How to Fix Hitman 3 Crashing on Windows 11/10?

Hitman 3 crashes can be caused by a number of factors, which include your BIOS firmware, interference from third-party applications with graphic drivers, and much more. Crashes can occur in different instances, depending on your situation. The game might crash on the loading screen, while in other cases, it crashes in the middle of a mission.

One of the known factors for this could be the overclocks you have applied to your graphics card or CPU. This can lead to unstable performance in the game, which may result in the game crashing at times. With that said, regardless of the situation or occurrence, we will guide you through several methods that you can implement to resolve the issue in question.

1. Change the display mode.

The first thing you should do when starting to resolve the issue in question is to change the game’s display mode. Hitman 3 offers various display modes that you can access through the Settings menu. By default, the game uses Exclusive Fullscreen display mode.

This has become common recently, as it offers the performance of fullscreen mode while providing the ease of tabbing out, just like borderless display mode. Changing the display mode can often resolve game crashes, which may occur due to background apps interfering with the game window.

Follow the instructions below to change the display mode:

1. First, open the game on your system. 
2. After that, navigate to the Options menu.

   

3. From the Options menu, go to Graphics.

   

4. In the Graphics settings menu, change the Display Mode from Exclusive Fullscreen to Fullscreen.

   

5. Once you do that, see if it fixes the issue.

2. Limit in-game FPS.

Another possible cause of the game crashes can be your in-game FPS. This can occur when your frame rate is unstable, which can lead to crashes in games that are not optimized properly. Such scenarios are common when you are experiencing high FPS in the game.

In such a scenario, you can limit the in-game FPS using the NVIDIA Control Panel. You can also utilize MSI Afterburner or any other utility to achieve this. We will show you how to do so via the NVIDIA Control Panel. Please follow the instructions below:

1. First, open the NVIDIA Control Panel by searching for it in the Start Menu.

   

2. On the NVIDIA Control Panel window, switch to the Manage 3D Settings option on the left-hand side.

   

3. There, switch to the Program Settings tab.
4. From the drop-down menu, choose Hitman 3.

   

5. After that, scroll through the list of settings and locate Max Frame Rate.
6. Set the frame rate limit to 60.

   

7. Once you do that, click the Apply button.
8. Finally, open the game and see if that resolves the issue. 

3. Delete the shader cache.

Games often create a cache locally on your computer to store the game’s shaders. These shaders are helpful in improving the performance and graphics of the game. In most cases, the shader cache is generated when you open the game for the first time.

Since the shader cache is used by the game every time you play it, any damage to the shader cache file can cause issues with the game, leading to crashes. In such a scenario, you will need to delete the shader cache to force the game to create a new one on your computer.

To do this, follow the instructions below:

1. First, open the Run dialog box by pressing the Win key + R on your keyboard.
2. In the Run dialog box, type %localappdata% and hit the Enter key.

   

3. This will open a File Explorer window.
4. In the File Explorer window, navigate to IO Interactive > Hitman3. 
5. There, delete the ShaderCache.bin file.

   

6. Once you do that, start the game and wait for the shader cache to be generated again.
7. See if that fixes the issue.

4. Adjust MSI Afterburner settings (if applicable).

MSI Afterburner is a popular application for performing overclocks on your graphics card. The program comes with a number of settings that allow it to communicate directly with the graphics card on your computer. This enables the program to overclock without having to boot into the BIOS.

In some cases, this interference with the graphics card can cause crashes with various games on your computer. If this case is applicable, you will need to disable the Low-Level I/O Driver option. Additionally, the program features a low-level hardware access interface option that is used to troubleshoot crashes with any anti-cheat programs caused by MSI Afterburner.

You will need to disable both of these settings if you are using MSI Afterburner to see if that resolves the issue. Follow the instructions below to do so:

1. First, open MSI Afterburner on your computer.
2. In the MSI Afterburner app, navigate to the Properties window by clicking the gear icon.

   

3. There, on the General tab, uncheck the “Enable low-level IO Driver” and “Enable low-level hardware access interface” options.

   

4. After that, click Apply and hit OK.
5. Open Hitman 3 and see if the problem persists.

5. Disable hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.

Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling is a feature that allows you to take some load off your processor and execute tasks on a dedicated GPU scheduling processor. Scheduling is an important component of the operating system, as it schedules all of the tasks on your computer for CPU time.

Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling can be a helpful feature if you have a low-end CPU on your computer. However, this can also cause some issues with various games that may not be optimized properly. In such a scenario, you will need to disable hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling on your system.

Follow the instructions below to do this:

1. First, open the Settings app by pressing the Win key + I on your keyboard.
2. In the Settings app, navigate to System > Display > Graphics.

   

3. After that, click on the Change default graphics settings option on the Graphics page.

   

4. There, use the slider to turn off Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling.

   

5. Once you do that, restart your computer.
6. Finally, after your PC boots up, open Hitman 3 and check if the problem has been resolved.

6. Update the graphics drivers.

The graphic drivers on your computer can also cause Hitman 3 to crash. This occurs when the drivers themselves crash due to being damaged or corrupted. In this case, you will need to reinstall your graphic drivers.

In addition, if you are running an obsolete version of graphics drivers on your computer, there is a good chance that it is causing the problem to occur as well. Updating your graphics drivers would be the only viable option here.

To do so, you can use a third-party tool called Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) and follow it up by installing the latest version of the drivers available. Follow the instructions below to accomplish this:

1. First, head to the official website for Display Driver Uninstaller and download the latest version available by clicking here.
2. Extract the downloaded file to any location on your computer.
3. Navigate to the extracted folder and open the Display Driver Uninstaller.exe file.
4. When DDU opens, the General Options box will be displayed. Click ‘Continue‘ to proceed.

   

5. Now, choose GPU from the Select device type drop-down menu.

   

    

6. After that, choose your graphics card manufacturer from the Select device drop-down menu.

   

7. Finally, click the Clean and restart option to uninstall your graphics drivers.

   

8. After your PC boots up, navigate to your graphics card manufacturer’s website and download the latest drivers available.
9. Install the new drivers and then see if the game still crashes.

7. Update the BIOS.

An outdated BIOS firmware can be a potential culprit behind Hitman 3 crashes. In most cases, BIOS updates are neglected and overlooked. However, BIOS updates are important because they help keep the system software compatible with your system hardware.

In addition, BIOS updates contain bug fixes that can resolve issues with various hardware components on your computer. If you have not updated your BIOS firmware, now would be an appropriate time to do so. The process of updating BIOS firmware may vary depending on your motherboard manufacturer.

However, most manufacturers now offer a utility that automatically updates your BIOS firmware. To update your BIOS, navigate to your motherboard manufacturer’s website and look for any available updates. You can also find guides for updating your BIOS on the respective manufacturer’s website.

8. Remove overclocking.

Finally, if none of the above methods have resolved the issue for you, it is likely that the problem is caused by any overclocks you have applied to your hardware components, particularly your graphics card. Overclocking is a great way to get the most out of your components; however, it can also cause issues occasionally, especially with games that are not quite stable.

Therefore, if you have applied any overclocks, we recommend removing them before attempting to play Hitman 3 again. Once you have removed or lowered the overclocks on your components, open the game and see if this resolves the constant game crashes.