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I wanted to note that I have had a couple of hours of success so far by switching the render from DirectX 11 to Vulcan. The only reason I even bothered to try this is because I was running into the same issue in Helldivers 2 and was able to get it to run by switching from DX12 to DX11. So, even though in this case CK3 is already running on the DX release that worked for HD2, I figured I may as well try to switch it around.
If you are running out of ideas, it may be worth trying. (You can do it in the settings in the main menu)
edit: 8+ hrs over the weekend without issues after switching to Vulkan.
If you are running out of ideas, it may be worth trying. (You can do it in the settings in the main menu)
edit: 8+ hrs over the weekend without issues after switching to Vulkan.
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Hey folks!
If you are having issues with CK3 freezing and you are on Windows 24H2, could you try updating your Nvidia driver to at least 572.42?
We've had good results internally with that driver update. Please let me know whether it helps or not!
If you are having issues with CK3 freezing and you are on Windows 24H2, could you try updating your Nvidia driver to at least 572.42?
We've had good results internally with that driver update. Please let me know whether it helps or not!
Thanks!
FYI the new Nvidia driver released yesterday is 572.47 , so a little newer than that. It came out only days after the one mentioned above so presumably has an urgent fix in it.
Hello I having as well the random crashes in CK 3 still with drivers bios and graphics updated to latest version. I tried a couple of the suggestions in the forums and still nothing... I sometimes am able to play for a while but then it randomly stops.
Random crashes, rather than the PC freezing, are probably an unrelated issue. Best to make your own fresh thread in that case.
My apologies...it is not a crash, so what happens with me is that randomly the mouse starts to move VERY slow, the audio just stops, but then after a couple minutes the whole thing FREEZES and the ALT+TAB or CTRL+Alt+Delete dont work, so I have to do hard Restart
While this could be a game issue, this screams a driver problem. Have you looked at your Windows Event Viewer for logs at the time of the crash? This can help identify what is failing.
Confirmed driver is 572.42, but still getting the fatal crash. Replicated three times in the last few hours, all times only failed with CKIII (2 hours of HoI4 + 50 hours of Civ VII with no issues). CK3 always failing within 3-6 minutes of game start, cannot interact with the PC at all after crash + normal power button non-functional after crash. Have to flip the I/O power supply to shut down the PC. Motherboard turns on the red CPU light during this crashed state. Confirmed power supply is more than sufficient (750w corsair), and CPU temp maxing out at 80 C during crash. 44 C for GPU.
That will certainly be triggering the problem. So no wonder the Nvidia driver update didn't help!
What CPU do you have? If it is Intel 13-14th gen, and you didn't get it in (say) the last month or so, it is likely affected by their hardware faults. Check with your MB vendor for a bios update.
As I said in this Post my apologies but it is not a CRASH, it is a very strong slowdown to a freeze, and I end up hard restarting my computer.
There is a new driver version for nvidia it improved my game a little bit but still got the issue.
I started typing before I saw two different people are having similar problems. Please take what is useful out of my comments below.
A lot to unpack here. First 80 C for CPU is not great, but for most modern processors it is within limits. The CPU could be thermal throttling, but I would think it would do that with other games as well. One way to see if it is a physical issue (cooling or something else) is to run a program that stresses the system. I have used the program HeavyLoad in the past. If you have the same issue after 20 minuets of stressing, then that might be the problem.
Second, crash, slowdown or whatever, still you should check your system logs. They can help reveal what may be happening before you have to force shutdown your system. Look at the Application and System logs to see if there is any messages around the time of the freeze (crash or when you have to force shutdown) that stand out.
If you are seeing any specific diagnostic lights on your motherboard, or you are concerned of thermal throttle, go look at the BIOS itself. There should be a log in the BIOS that you can view and it will show you recent system events. This can also shed some light on what is going on.
Finally when force shutting down a system, before using the switch on the power supply, try holding down the main power button until the system shuts down, or hitting the reset button if you have one. You may be trying this, but it was not specifically stated and in IT it is never good to assume.
Regarding the Intel issues, that can be a real concern as well. It will not manifest itself with thermal issues. Specific things seem to really set off the problem with these Intel chips. I hate to say it, but if the issue in the Intel problem that requires a BIOS update to fix (prevent) then you are already past the point of it helping. Two break it down, there are two Intel issues. One is a manufacturing issue which causes the CPU to not perform well. From what I remember, there is no way to fix it other than RMA. The second issue is due to power delivery setting on the motherboard. What is (was) happening is to much power was being pushed into the CPU slowly burning it out. Eventually the damage becomes too much and the CPU is not stable and needs to be RMAd. If the issues being reported here are due to the second Intel issue, it may already be to late. I would identify the specific CPUs you all have so we can hopefully rule out that problem.
A lot to unpack here. First 80 C for CPU is not great, but for most modern processors it is within limits. The CPU could be thermal throttling, but I would think it would do that with other games as well. One way to see if it is a physical issue (cooling or something else) is to run a program that stresses the system. I have used the program HeavyLoad in the past. If you have the same issue after 20 minuets of stressing, then that might be the problem.
Second, crash, slowdown or whatever, still you should check your system logs. They can help reveal what may be happening before you have to force shutdown your system. Look at the Application and System logs to see if there is any messages around the time of the freeze (crash or when you have to force shutdown) that stand out.
If you are seeing any specific diagnostic lights on your motherboard, or you are concerned of thermal throttle, go look at the BIOS itself. There should be a log in the BIOS that you can view and it will show you recent system events. This can also shed some light on what is going on.
Finally when force shutting down a system, before using the switch on the power supply, try holding down the main power button until the system shuts down, or hitting the reset button if you have one. You may be trying this, but it was not specifically stated and in IT it is never good to assume.
Regarding the Intel issues, that can be a real concern as well. It will not manifest itself with thermal issues. Specific things seem to really set off the problem with these Intel chips. I hate to say it, but if the issue in the Intel problem that requires a BIOS update to fix (prevent) then you are already past the point of it helping. Two break it down, there are two Intel issues. One is a manufacturing issue which causes the CPU to not perform well. From what I remember, there is no way to fix it other than RMA. The second issue is due to power delivery setting on the motherboard. What is (was) happening is to much power was being pushed into the CPU slowly burning it out. Eventually the damage becomes too much and the CPU is not stable and needs to be RMAd. If the issues being reported here are due to the second Intel issue, it may already be to late. I would identify the specific CPUs you all have so we can hopefully rule out that problem.
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This issue is never going to be fixed. I've been having this issue with CK3 hard locking my PC since November of last year. 4 months I feel like is plenty of time for either Windows or Paradox to push a fix. So my guess is that Windows and Paradox don't care because it's probably not a huge percentage of players that this is causing issues for.
While I don't claim to be a tech savvy person. You have people blaming it on CPU. While I understand Intel has issues with their 13th and 14th gen CPU line, I am a 13th gen CPU user since 2023. I have had zero issues with any of the games I play on this computer. I have nearly 400 hours in CK3 on this very PC. CK3 started giving me problems after the Windows update.
It's unfortunate that I am unable to play one of my favorite games now. Too bad I can't get my money back.
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Your issue is pretty clearly caused by overheating of the CPU. That is not a general issue with this game, and is not really connected with the Windows version either. It might be connected with the known CPU hardware problems; I do urge you to seek a bios update from your system board vendor. That has a good record of addressing that problem.
If it does not though, it might be a simpler issue with cooling or thermal paste, after a couple of years that would not be surprising.
And of course, some of those older problem CPUs have sustained physical damage from their hardware faults; system board vendors are replacing those gratis. Again you should contact them on that.
Good luck!
My CPU isn't overheating. It's strange that I can play any other game on the market with high to ultra settings with zero issues. You can make the argument that those other games are not CPU intensive. Explain how I can play HOI IV, which is a CPU intensive game just like every other Paradox game and have absolutely zero issues.
Further proof, I attached a screen shot of my CPU temperatures after letting CK3 run for about 20 minutes. The max temperture hit 61 c while it was initially loading the game, then temps remained stable around 38-41 c while I allowed the game to run un-paused. I also have the latest BIOS version from MSI. Tell me again how my CPU is overheating. Not every 13th or 14th gen Intel CPU was compromised from the issues it was having.
What is more concerning to me is that my memory utilization is in the high 80s to 90s percentage and that's with me having 32GB of DDR5 RAM. Again.. I'm not computer tech, but maybe that is a memory leak? Is that even normal to hit 90% memory usage with CK3? Only thing open in the background was steam, firefox, and HWmonitor.
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AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, installed just a couple weeks ago. Bios for my motherboard updated to the latest version at the same time
You said the crash happened when the CPU hit 80c. That is exactly the temp at which my experience tells me problems like this happen.
The Intel CPU issues do affect this game greatly, and older games like HOI4 much less. Quite why is beyond me but that is what I see.
I again urge you to check for a bios update, which I have personally seen has helped many people with this problem. If you don't want to do that, well, I'm out of ideas for you. I did read yesterday that MS are preparing yet another patch to address the 24H2 problems, so be sure to apply that when it arrives.
Then you don't have the Intel CPU issue, of course. But do you have Windows 11 24H2?
Yes, I have Windows 11 24H2. Also unless I missed it somewhere else in the thread, user Obim wasn't the one experiencing the high CPU temp:
but, respectfully, before coming to these forums I consulted with some friends irl who have experience with fixing hardware issues, and they assured me that with my current build that this temp shouldn't cause the problem I'm encountering, which was also mentioned by another in this thread.
The Windows 11 update was completed on 30/01/2025, so a rollback is no longer possible either
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