Game freezing after around 15 minutes / sound keeps playing

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They done broke it again. 1.05 still crashed now and again but rarely... managed to get through the game. 1.06 crashes within 5 minutes constantly, just like 1.01-1.04 did. Oh, and for those spewing hardware nonsense, it' not. When this game launched I was on a 790GTX and a 750W PSU... and every patch up to 1.05 crashed every 5 minutes irrespective of settings, either in game or clock speeds and the like, believe me I tried everything (not that you should have to alter the sodding voltages on your system to get a game to work, frankly even if that fixed it, it's not acceptable).

Anyhow, as it happens it was GPU upgrade time so I'm now on a GTX980ti and a brand new 1000W PSU, and 1.05 was running at a rock solid 60FPS, everything on including hairworks with only the occasional "sound keeps playing" crash, but low and behold 1.06 comes out and we're back to the crash every 5 minutes crap. So just in case you feel the urge to rush out to buy new GPUs and PSUs, please don't. The problem is software, the fix needs to be in software.
 
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Hmm... Could be luck of course, but I just played for about 3 hours without crash on 1.06 with a modest overclock after downgrading to the 347.88 drivers. 1466Mhz core (+175) and just 7,4GHz (+200) memory. This overclock crashed like crazy yesterday on 1.05, and 350.12.

Asus Strix GTX970.
 
I am having the same problem. The window minimizes but there is sound. It happens during a fight. I have tried underclocking my GPU but does not work.

My Config: Core i5-4430, 8GB ram, Gigabyte R9 285 OC 2GB, Silverstone essential 600W PSU, Windows 7 x64
 
I had this same problem with my nvidia gtx 570 and what helped for me was turning off vsync from nvidia control panel. It was using 3d application settings and i turned it off. Nvidia control panel ->manage 3d settings ->choose witcher 3->scroll down until you see vertical sync option and turn it off.
I have put power management mode prefer maxium performance from the same window, turned off vsync from in game and fps to unlimited.
I hope this will help people
 
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So ive been in contact with support, finally! and here are the reply:

Hello,


Please try the following steps:
1. Try updating your graphics card driver (or clean install it, preferably) to the latest version from http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
2. Set Windows Power plan to High Performance (Power Options in Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options).
3. Install Microsoft .NET Framework.
4. Maybe you have some settings forced on your graphics device in NVIDIA Control Panel. If so then try to reset them.
5. Set your FPS limit to 'Unlimited', turn the V-Sync OFF and switch HBAO+ to SSAO.
6. Change Display Mode to Borderless Window
7. Go to NVIDIA Control Panel -> Configure surround/physx and switch PhysX settings' Processor to CPU.
8. While in NVIDIA Control Panel:
a) Adjust image settings with preview -> Select 'Use the advanced 3D settings', click 'Take me there'
b) In Global Settings set:
- Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames to '1'
- Set the Power management mode to 'Prefer maximum performance'
- Activate V-Sync in NVIDIA Control Panel​


Please try verifying integrity of game cache:

1. Download GOG Galaxy from http://www.gog.com/galaxy and install it
2. Launch GOG Galaxy and log in to your account
3. Go to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt tab
4. Click MORE -> MANAGE -> VERIFY / REPAIR
5. In newly opened window click VERIFY GAME


​You can also try uninstalling GeForce Experience.​


If above solutions would not help please try launching The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in clean boot mode. Here is how to perform clean boot - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135/




I did the step 7, 8 and uninstall the GeForce Experience.​

Ive been playing with no freeze now! it really seems that this helps. Can someone else here try the same? and respond on this thread?
 
Okey, so this threat is kinda dead? no one have the same problem anymore? :p

But whatever, i have some other news. Since the latest patch came i just had to test it. (1.07)

I reinstalled the grapics card drivers, just to test if the game crashes with default factory settings from nvidia. And yes it did! same crash happened again.

So this time i took the time to test one by one settings. And what i came up with is this:

The Power management mode is the problem. When i set this to Prefer maximum preformance the game wont freeze.

Can someone test this? Only that one setting :)


Cheers- Øyvind Strand
 
yea, it seems as if many of the v1.07 issues that can't be traced down to some nvidia issue (drivers, NVCP options, etc...) are actually due to the new content/patch, just like previous DLCs were causing crashes with saved games.

don't have the instructions to remove content/patch folders, but yea, verifying game files, and clearing those out and re-downloading them seems to have helped some users.

although, i should mention this generally occurs with conversations, cut-scenes, etc... not just randomly in-game (at least not for me).

also, just random, but if you're using gamepad, it may be some weird bug with monitor low power. normally it minimizes the game (since gamepad doesnt reset it). which may actually just bug out on some systems and crash (due to alt-tab and minimize issues present). but that's only if you have specific times like 15/30 mins constant, and not random. in that case, check the interval or disable it in windows.
 
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STUTTERING, GAME FREEZES, STOPS - THEN STARTS AGAIN

I would like to let everyone know that I too have the stopping, stuttering effect all through out the game. It's damn near UNPLAYABLE at this point. Although I was occasionally experiencing it in the past (very rarely) with the previous patches - however since I've installed V1.07 the stop, and go stuttering issue has dramatically increased ten-fold. Specifically the game freezes, stops, for about 5-7 sec. then unfreezes and proceeds. This is occurring randomly about every 2-3 minutes of game play. Sometimes its is more intense that at others. In large cities where I have identified it mostly, but I'm also experiencing this in the country-sides so I would imagine one could say the 'stuttering issue' is found nearly at all levels of playing. Again, its become far more troublesome with the installment of this new patch. Needless to say - its very annoying and disruptive to the quality concerns of this game. Anyone else experiencing the same thing? I really love this game and my hope is for the publishers to fix this ASAP.

Thank you -

Here are my CPU specs.
GPU: - GeForce GTX TITAN
CPU: INTEL (R) Core (TM) i7-4770K
CPU @ 3.50 GHz
MEMORY: 16.00 GB
RAM: 15.89 GB (usable)
CURRENT RESOLUTION: 1600x1200 - 60Hz
DRIVER VERSION: 350.12 (I have the latest driver as of 7/20/15)
OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium.
DRIVERS: GeForce Drs 7/20/15

---------- Updated at 01:15 AM ----------

STUTTERING, GAME FREEZES, STOPS - THEN STARTS AGAIN

I would like to let everyone know that I too have the stopping, stuttering effect all through out the game. It's damn near UNPLAYABLE at this point. Although I was occasionally experiencing it in the past (very rarely) with the previous patches - however since I've installed V1.07 the stop, and go stuttering issue has dramatically increased ten-fold. Specifically the game freezes, stops, for about 5-7 sec. then unfreezes and proceeds. This is occurring randomly about every 2-3 minutes of game play. Sometimes its is more intense that at others. In large cities where I have identified it mostly, but I'm also experiencing this in the country-sides so I would imagine one could say the 'stuttering issue' is found nearly at all levels of playing. Again, its become far more troublesome with the installment of this new patch. Needless to say - its very annoying and disruptive to the quality concerns of this game. Anyone else experiencing the same thing? I really love this game and my hope is for the publishers to fix this ASAP.

Thank you -

Here are my CPU specs.
GPU: - GeForce GTX TITAN
CPU: INTEL (R) Core (TM) i7-4770K
CPU @ 3.50 GHz
MEMORY: 16.00 GB
RAM: 15.89 GB (usable)
CURRENT RESOLUTION: 1600x1200 - 60Hz
DRIVER VERSION: 350.12 (I have the latest driver as of 7/20/15)
OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium.
DRIVERS: GeForce Drs 7/20/15
 
I had black screens durning the game but sound kept on playing, that was a 'driver stopped working but it recovered'
I unistaled nvidia driver and made clean instalation of 352.86 and it's working like it should
 
So this has been an issue for me since launch. Basically, I can play for about 5 to 10 minutes, until the game video freezes, but the game audio continues, sometimes I still have control, other times not.
Specs:
GTX 780
i5 3570k @ 4.4
8GB Ram
win 8.1 64bit
144hz monitor

What I have tried:
-Underclocking both CPU and GPU
-Stress testing both CPU and GPU to test for error(none found)
-Setting monitor to run at 60hz instead of 144hz
-Fresh reinstalling nvidia drivers several times (using driver sweeper)
-reinstalling Witcher 3
-Setting Perferred Maximum Performance in the control panel
-Forcing vsync
-turning off vsync
-Capping the framerate
-Uncapping the framerate
-Trying SSAO instead of HBAO
-Putting Physx on the CPU instead of autodetect
-Installing hotfix 353.38
-Uninstalling Geforce Experience

So, none of those worked. HOWEVER, I thought I had at one point fixed the issue. After doing a clean install of both the game and nvidia drivers (353.30) and turning off the framerate cap but leaving on vsync, the freezing stopped, and I played about a 2 hour session. However, when I hopped on again the next day, the freezing had continued.


So my next step will be to try 352.86 as the poster above suggested, as nothing else is seemingly working. Any replies from admins/developers would be greatly appreciated.
 
Did you also decrease the clocks of your graphics card's VRAM? TW3 is extremely sensitive towards both GPU- and memory clocks. If there is the slightest instability, the game will crash (it's even more sensitive than most so-called stress tests).
 
I´ve also tried a lot of workarounds without success - even downclocking but the game kept on freezing.
Sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after a few hours ..

So the first time when I downclocked my GTX 780 (Gainward Phantom) I haven´t downclocked the VRAM.
This time I´ve lowered its frequency too and so far it seems to work - played two sessions now with several hours each and experience no freezes so far.
 
Same thing happening over here. The game crashes during cutscenes. The image freezes, but the sound (and also controls) resume.
At this point it happens every few minutes, the game is just unplayable.

My setup: GTX770, i5 2500k, Win 8.1 64x, 8GB RAM, latest NVIDIA driver

You need to exit the Nvidia Experience. It worked for me.
 
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