How to Solve No Man’s Sky Crashing on PC Quickly

You launch the game, the hyperdrive star field builds up speed, and suddenly your monitor goes dark, or the screen freezes completely while you’re flying, showing a Vulkan has crashed error message.

If this is happening to you right after a major patch like the Cosmos update, don’t worry. This guide walks you through 8 troubleshooting steps, starting with the fixes that are easiest and safest to try.

Why does No Man’s Sky keep crashing?

There isn’t one universal cause. After a major game update, crashes can come from corrupted or outdated shader data, graphics settings, GPU drivers, third-party overlays, unstable overclocks, memory pressure, or a game-side bug. Different patterns of the issue may have a likely cause that you can start troubleshooting with.

Try these fixes

Here are some practical fixes for No Man’s Sky crashing on PC. You don’t have to try them all; just work your way down the list until No Man’s Sky is up and running properly.

1. Update the game and restart your computer
2. Reset the game’s graphics settings
3. Clear shader cache
4. Update or reinstall your graphics card driver
5. Disable overlays and background processes
6. Lower graphics settings
7. Verify game files
8. Return CPU, GPU, and RAM settings to default

Fix 1: Update the game and restart your computer

Before changing Windows settings or reinstalling drivers, make sure you’re running the latest game build. Hello Games recently released Cosmos 7.01 and 7.02 with additional bug and stability fixes.

If you’re already on the latest build, continue below.

Fix 2: Reset the game’s graphics settings

A corrupted or incompatible graphics configuration can cause startup and Vulkan-related crashes. You can simply delete the configuration files to reset it.

1. Close No Man’s Sky.
2. Open your No Man’s Sky installation folder. For a typical Steam installation: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\No Man’s Sky.
3. Open Binaries\SETTINGS.
4. Copy TKGAMESETTINGS and TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS to another folder as a backup.
5. Delete the original settings files.
6. Launch No Man’s Sky again.

The game should recreate the settings files with default values. Launch the game. If it remains stable, change graphics settings gradually to test.

Fix 3: Clear shader cache

A shader cache contains precompiled graphics data. After a major game update, old shader data can sometimes contribute to graphics problems. Try clearing it to see if that resolves the graphics or performance issues.

1. Close No Man’s Sky and Steam completely.
2. Open the game’s installation folder. Go to Steam\steamapps\common\No Man’s Sky\GAMEDATA.
   
3. Delete the SHADERCACHE folder.
   

Start No Man’s Sky again. The first launch may take longer because the game needs to rebuild its shader cache.

Fix 4: Update or reinstall your graphics card driver

A graphics driver helps Windows and No Man’s Sky communicate with your GPU through graphics APIs such as Vulkan. An outdated, corrupted, or incompatible driver can cause crashes, freezes, or other graphics-related issues.

For a smoother and more stable gaming experience, make sure your GPU driver is up to date. You can download the latest driver package directly from your GPU manufacturer’s website, such as NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel.

If you don’t have time or patience, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy. It will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running; you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing.

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.
   

If a driver update doesn’t resolve the problem, you can try installing a previous version in Driver Easy. Simply click the three-dot button next to the graphics driver, select All available versions, and choose an older version from the list.

Now launch No Man’s Sky to see if it fixes the crashing issue. Still not working? Don’t give up hope. There is something else you can do.

Fix 5: Disable overlays and background processes

Third-party overlays and background utilities can interfere with games, especially after a major update. Before starting gaming, disable overlays and close non-essential software. For example:

• Discord Overlay
• NVIDIA’s in-game overlay
• AMD overlay
• Xbox Game Bar
• MSI Afterburner
• Other GPU monitoring or overclocking utilities
• Browser windows with hardware acceleration enabled

Then launch No Man’s Sky again. If the game becomes stable, you can re-enable your background applications one at a time to identify the conflicting program.

Fix 6: Lower graphics settings

If you’re playing on a system close to the game’s minimum requirements, reducing the graphics workload can help distinguish a performance or resource problem from a game-side crash.

1. Close Chrome, Firefox, streaming software, and other unnecessary applications.
2. Launch No Man’s Sky.
3. Set Graphics Quality to Low. Disable Ray Tracing and other particularly demanding options if available. If your GPU supports it, try DLSS, FSR, or XeSS at a lower quality setting.

Test the game and see how it performs. If crashes still occur, try the next fix.

Fix 7: Verify game files

If some game files are missing, corrupted, or damaged, No Man’s Sky may crash, freeze, or fail to launch properly. Most game launchers provide a built-in option to verify the game installation and replace problematic files.

Here’s how to verify the game files on 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 Verified integrity of game files button.
   
   

   

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

Fix 8: Return CPU, GPU, and RAM settings to default

If you’ve overclocked your CPU or GPU, or enabled an XMP/EXPO memory profile, temporarily return those settings to their defaults. An unstable overclock can appear completely normal during everyday use but crash a game under sustained GPU or CPU load.

For GPU overclocking:

1. Open your GPU tuning software, such as the NVIDIA app, AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, or MSI Afterburner.
2. Restore the GPU to its default clock and power settings.
3. Close the tuning software.
4. Restart the game.

For CPU or memory tuning:

1. Restart your PC and enter BIOS/UEFI.
2. Temporarily disable manual CPU overclocking.
3. Temporarily set XMP/EXPO to Disabled or use the motherboard’s default memory settings.
4. Save the changes and restart Windows.

To fix No Man’s Sky crashing on PC, start with the least invasive solution: update the game, reset its graphics settings, clear the shader cache, and update the GPU driver. Then move on to disabling overlays, reducing the graphics workload, and returning overclocked hardware to stock settings.

If the problem started immediately after the Cosmos 7.0 update and continues even after installing the latest patch, the issue may be related to a game-side bug or compatibility problem. In that case, check for further updates from Hello Games and consider reporting the issue if the crashes persist.

If you have any questions or suggestions, or if you’re encountering another type of issue, feel free to leave a comment below.

• Game Crash
• Steam
• Windows 10
• Windows 11