Hi all,

I'm suffering a seemingly common problem of CTD's with no error.

The issue is the game is guaranteed to crash within one minute of starting it. If I immediately restart the game it has about a 50% chance of crashing within the next 2 minutes, else it could run fine for an hour or more.

The bit that really frustrates me is it can suddenly have a fit of crashing. For example there was a part of the game where you meet an NPC (Rosa var Attre) and you fight her then have a dialogue. The game crashed six times during the dialogue meaning I had to repeat the fight and conversation. I ended up letting her beat me in the fight just to get it over with.

I have been running the game directly (not through GOG).
No mods.
Latest nVidia drivers. I have updated the drivers once since purchasing the game last week.
I don't have nVidia Experience installed.
I have reinstalled the game and verified cache
I have gone through all the fixes I've found online (v-sync, full vs borderless window, dropping quality settings, disabling unneeded services).

There is nothing wrong with my PC as I also run a heavily modded Skyrim, Doom, Far Cry 3 and 4, moderately modded Fallout 4. And while Skyrim and F4 occasionally crash it is nothing like an unmodded The Witcher 3.

EDIT: the game runs super smooth otherwise.

Does anyone have any solutions?

Thanks

Windows 10 Home x64
8GB RAM
Intel i7-6700k 4GHz
Geforce GTX 960 2GB

The above needs clarifying: if you're not using Galaxy, how do you "verify cache"?

So it's installed via Galaxy. If you've ruled out RAM (you don't have much) and any security or Windows software interfering, then I would suggest removing Galaxy and download the installer afresh and do it manually.

Oops, I actually have 16GB of system RAM, not 8 as I mistakenly specified above.

Does the Galaxy client add 'something' to the game if you install it via that way, even if you don't have it running?

I'll download the game manually anyway from GOG and install it that way to see if it helps.

Thanks for your replies Hickory.

P.S. Another example, the game crashed 7 times during a conversation with an NPC (Dijkstra) but then ran fine for the next hour or so during which I laid waste to the Witch Hunters in Novigrad and got the Cat gear under Temple Isle.

The Galaxy client is just another third party program with the potential to destabilise the game, for example it is known that the Galaxy overlay cause huge problems (crashes etc.) in the game, so most people disable it.

If your game is crashing during conversations specifically, it may be something like a movie playback issue, or you could have 'Hairworks' turned on, which creates massive overhead for your PC especially in movies. Turn it OFF.

It isn't conversations specifically, it could crash anywhere (during a fight, looking at inventory or bestiary, wandering around). I have never had Hairworks enabled.

I have logged a ticket with CD Projekt RED but have had no response as yet.

There is something seriously wrong with this game. I made it through the entire defending Kaer Morhen scene with it only crashing 3 times.

I am now fighting Imlerith and it seems I cannot get past it. It has crashed 18 times so far! Sometimes I will barely move one step once I am in the fight and it will crash. Sometimes I can get him down to 1/3 health before it crashes. It didn't crash once while playing as Ciri and fighting the three hags.

It doesn't matter how low I drop the graphics it will still crash.

It's not the game. It's something on or about your system. Millions of customers are perfectly satisfied.

Something about my system that only affects Witcher 3? Not the scores of other games and utilities I use or even the OS itself? What could it be?

It could be anything -- only you know your system -- but here's a possible clue, from the game page information (it's a caveat):

"Please be advised that Windows 10 operating system will receive frequent hardware driver and software updates following its release; this may affect game compatibility "

Might be the GTX960 is the cause. While it has plenty of performance, it still only has 2GB VRAM. Same as the minimum required cards for Witcher 3. The cards speed will give you the impression that you can enable higher GFX settings, but better graphics also require more VRAM. And the game being designed for 2GB minimum cards could mean that you run out of VRAM, even though the game appears to "run" fine.

This could also account for the crashes in short succession once the first one happened, because V/RAM isn't necessarily cleared once a program is unloaded. The information stays in the registers and can be reused should the same program be started again right away.

To make sure your VRAM is clear, just power down your computer and leave it off for a minute. Then start Witcher 3 with lower GFX settings and see if it improves.

Thanks for the reply Hatman,

I've already tried this. I can run the game on high settings for an hour or more, power down, start the next day and it will crash multiple times in a row straight away, then run fine for an hour or more without rebooting.

I got through the entire defending of Kaer Morhen with it crashing 3 times (on highish settings, I've never had the graphics maxed) but everyday for the last week I have tried the Imlerith fight and it crashes every time. I have all the graphics settings down as far as they go. The game looks rubbish but still crashes during the Imlerith fight. A search shows others having the same problem so it isn't isolated to me.

I've gone back to Skyrim (playing the Special Edition for the first time). Heavily modded it can look as good as Witcher 3, and have the same 'feel' (i.e. increased wildlife, Flora overhaul etc), and bonus so far not one crash after 11 hours of play with every graphics setting maxed!

Me again. With Prey coming out soon I thought it was time to upgrade my graphics card so I bought a 1080.

The Witcher 3 still crashes. I still cannot get past Imlerith.

I have run MemTest and it didn't find any problems.

The constant crashing was annoying but I could put that aside because the game was so good. However I am at a point where I cannot continue. CD Projekt have not given me any solutions and have just stopped responding altogether.

Does anyone know of a way to get past Imlerith without fighting him? Perhaps a console command to skip this section?

thanks

EDIT: I loaded an early save game. I made it through the fight with Fugas, the fight with the three crones as Ciri but... crash at Imlerith.

I have been able to get past the Imlerith battle. I enabled the console and at the start of the battle typed killall. This ended the fight.

I was then able to get past the cutscenes and complete two quests without crashing. There is something wrong with the game, especially at the Imlerith fight.