Elden Ring Crashing on PC: How to Fix It

Elden Ring crashing on PC almost always comes from one of five causes: ray tracing turned on, a GPU driver problem, overlay software hooking the game, mods that are out of date after a patch, or damaged game files. Work the fixes in that order — turn Ray Tracing Quality off first, because it is the most commonly reported crash trigger and the biggest performance cost in the game. If the game closes on the white screen before the title menu, jump straight to Fix 2.

Match your crash to the fix

What happens	Most likely cause	Go to
Crashes in specific areas or effect-heavy fights	Ray tracing	Fix 1
Closes on the white screen, no error	Wrong GPU or no DirectX 12 support	Fix 2
Random crashes to desktop after a driver update	Driver or shader cache	Fix 3
Crashes when an overlay or FPS counter is running	Overlay hooks	Fix 4
Fatal error mentioning ersc after a game patch	Seamless Co-op out of date	Fix 5
Crashes after a patch with no mods installed	Damaged game files or runtimes	Fix 6
Random crashes in other games too	Overclock or XMP instability	Fix 7
EAC message or error 30005	Easy Anti-Cheat, not a crash	Elden Ring EAC error fix

Fix 1 — Turn ray tracing off

Ray tracing is the Elden Ring setting most often reported to crash the game on PC, and it is also the only setting with a large performance cost.

1. Open System → Graphics.
2. Set Ray Tracing Quality to Off.
3. Apply, restart the game, and replay the area where it crashed.

If the crash stops, leave ray tracing off. The best Elden Ring settings guide covers what ray tracing costs in FPS and which settings are worth keeping high instead.

Fix 2 — White-screen crash: make sure the right GPU runs the game

Elden Ring checks for a DirectX 12 (feature level 12_0) graphics card while the white startup screen is showing. If the check fails, the game closes with no error message. On laptops and desktops with integrated graphics, this usually means Windows started the game on the iGPU.

1. Open Settings → System → Display → Graphics.
2. Add eldenring.exe from the game folder (Steam: right-click Elden Ring → Manage → Browse local files → Game).
3. Set it to High performance and save.
4. Desktop users: make sure the monitor cable is plugged into the graphics card, not the motherboard.

Fix 3 — Update or clean-install the GPU driver

A driver update that went wrong, or an old driver, causes crashes to desktop during play. Install the current driver from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel. If crashes started right after a driver update, do a clean install (or roll back one version) and let the game rebuild its shaders before judging it — the first session after a driver change hitches while shaders compile. Our Elden Ring stuttering fix covers the shader cache step.

If the crash comes with a DirectX error box instead of a silent close, use the DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG fix.

Fix 4 — Close overlays and tuning software

Overlays inject code into the game, and Elden Ring is sensitive to it. Close each of these and test:

• Steam overlay: Steam → Settings → In-Game → turn off Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.
• Discord, NVIDIA overlay and Xbox Game Bar overlays.
• MSI Afterburner and RivaTuner Statistics Server — end both in Task Manager, including the RTSS hook processes, not just the window.
• RGB, fan-control and capture utilities.

If one of these is the cause, you can usually re-enable it with a per-game exclusion. See the RTSS guide for the RivaTuner side.

Fix 5 — Test without mods

Mods are the most common cause of crashes right after an Elden Ring patch, because they hook game code that the patch changed.

• Seamless Co-op: a fatal error that mentions ersc\networking after a game update means the mod no longer matches the game version. Install the Seamless Co-op build made for the current patch, or wait for one.
• Test the base game: launch Elden Ring normally through Steam (not through ersc_launcher.exe or a mod loader). If the vanilla game is stable, the crash is the mod.
• Remove mod files from the Game folder before verifying files, or verification may not restore the originals.

Fix 6 — Verify files and reinstall the runtimes

Elden Ring patches can leave files damaged. In Steam, right-click Elden Ring → Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity of game files. Steam re-downloads anything missing or corrupt.

If that doesn’t help, reinstall the runtimes the game depends on. Install the current Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x64 and x86), and if your install folder contains a _CommonRedist folder, run the installers inside it. For crashes with an 0xc0000005 code, the access violation crash fix covers the Windows side.

Fix 7 — Remove overclocks and test stability

If Elden Ring and other games crash at random, the problem is usually the PC, not the game. Reset any GPU overclock or undervolt, then test with XMP/EXPO off for one session. If the crashes stop, your memory profile or overclock isn’t fully stable — the XMP/EXPO guide explains how to re-enable it safely. A GPU running out of memory shows up differently; see the out of video memory error fix.

Summary

For most Elden Ring crashes on PC: turn Ray Tracing Quality off, run the game on the dedicated GPU, update the driver, close overlays, test without mods, and verify files. If none of that holds, remove overclocks — at that point the instability is in the system, not the game. Once it’s stable, frame pacing is the next thing to fix; our timer resolution guide covers the Windows-side timing that affects smoothness.

Related guides

• Elden Ring Easy Anti-Cheat Error: How to Fix It
• Elden Ring Stuttering Fix
• Best Elden Ring Settings for FPS
• Elden Ring Nightreign Stuttering Fix
• DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG Fix
• 0xc0000005 Access Violation Crash Fix