyway. Keep running the scan over and over again until it reports "No conflicts." Restart the PC in Safe Mode, no networking. Run CCleaner repeatedly again. Restart. Etc. Keep that up until CCleaner reports, "No conflicts," immediately following a PC restart.

6.) While still in Safe Mode, install the new driver package. If possible, use whatever CLEAN installation option they provide. Once done, restart the PC normally.

^ The above should only take about 10-15 minutes or so. Just be sure that Windows cannot get online during it, or it will go grab and auto-install whatever drivers it thinks are the most current.

That will absolutely, 100% rule out any possibilty that the problem is stemming from drivers or something in the system config -- which it hopefully is! That would be the easiest fix.

If the problems persist after that, we will know that it's either a problem with the GPU driver version...or there's a deeper software / hardware issue. Which is not necessarily a catastrophy, but it sucks more.

 

[Maxou09DuBled]

You can, but if it were such an issue, you'd be seeing sporadic artifacts with almost everything that uses any form of 3D rendering. Plus, the artifacting is not exactly what I would expect to see if there were a problem with a damaged GPU.


What changes when you mouse over the artifacts? Is it pixels moving around, or does it just seem to "erase" the artifacting under the mouse cursor as you move it?

If the latter, it looks like it's just garble trapped in the frame buffer. I'm heavily leaning that way, as it only seems to affect CP2077.


Good -- that rules out tweaked funkiness.


Also good, but double check that the "boost" software is disabled as well. These new, dynamic "boost" or "overdrive" features are actually a form of dynamic overclocking, and there are types for both CPU and GPU. In general, they're not necessary, and can actually create a lot of hitching, performance fluctuations, and instability depending on how nicely the rest of your system wants to play with them.


But no artifacting? Just crashing?


_______________


Alright, maybe try a total driver and Registry sweep, as it's quite possible that there are leftover switches being thrown from the prior Windows config for the older hardware:

You're familiar with DDU, so I'd do that again, but with a few extra steps:

1.) Download the installation package from the AMD drivers. I'd just use whatever the latest version is.

2.) Download CCleaner (free version is fine) and install that.

3.) Restart your PC in Safe Mode with no networking. If possible, unplug your LAN cable, wireless dongle for the modem, etc. We want to ensure the PC cannot connect to the internet. I'd stay in Safe Mode for the rest of the process.

4.) Go ahead and run DDU to gut absolutely everything: video, audio, and physics.

5.) Once that's done, run CCleaner to scan and fix empty Registry keys. (This is not as scary as it may sound. I've haven't even bothered backing up the Registry before using it for years now.) It will simply remove any empty Registry keys it can find, which don't point to anything anyway. Keep running the scan over and over again until it reports "No conflicts." Restart the PC in Safe Mode, no networking. Run CCleaner repeatedly again. Restart. Etc. Keep that up until CCleaner reports, "No conflicts," immediately following a PC restart.

6.) While still in Safe Mode, install the new driver package. If possible, use whatever CLEAN installation option they provide. Once done, restart the PC normally.

^ The above should only take about 10-15 minutes or so. Just be sure that Windows cannot get online during it, or it will go grab and auto-install whatever drivers it thinks are the most current.

That will absolutely, 100% rule out any possibilty that the problem is stemming from drivers or something in the system config -- which it hopefully is! That would be the easiest fix.

If the problems persist after that, we will know that it's either a problem with the GPU driver version...or there's a deeper software / hardware issue. Which is not necessarily a catastrophy, but it sucks more.

Hey, so I actually decided to reset my whole PC because I was getting tired of trying fixes. After the reset I reinstalled one of the latest AMD drivers and tried Cyberpunk again, but the game still crashes.


The visual artifacts are not systematic – they don’t always appear, but sometimes they do. And when they appear, they move or change whenever I open a window or interact with the screen.


I also keep getting the AMD error message about a driver timeout. The strange thing is that outside of Cyberpunk my PC runs perfectly fine. For example, I can play Overwatch without any crashes, and on the Windows desktop I never get any sudden issues.

At this point, I honestly don’t see what could still be causing the problem other than the GPU itself.

 

[SigilFey]

Hey, so I actually decided to reset my whole PC because I was getting tired of trying fixes. After the reset I reinstalled one of the latest AMD drivers and tried Cyberpunk again, but the game still crashes.


The visual artifacts are not systematic – they don’t always appear, but sometimes they do. And when they appear, they move or change whenever I open a window or interact with the screen.


I also keep getting the AMD error message about a driver timeout. The strange thing is that outside of Cyberpunk my PC runs perfectly fine. For example, I can play Overwatch without any crashes, and on the Windows desktop I never get any sudden issues.

At this point, I honestly don’t see what could still be causing the problem other than the GPU itself.

Neither do I, to be honest. Which is a bummer. But -- this is a weird one.

The part about it being non-systematic is not a good sign. Doesn't necessarily mean that there's a major issue, but software tends to create either one-off glitches or repeatable errors that always work the same way. Problems that come and go, crash programs with no error codes, and/or leave some sort of effect on the PC after the application is terminated...leans more towards hardware.

By "reset your PC" do you mean that you've reinstalled Windows (re-initializing all drives, etc.) or that you used a restore point? Just asking, because a restore point may very well have brought back system/kernel files that were causing problems. A drive wipe and completely fresh install of Windows would have deleted them.

Whatever the case, the way you describe this working is definitely making me think there could be something about the GPU that's borky. However, if the GPU were dying, I'd expect to see artifacting that looked more like this:

That's an extreme case, but you'd likely see stuff like that appearing out of nowhere, at pretty much any time. Severe discoloration, distorted images, frames being displayed off-center, textures appearing "rainbow" colored, etc. It may only appear in one section of the screen, come and go, or lock up the whole display.

From your image, it's similar, but seems more like the images are being very systematically stretched or drawn along the wrong vertices. Not outright garble. That continues to give me hope.


_______________


The problem may be that only Cyberpunk is putting enough strain on your system to manifest the issue. What other games do you play? Something like Overwatch, Elden Ring, or Call of Duty may not be accessing enough of the system's resources to get to the issue. Do you have anything like ArmA, Star Citizen, or one of the more recent Total War games? Something with a tremendous amount going on both graphically and under the hood that will soak up every MB of RAM and VRAM you have available.

My guess at this point, especially if the problem persists even after a clean Windows reinstall, is that there's a problem with one of the VRAM chips on graphics card. It could still be other things -- that's just my gut feeling at the moment.

Some other quick things to try:

1.) Definitely do the DDU + CCleaner thing if you used a Windows Restore Point / Windows Recovery instead of a complete reinstallation. Registry keys pointing to non-existent commands can cause goofiness.

2.) Grab the Microsoft Visual C++ All-in-One Redistributable: installing the x86 version followed by the x64 version. (Probably not going to have an affect on the distortion, but may stop some of the crashing in other games. Plus...you never know!)

3.) Enable Hardware Scheduling in Windows if it's off:

(Also, maybe research some of those other settings to see if there's issues with your specific GPU model.)

4.) Check to ensure the rest of system is in good shape:

• Open a command prompt with elevated access and run:
  • sfc /scannow
• Note the space between "sfc" and the "/". Once this has begun, do not interrupt it for any reason. It will scan the master file table and ensure all sectors are readable and correct. It will also attempt to fix any issues it encounters. If it seems to hang for several minutes at a time, that's likely exactly what's happening. Interrupting it can wreck your installation. Usually, it's very fast, a few minutes or so, but I have seen it take up to 2 hours to finish if there were serious issues. (I doubt it will be the case. My guess is that it will find no problems at all.)

• After that scan, "Run" a program from the Windows Taskbar, and type:
  • mdsched.exe
• You'll need to restart the computer and it will run a complete RAM check for your system. Again, don't interrupt this. (This one isn't dangerous, but you can't use the results if it doesn't finish completely.) When it's finished, it should pop something up in the Event Viewer as Windows restarts. If not, it will create a log file in Windows Logs -> System. Just search there for:
  • memory diagnostics-results
• For the RAM check, I think it only checks system RAM, not VRAM. But I'm not sure. They may have improved it to check everything. That would be nice.

I would complete each of those steps in turn, testing the game after each one and looking for any differences: anything that seems new, or worse, or better, or just not quite the same. While it certainly seems GPU related, this will rule out anything else in your system configuration that may be causing it.

 

[Maxou09DuBled]

Neither do I, to be honest. Which is a bummer. But -- this is a weird one.

The part about it being non-systematic is not a good sign. Doesn't necessarily mean that there's a major issue, but software tends to create either one-off glitches or repeatable errors that always work the same way. Problems that come and go, crash programs with no error codes, and/or leave some sort of effect on the PC after the application is terminated...leans more towards hardware.

By "reset your PC" do you mean that you've reinstalled Windows (re-initializing all drives, etc.) or that you used a restore point? Just asking, because a restore point may very well have brought back system/kernel files that were causing problems. A drive wipe and completely fresh install of Windows would have deleted them.

Whatever the case, the way you describe this working is definitely making me think there could be something about the GPU that's borky. However, if the GPU were dying, I'd expect to see artifacting that looked more like this:
View attachment 11424695
That's an extreme case, but you'd likely see stuff like that appearing out of nowhere, at pretty much any time. Severe discoloration, distorted images, frames being displayed off-center, textures appearing "rainbow" colored, etc. It may only appear in one section of the screen, come and go, or lock up the whole display.

From your image, it's similar, but seems more like the images are being very systematically stretched or drawn along the wrong vertices. Not outright garble. That continues to give me hope.


_______________


The problem may be that only Cyberpunk is putting enough strain on your system to manifest the issue. What other games do you play? Something like Overwatch, Elden Ring, or Call of Duty may not be accessing enough of the system's resources to get to the issue. Do you have anything like ArmA, Star Citizen, or one of the more recent Total War games? Something with a tremendous amount going on both graphically and under the hood that will soak up every MB of RAM and VRAM you have available.

My guess at this point, especially if the problem persists even after a clean Windows reinstall, is that there's a problem with one of the VRAM chips on graphics card. It could still be other things -- that's just my gut feeling at the moment.

Some other quick things to try:

1.) Definitely do the DDU + CCleaner thing if you used a Windows Restore Point / Windows Recovery instead of a complete reinstallation. Registry keys pointing to non-existent commands can cause goofiness.

2.) Grab the Microsoft Visual C++ All-in-One Redistributable: installing the x86 version followed by the x64 version. (Probably not going to have an affect on the distortion, but may stop some of the crashing in other games. Plus...you never know!)

3.) Enable Hardware Scheduling in Windows if it's off:
View attachment 11424713
(Also, maybe research some of those other settings to see if there's issues with your specific GPU model.)

4.) Check to ensure the rest of system is in good shape:

• Open a command prompt with elevated access and run:
  • sfc /scannow
• Note the space between "sfc" and the "/". Once this has begun, do not interrupt it for any reason. It will scan the master file table and ensure all sectors are readable and correct. It will also attempt to fix any issues it encounters. If it seems to hang for several minutes at a time, that's likely exactly what's happening. Interrupting it can wreck your installation. Usually, it's very fast, a few minutes or so, but I have seen it take up to 2 hours to finish if there were serious issues. (I doubt it will be the case. My guess is that it will find no problems at all.)

• After that scan, "Run" a program from the Windows Taskbar, and type:
  • mdsched.exe
• You'll need to restart the computer and it will run a complete RAM check for your system. Again, don't interrupt this. (This one isn't dangerous, but you can't use the results if it doesn't finish completely.) When it's finished, it should pop something up in the Event Viewer as Windows restarts. If not, it will create a log file in Windows Logs -> System. Just search there for:
  • memory diagnostics-results
• For the RAM check, I think it only checks system RAM, not VRAM. But I'm not sure. They may have improved it to check everything. That would be nice.

I would complete each of those steps in turn, testing the game after each one and looking for any differences: anything that seems new, or worse, or better, or just not quite the same. While it certainly seems GPU related, this will rule out anything else in your system configuration that may be causing it.

Hi, thanks a lot for the detailed reply.


To answer your questions:

• By reset I really meant a full Windows reinstall (completely wiping the drive and starting fresh), not a restore point. So no old system/kernel files were brought back.
• I also tried DDU + CCleaner, reinstalled drivers, and even the latest Adrenalin versions.
• I already have the Visual C++ redistributables installed.
• I tried enabling/disabling different Windows settings, but I don’t have the Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling option available at all in my Windows 11 settings.
• I ran both sfc /scannow and the memory diagnostics (mdsched.exe) tests. Both came back clean, no errors found.

So unfortunately, even after all of that, the issue is still exactly the same: Cyberpunk and The Last of Us both crash with the AMD driver timeout error, while games like Overwatch run fine with no sudden crashes.


One more thing I noticed: my VRAM clock stays maxed at ~2000 MHz even at idle. When I unplug one of my monitors, the VRAM usage immediately drops back to normal. So it seems linked to dual-monitor usage (which I’ve read can be common on AMD cards). Not sure if that could be related to the instability, but I figured it was worth mentioning.


At this point, since nothing changed even after a full reinstall and all these checks, I’m starting to think it really might be a VRAM issue on the GPU itself.

 

[SigilFey]

By reset I really meant a full Windows reinstall (completely wiping the drive and starting fresh), not a restore point. So no old system/kernel files were brought back.

Okay, that rules out any sort of System32 or kernel error in Windows.

I also tried DDU + CCleaner, reinstalled drivers, and even the latest Adrenalin versions.

And that rules out anything that might have existed with conflicting driver files from different versions.

I already have the Visual C++ redistributables installed.

As long as that was done recently -- after the installation of the new hardware -- then this should also be set. If not, run them both again, as some of their functionality may still be pointing to the older GPU and drivers. That will update or repair whatever is needed. (Or if nothing is needed, the program will simply report that they already exist.)

I tried enabling/disabling different Windows settings, but I don’t have the Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling option available at all in my Windows 11 settings.

Apparently, this is normal for AMD cards around the time the RX 5700 was released. (This was news to me, but I learned something today! I've used Nvidia cards since around 2010.) This is all good.

I ran both sfc /scannow and the memory diagnostics (mdsched.exe) tests. Both came back clean, no errors found.

And...that is what I figured it would say. So the rest of your hardware is in good shape.

One more thing I noticed: my VRAM clock stays maxed at ~2000 MHz even at idle. When I unplug one of my monitors, the VRAM usage immediately drops back to normal. So it seems linked to dual-monitor usage (which I’ve read can be common on AMD cards). Not sure if that could be related to the instability, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

Running with only one monitor connected might be worth a shot, just to see if it's different. I don't really use dual monitors myself. I guess I could see how that might affect things if the monitor was not the same native resolution and refresh rate. Might be that simple.

So unfortunately, even after all of that, the issue is still exactly the same: Cyberpunk and The Last of Us both crash with the AMD driver timeout error, while games like Overwatch run fine with no sudden crashes.
...
At this point, since nothing changed even after a full reinstall and all these checks, I’m starting to think it really might be a VRAM issue on the GPU itself.

That's the way I'm leaning as well. More now. With everything else in good shape, I think we can zoom in on the issues being GPU-related.

However, the fact that other titles run without issue still holds some doors wide open for it being something other than damaged hardware. The crashing could be a simple driver issue, and the artifacts on your screen are, again, extremely clean.

Personally, I'd want to see that sort of artifacting or some real garble start appearing in other titles before I began pulling hardware out. This very well could still be an issue with drivers or something that Windows Update introduced. I've also received some issues with the last couple of driver versions and WinUpdate (some of which are small problems that I had on much older drivers from Nvidia.)

Either way, I think that you could send the issue in to the official CDPR Support team, and I'd also send it to AMD's official support. As the card is pretty new, I take it, AMD might even offer to refurbish the card or send a replacement.

Performance issues — Cyberpunk 2077 | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

support.cdprojektred.com

Include the bullet list you made above, as you've now definitely covered enough bases to be fairly confident it's something involving either the GPU or the drivers. Hopefully, someone in Tech Support will be able to zero in on something more specific.

(I wish we had an Easy Button. If I find it, I need to mash it a few times to take care of some things, but I'll send it your way.)