How to prevent Baldur’s Gate 3 from crashing?

Baldur Gate 3 has officially been out and is available on Steam and other platforms. Since it is a newly launched game, it is not well-optimized. Regardless of having a high specification, you may encounter crashes. Therefore, it does not matter how good specifications you have when it comes to crashes in Baldur Gate 3.

According to the reports on reddit.com, Baldur Gate 3 can crash due to various reasons. However, before diving into the causes, you need to understand why the game crashes. A game can crash when it consumes an excessive amount of system resources. Typically, crashes happen when the game runs out of memory, which can be a result of using high graphics settings. Moreover, you will also face crashes if you have corruption in the extracted game files.

After discussing the causes, let’s have a look at some of the best solutions recommended by the affected users on Reddit.com. But before that, make sure you meet the game’s minimum requirement. Otherwise, you will waste your time by following this ultimate guide.

1. Turn off Vsync

Vsync allows users to synchronize the Frame rate of the GPU with the refresh rate. It is especially used to reduce screen tearing, which provides smooth gameplay. According to the affected users, using the Vsync in the Baldur Gate 3 causes crashes. Therefore, we will start troubleshooting by disabling the Vsync feature. To do so, follow the steps:

1. To turn off the Vsync, press the ESC key to open the menu.
2. Select the Options, and go to Video from the top.
   
3. Here, turn off the Vsync feature.
   
4. Once done, see if the game is crashing or not.

2. Lower the Graphics Settings

If you are using the high graphics settings, it is possible that your system is not capable of handling it. In this case, you can try to lower the graphics settings.

Regardless of having the high specifications, still reduce the graphics settings as the game might not be optimized enough to provide smooth gameplay at high settings. You can use the recommended graphics settings from the below screenshots. To lower the graphics settings.

1. Press the ESC and select Options.
2. Then, go to Video from the top bar.
3. Now match your graphics settings from the below screenshots.
   
4. Then, see if the game is still crashing.

3. Reinstall Graphics Driver

Outdated graphics drivers have a strong contribution in causing the crashing issues. If you don’t update your GPU drivers, you should definitely install or update to the latest GPU drivers before you move on to the other methods. To reinstall the GPU driver, we use Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU). It is an application that is used to remove the GPU drivers with its registry files. Follow the steps to do so:

1. Download the Display Driver Uninstaller by using the link.
2. Once it is downloaded, extract the DDU zip folder using WinRar or 7zip.
3. Once the zip folder is extracted, open it and double-click on the DDU 7zip file.
4. Click Extract and wait for the extraction to be finished.
5. Now open the extracted folder, and run the Display Driver Uninstaller application.
6. Select the Device and the Device type from the right pane.
7. Click Clean and Restart.
   
8. Once your system is restarted, the next step is to install the graphics driver.
9. For that, navigate to the GPU manufacturer’s site.
10. Search for the latest driver to download it.
    
11. Once the driver is downloaded, run the driver installer and follow the instructions to install the driver.

4. Switch to Vulkan or DirectX

Vulkan is a library that is used by video games to render real-time 3D graphics applications. It is intended to deliver high performance efficiently. Meanwhile, DirectX is a collection of APIs that are also intended to handle multimedia tasks. So, if you are using Vulkan, switch to DirectX, or if you are using DirectX, switch to Vulkan. To do so, follow the steps:

If you are using the Larian Launcher, select Vulkan or DirectX option before launching the game. However, you can also launch the game with Vulkan or DirectX using the launch options on Steam. Launch options are the commands that execute before configuration files. Follow the steps to use Vulkan or DirectX using the launch options.

1. Open Steam and navigate to the Library.
2. Right-click the Baldur’s Gate 3 and select Properties.
   
3. Now in the launch options, type -d3d11 or -vulkan.
4. Once done, launch the game, and this should fix this issue.

5. Lock Your FPS

Capping the Frame Rates ensure performance consistency. It provides consistent performance rather than rendering as many frame rates as possible. This can prevent crashes because the GPU and Memory usage will be under control. Therefore, it is recommended to cap your frame rates if you haven’t tried yet.

1. Launch the game, and navigate to Options.
2. Go to Video Settings and tick the Fame Rate Cap option.
   
3. Then, adjust the frame rate according to your specification. We recommend capping it to 60 FPS for a better response.
4. Once done, verify if the issue is resolved or not.

6. Verify the game files

Regardless of the causes that we discussed, the game could also crash if there is corruption in the game files. Therefore, in this step, we will verify the game files that will restore the corrupted files by downloading and replacing them from the server. Follow the instructions to verify the game files.

1. Open Steam, and head to the Library.
2. Right-click the Baldur’s Gate 3, go to Properties.
   
3. Then, go to Installed Files, and click Verify integrity of game files.
   
4. Wait for the verification to be finished, then see if the issue persists.

7. Update Windows

If you don’t update your Windows from time to time, try updating Windows. This is because the latest applications are incompatible with outdated security features. Therefore, we recommend trying to update Windows to resolve this issue.

1. Click the Start Menu, and type Check for updates.
   
2. Hit Enter to open the Windows Update settings.
3. Here, click Check for updates, then click Download and Install.
4. Once all the updates are downloaded, restart your computer to install the updates.

8. Enable XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles)

XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) is an overclocking feature that allows users to run the memory at its intended clock speed, which means you can use the RAM at its best performance. So if your RAM and motherboard support the XMP feature, you should definitely enable this using the following steps:

1. First, turn off your system completely.
2. Now press the Power button to turn on the system.
3. Once you see the manufacturer’s, start pressing the bios key to enter the bios settings.
4. Once you are in the bios settings, navigate to overclock settings to find the XMP option.
   
5. Then, enable the XMP feature and save the bios settings.
6. Once done, check if Baldur’s Gate 3 is crashing or not.

9. Completely reinstall the game along with the saved game files

You will also face crashes if there is corruption in the saved game files of Baldur’s Gate 3. In this case, you need to delete the Baldur’s Gate 3 folder along with reinstalling Baldur’s Gate 3. Reinstalling Baldur’s Gate 3 will restore the corrupted files, which might fix this issue. To do so, follow the steps:

1. Click the Start Menu and type Add or Remove Programs.
   
2. Hit Enter to navigate into the settings.
3. Search for Baldur’s Gate 3 and click the three dots.
4. Then, click Uninstall.
5. Once again, click Uninstall to remove the game.
   
6. Once done, open Steam and download Baldur’s Gate 3.
7. Once done, the issue should be fixed.

There is a high chance that none of the methods worked for you. It is because Baldur’s Gate 3 is a newly launched game, which means it will take some time to get stable. Therefore, instead of resetting or reinstalling Windows, it is recommended to wait for updates from the developers. However, if you don’t have patience, you can try resetting or reinstalling Windows, which will ensure you there is no problem from your side.