Witcher 3 Next Gen 4.01 crashes with newest NVIDIA Driver?

[Marilith01]

I updated today to driver 528.49 (I had the previous version installed). Works fine:

PC: i9 10900X, 32GB, RTX 3080 Ti, Windows 10, 22H2.

I play 4.01 (fresh install from the offline download, even took the time to let it check before install). Runs nice, I use RT with DLSS, 2560x1600 (WQHD 16:10) with 30 fps capped in the game. Looks good and stable, but it isn't...

Have now during around 3 hours of play already sent in 3 crash dumps! One while fighting, one while game in the background (I play full screen) and one when Roach came to stand on a fence, when I called him.

The last crash now has no crash dump, because during the cut scene in Heatherton (Wild Hunt Arrives) the PC just rebooted. Windows error message reports an unknown error in a GPU, several times, then it says driver restarted, and then it crashed and rebooted.

I used the Next Gen version yesterday too, had one crash (while fiddling around with the graphic settings), but otherwise it worked fine with the previous driver version (528.24), but I did not play very long yesterday.

Has anybody seen similar problems with the newest driver? The game is horribly unstable. I played the entire game (all DLCs) several times in full until the end in Blood and Wine (Classic Version 1.31, all DLCs) and cannot remember ANY crashes, maybe there were one or two, but not more over weeks of play.

I do not want to play with this version, it is too unstable. While looking nice, the difference is not that drastically better that I will accept nearly hourly crashes and even a reboot. Luckily I preserved my old stable install 1.31 (not GOTY, but all DLCs). The nicer look is not worth the trouble at this time. I will keep my current install and wait for further patches. But the technical quality of the old final release is not yet reached...

 

[Marilith01]

Have now played for around 5 or 6 hours, not more. Had 7 crashes and one reboot. I am playing with DX12, as a last resort I deactivated DLSS, but nor RT. It still crashes, seems to be connected to special movement, but I had it a crash even while the game was paused (ESC) and in the background. Maybe it would run without RT, and not crash, but then I can use DX11 anyway.

If I cannot play in DX12, it makes no sense to continue, because the game does not look that much better compared to the old and very stable version 1.31. I give up on this beta version. I created a special link to use DX11 instead, but I will not use it - there are other not graphic related bugs, like a merchant who can be activated, but does not react, or a merchant, where Geralt is shifted to a place behind him in dialogue, which leads to no dialogue options. I will not put hours into the game when there is a big possibility that I get stuck.

Just now I had a crash during a fight (with Keira in the Elven Ruins), and would have to redo everything. This is not fun. The water reflections with RT are nice, but not worth the problems. And with DX11 it does not look that much better than the Classic version 1.31, which produces no crashes at all, and works fine in Ultra settings. And without cooking my graphic card.

So for me it is back to the old version, which I wisely did not uninstall, just rename. Will wait, until they mange to fix the problems, if they do...

 

[RodroG]

A recurring CTD issue using DX12 affects some configs after the latest patch. The game runs without crashes using DX11 mode, though.

Please, a new hotfix is required asap.

BTW, it happens using a Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU too.

 

[devivre]

If there are crashes after the driver update, please check out this info from support:

My game crashes — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 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

In case reinstalling gpu drivers (as described in the article) doesn't work, it's best to either contact support by clicking on "contact us" and/or send a message to Nvidia.

 

[Marilith01]

Thank you for the replies.

At this time I am using my Classic version (1.31, not the GotY version, with all DLCs), as reported above.

I will not fiddle around with my stable PC environment. I have a lot of other games installed, they all work fine.

One thing could be a reason (after reading a lot of complaints and reports here): I use MSI Afterburner, newest version, standard installation. While this is not exactly an overlay, it may be a cause for the crashes. But I do not have the time to beta test the Next Gen Version. I do not overclock, everything works fine and I would be satisfied with 30 FPS - but the crashes and all the other problems [some people report, that the main quest line is still blocked when talking to the Elven Mage to start the end fight against the Wild Hunt, for example] are bad enough to stop using the Next Gen version.

I will not play only to run into a bug which stops progress. So I will wait until the Next Gen version is fixed in every aspect, and tested. Problems like hung dialogs and blocked quest progress should be seen in testing, and not found out by players.

I allowed sending in the crash dumps and information, this should be enough to find the reasons for the crashes.