The Witcher 3 Remastered Crashing on PC? 7 Fixes to Try

The Witcher 3 Remastered crashing on PC can happen right after you click Play, while loading a save, or several minutes into gameplay. You may see a crash message, a frozen screen, or simply get dumped back to the desktop.

If you’re encountering this annoying issue, here are some quick & effective fixes for the Witcher 3 Remastered keeps crashing on PC. We’ll show you how to start with the low-risk checks, then move on to graphics settings, drivers, and deeper troubleshooting.

Try these fixes:

Here are 7 player-tested methods to resolve the Witcher 3 Remastered crashing issue. You don’t have to try them all; just work your way down the list until you find the one that works for you.

1. Disable mods
2. Verify game files
3. Turn off NVIDIA HairWorks
4. Adjust in-game graphics settings
5. Disable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling
6. Update your graphics driver
7. Close overlays and unnecessary background programs

Fix 1: Disable mods

If you had mods installed before the Remastered update, test the game without them first. The Remastered version includes new built-in mod support, but older manually installed mods or script mods may not be compatible with the new build, causing instant crashes at startup.

If you use the in-game Mods menu

1. Launch The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered.
2. Open the Mods menu.
3. Go to Installed.
4. Disable recently installed or suspicious mods.
5. Restart the game.

If you installed mods manually

Temporarily move your manually installed mod files, which are typically at …\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3\. If you see a manually installed mods folder, move it somewhere outside the game directory and test the game again.

If the crashing issue persists, move on to the next fix.

Fix 2: Verify game files

A damaged or incomplete game file can cause crashes, graphical glitches, or launch failures. For many types of game problems, verifying and repairing the game files is the quickest solution.

• Steam
• Epic Games Launcher
• GOG

Steam

1. Launch Steam.
2. In the LIBRARY, right-click your game and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
   
   

   

3. Select the Installed Files tab and click the Verify integrity of game files button.
   
   

   

4. Steam will verify the game’s files – this process may take several minutes.

Epic Games Launcher

1. Open the Epic Games Launcher and navigate to the Library tab.
2. Click the three dots (…) below your game and select Manage.
   
3. Click VERIFY to start verifying the game files.
   

GOG

1. Launch GOG Galaxy and select the game from the Library section.
2. Click the settings icon next to the Play button. Then, click Manage installation > Verify / Repair.
   

Fix 3: Turn off NVIDIA HairWorks

CD PROJEKT RED has confirmed a current issue where enabling NVIDIA HairWorks may significantly affect game performance. So if your crashes are accompanied by severe stuttering, frame-rate drops, or performance degradation, try to turn it off to see how the game works.

1. Launch The Witcher 3 Remastered.
2. Open Options > Video > Graphics.
3. Set NVIDIA HairWorks to Off.

Apply the changes and test the game again. If stability improves, keep HairWorks disabled until a later game update addresses the issue.

Fix 4: Adjust in-game graphics settings

Menu freezes and stuttering when fast-travelling are often a display-mode problem, not a crash bug. If the game becomes unstable after enabling demanding graphics features, reducing the graphics workload may help improve the game performance.

1. Launch the game.
2. Open Options > Video > Graphics.
3. Try the settings below:
   Turn Ray Tracing and Frame Generation to Off.
   Set Display Mode to Full Screen (exclusive, not “Full Screen Windowed”).
   Set V-Sync to Off.
   Set Maximum Frames Per Second to your monitor’s refresh rate (60, 144, etc.) instead of Unlimited.

Restart the game and test. If the crashes stop, you can gradually re-enable the feature or increase the settings to identify which option is contributing to the instability.

Fix 5: Disable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling

Windows Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) aims to reduce CPU overhead, but it may conflict with DirectX 12 memory management in game titles. Temporarily switching HAGS off can help determine whether GPU scheduling is involved.

1. Press the Windows logo key + I on your keyboard to open the Windows Settings menu.
2. Select System and click Display.
   
3. Scroll down and click Graphics.
   
4. Expand Advanced graphics settings and turn Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling off.
   
   

Restart your PC and launch The Witcher 3 to test. If disabling HAGS makes no difference, turn it back on and try the next fix.

Fix 6: Update your graphics driver

A corrupted or mismatched GPU driver can cause crashes in demanding DirectX 12 games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered. To get the best gaming experience and reduce system instability, make sure your graphics driver is up-to-date.

You can go to the official GPU manufacturer sites, such as AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel, and download the latest driver for your exact GPU model.

If you don’t want to spend time searching for newer drivers manually, or you also want to update other critical device drivers all at once, Driver Easy can make the process easier. It automatically detects your hardware and Windows version and finds the appropriate official drivers, so you don’t have to search multiple manufacturer websites or worry about choosing the wrong driver version.

1. Download and install Driver Easy.
2. Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
   
3. Click the Activate & Update button next to the flagged GPU to automatically download and install the correct version of this driver. Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system.
   

Restart the computer to apply the changes and relaunch your game.

The crashes remain? Some players reported better gaming stability with older GPU drivers. So if updating the driver doesn’t help, you can try installing another driver version easily in Driver Easy.

Simply click the three-dot button next to it and select All available versions. Then choose a previous version from the list and click Install.

Fix 7: Close overlays and unnecessary background programs

Third-party software can interfere with a game by injecting overlays, monitoring GPU activity, or hooking into the rendering pipeline. One of the easiest troubleshooting steps is to disable non-essential applications before playing the game.

Try to close or disable:

• Discord overlay
• NVIDIA App overlay
• AMD overlay
• Xbox Game Bar
• MSI Afterburner/RivaTuner Statistics Server
• RGB and hardware-monitoring utilities
• Third-party recording software
• Other game overlays

Then launch The Witcher 3 again. If the game becomes stable, enable these applications one at a time until you find the one causing the conflict.

Dealing with a game that repeatedly kicks you to the desktop is exhausting. To start with, remove variables that commonly change after a major game update: mods, corrupted files, problematic graphics features, overlays, and GPU drivers. If you’re still stuck on a persistent freeze or crash, drop a comment below with your GPU model, Windows version, and when the crashes occur. We’ll help you troubleshoot the issue step by step.

• Game Crash
• Games
• Windows 10
• Windows 11