Being one of the finest action role-playing games of today, Path of Exile (POE) has been well received from fans of Grinding Gear Games. Its gameplay, stunning graphics and superb game engine has made it an incredible online role-playing game which is now having increased number of players with every passing day.
Nevertheless, this game does have problems as well. Being released for Windows, MacOS, PS4, and Xbox One, Path of Exile has shown several bugs but none of them compares to the biggest one of them all. It is when Path of Exile crashes! Would you believe it? It’s 2021 and games are still crashing on some of the most advanced platforms history has ever seen.
With that being said, we are going to be looking at the reasons why Path of Exile faces this problem on your PC, the troubleshooting methods that deal with this problem as well as the ways to fix this problem. Let us get right into it starting with the problems that cause this.
Troubleshooting Path of Exile Crashing Error
#1: Verify Game and PC Requirements
To download, install and run Path of Exile, you will need to update your PC to the right specifications. If your computer is incompatible with POE configurations then it is going to keep crashing as discussed moments ago. Here are the minimum requirements for POE:
- OS: Windows 7 and onwards
- RAM: 4 GB or above
- CPU: X86-Compatible 2.6 GHz Or Higher
- Disk Space: 32 GB Of Free Space
- Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Or ATI Radeon HD 7850 Or Greater
- DirectX 11
- Active and Stable Internet Connection
#2: Run POE as Administrator
Sometimes the game crashes even after you meet the required specifications. Here the likely problem could be that you have a lack of permission to run it on your PC. Instead of launching your Steam launcher, run it with your administrator account. To run the game by this method, use the following steps:
- Right-click the Steam Desktop Shortcut and go to Properties
- Choose Compatibility and Run this program as an Administrator
- Once you save these changes, re-launch POE and see whether the game crashes as before or not.
#3: Switch to Dedicated GPU Card
Path of Exile is a graphics-oriented video game which focuses more on GPU performance rather than CPU performance which is why if you switch to a dedicated GPU card then you can avoid the problem of continuous crashing. If you do not have one then we suggest you to get it for your system to prevent crashes of POE in the future.
Solutions
Let us now discuss the potential solutions of this problem of your game crashing every now and then.
#1: Update Video Cards Drivers
If your game is constantly crashing then the first instance to where you mind should go is whether you’ve updated your system’s drivers and most importantly the video card drivers that is. To update your video drivers follow these instructions:
- On your screen, select the Device Manager
- Expand the Display Adapters option and if you use NVIDIA, then right-click on it or right-click on the AMD Video Card
- Click on properties after that
- In the properties option, click the option to update your driver
- If you see any other steps then go through them to install the latest GPU card and drivers
- Once you are done finishing the driver update process, you will need to reboot your PC
#2: Stop Overclocking
It is true that overclocking enhances your game performance quite well and boosts your PC speeds, it still manages to make your applications crash. When you enable the overclocking feature on your PC, you are giving it an excuse to eventually end up crashing.
Here, you will need to go into the option of BIOS and disable the overclocking feature to run POE without any further crashes.
#3: Verifying Game Integrity
If you still face the same issue then you can check for the corrupted game files on your system. In case any corrupted files exist, the game won’t work or even if it does, it will end up crashing. Repairing your corrupted files is going to fix this issue and that will be done by validating your game files through the Steam Client.
This is how it will be done:
- Launch Steam through its desktop shortcut & click on LIBRARY.
- go on the Path of Exile application and choose its properties
- Then go into Local Files and click on the Verify Integrity of Game Files option
- This will make your Steam Client scan the game files and if it comes across any corrupted files, it will automatically repair them
#4: Modify in-Game Settings
Several times, changing the in-game settings of POE allows you to play the game better without any crashes on your PC. Follow these steps to prevent crashes:
- On the login screen, find the options button and click on it
- Enter the Graphics tab and turn off the engine multithreading, shader and V-sync
- Save your changes now
#5: Close Unwanted Programs
If you’re already running a number of applications on your system while also playing the game then the game is bound to crash. Close all the applications which you aren’t using and then restart the game.
You will do this by accessing your computer’s task manager and killing off all the running applications in your PC’s background. This is going to take away the processing power from those apps and switch it to your game. This will make the game perform better and will also prevent any further crashes of the game.
Another good tip is to set the priority of POE to high so that most of the processing power of your system goes into it.
#6: Disable Full-screen Optimizations
Your last bet is to disable full-screen optimizations on Windows while playing the game because several users reported that they have managed to resolve the problem of their game crashing after carrying out this trick. Here is how you will carry this method out:
- Enter the installation folder of POE on Windows
- Locate .exe file of POE and go to its properties
- Under the compatibility tab, disable full-screen optimizations by unchecking the “disable full–screen optimizations” box
And that is pretty much it. These are the three steps that you need to carry out this final solution to prevent Path of Exile from crashing.
Resulting Problems
Overclocking Issue
The first of the many problems that are presented to us when we play POE on our PCs is the overclocking issue. Overclocking basically means to increase the processing performance of your PC manually to make sure the game that you’re playing runs smoothly. You can change these settings manually but usually it isn’t executed as easily as many people think it is.
Overclocking causes heating up of your computer quicker since the PC overworks itself. Once the PC has exerted enough force, the application is eventually forced to crash to close the application or else it will have an adverse effect on your motherboard.
Faulty In-Game Settings
There could also be a fault in your in-game settings which is why your game is constantly crashing. Oftentimes your system isn’t able to handle the default settings of the game which is why you will need to decrease some settings in order to prevent your game from crashing.
This is certainly going to take a hit on your game’s performance as well as the overall gameplay experience.
Corrupted Game Files
Having corrupted game files is also going to cause your game to crash. Corrupted files will mean that your game’s database is broken and you will have to reinstall the corrupted files again. Sometimes the game doesn’t crash upon starting but crashes when you’re a few minutes into it because it doesn’t have the files to continue loading the game.
A good tip is to uninstall the game and reinstall it from scratch to get all the files of the game.
Updates Not Being Installed
Games of today aren’t perfect which is why they always have patches and updates coming up that fix these games. When manufacturers release new driver versions and you somehow forget to update them or you don’t have the option of auto-updates on, this takes a hit on your game and doesn’t install the update files.
Of course, when this happens and your updates aren’t in place, the game is bound to crash.
PC Configurations
The most common reason for your game crash to take place is when your PC configurations aren’t up to the mark. Having specifications below the minimum requirements is going to make your game crash and playing it that way is only a waste of time. Upgrade your specs and then get to playing it!
Now that we’ve discussed the potential problems, we shall move on to the troubleshooting methods which you can carry out.
