6 Ways to Fix Regular Ark Survival Ascended Crashing on a Windows PC

Studio Wildcard released Ark Survival Ascended in October 2023. However, there have already been a slew of complaints on forums and Reddit about persistent Ark Survival Ascended crashing on Windows PCs. One Ark player’s Reddit post says this: “Anyone else getting these constant crashes when it comes up with fatal error? It happens after about 5-10 minutes since I get into the game, and it’s really infuriating; it’s literally unplayable.” Regular and persistent crashing like that has made Ark Survival Ascended almost unplayable for some players.

Fatal error crashes have been most widely reported by players. However, Ark Survival Ascended can crash in variable ways when played. Here are some ways you can fix regular Ark Survival Ascended crashing on a Windows 11/10 PC.

Adjust Ask Survival Ascended’s Graphics and UI Settings

Many players have said they’ve been able to resolve (or at least greatly reduce) persistent Ark Survival Ascended crashing by disabling certain graphics and UI settings within the game. So, I recommend you try doing that first before moving on to other potential solutions. Try adjusting the graphics and UI settings in Ark Survival Ascended like this.

1. Start Ark Survival Ascended and bring up the general setting in that game.
2. Click the Video tab.
3. Disable the Enable Foilage & Fluid Interaction option.
   
   

   The Video tab in Ark Survival Ascended

4. Reduce the Max Frame Rate setting. For example, set a max frame like 75 if your PC has a 144Hz monitor.
5. Select a lower Graphics Presets option.
6. Next, turn off the Frame Generation setting on the RTX tab.
7. Select the UI tab and turn on the Disable Menu Transitions option.
   
   

   The UI tab in Ark Survival Ascended

8. Click Save to set the new Ark Survival Ascended settings.

You don’t necessarily have to set all settings exactly as instructed above. However, many players have said disabling the Foilage & Fluid Interaction and Frame Generation settings and turning on the Disable Menu Transition option has fixed Ark Survival Ascended crashing for them. Capping the max frame has also worked for some players.

Verify the Integrity of the Ark Survival Ascended Game Files

Crashing often occurs because of missing or corrupted game files. You can remedy that by verifying the integrity of the Ark Survival Ascended files with Steam. This support page on Steam’s website tells you how users can repair game files with that gaming client’s Verify integrity option.

Set a DirectX 11 Launch Option

Lots of Ark Survival Ascended players confirm setting a DirectX 11 launch option can fix the game’s fatal error crashing. Doing this will force Ascended to start with DirectX 11, disabling DX12. This is how you can set a DirectX 11 launch option in Steam.

1. Run the Steam gaming client and go into its Library tab.
2. Right-click on Ark Survival Ascended to select Properties.
3. Click in the Launch Options box and input -dx11.
   
   

   The -dx11 launch option

4. If the -dx11 parameter doesn’t remedy the crashing, try setting alternative launch options such as -d3d11, force-d3d11 or -windowed -d3d11.

Update the Graphics Driver on Your Windows PC

Ark Survival Ascended is a new game with some fancy graphical effects. So, stability issues can arise because of old graphics drivers that don’t support all the game’s visual effects or features. If your PC has an outmoded graphics driver, you should update it as follows.

1. To check your PC’s graphics card model details, open Run (press its Windows logo + R hotkey), input dxdiag, and click OK. You can then view graphic card details on the Display tab.
2. Navigate to the AMD or NVIDIA webpage for downloading graphics drivers in the Edge browser.
3. Select the graphics card model shown on the Display tab and Windows platform details.
4. Click on Submit or Search to proceed.
   
   

   The NVIDIA driver download webpage

5. Next, select Download for your graphics card’s latest compatible driver package.
   
   

   The Download option for a NVIDIA driver

6. Press Ctrl + J to see your downloaded files in Edge.
7. Click on the NVIDIA or AMD driver package file to open its installer.
8. Go through the setup wizard and select Install.

Increase Virtual Memory

Virtual memory allocation is the amount of data reallocated to secondary storage. Increasing virtual memory is especially recommended if your PC is limited to the minimum 16 GB RAM system requirement for Ark Survival. You can increase virtual memory like this:

1. Use the Windows logo + S keyboard shortcut to access the file and app search tool.
2. Enter View advanced system settings and click the matching search result.
3. Next, click Advanced in the System Properties window.
4. Press the Settings button for performance options.
5. Go to the Advanced tab in Performance Options.
6. Click Change to access a Virtual Memory settings window.
   
   

   The Change button

7. Uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives box.
8. Click the Custom size setting.
9. Input a figure 1.5x higher than your PC’s RAM specification in the Initial size box. For example, 16,384 bytes x 1.5 equals 24,574, which is the value you would need to enter there for 16 GB RAM.
10. Next, enter a figure 3x your PC’s total RAM in the Maximum size box. For 16 GB RAM, you would need to enter 49,152 there (3 x 16,384).
11. Select the Set option.
    
    

    The Virtual Memory window

12. Click OK to exit the Virtual Memory window.
13. Select Apply in the Performance Options window.
14. Click OK to close the Performance Options window and select Restart Now.

Reinstall Ark Survival Ascended

The Uninstall option in Steam

Finally, try reinstalling Ark Survival Ascended if the game still crashes regularly. You can do that in Steam’s Library tab by right-clicking Ark Survival Ascended and clicking Manage and Uninstall. Select the Install option for the game in Steam to reinstall it.

Other Possible Ways to Fix Ark Survival Ascended Crashing

The troubleshooting methods above are more widely confirmed to fix Ark Survival Ascended crashing, but there are more potential remedies you can try. These are some of the other possible ways to fix that game’s persistent crashing:

• Minimize background program system resource usage by clean-booting your PC. This Microsoft help guide for clean booting provides instructions for applying that troubleshooting method.
• Disable all mods within the Mods section of Ark Survival Ascended.
• Disable the Steam and NVIDIA GeForce Experience overlay features.

I hope those possible resolutions remedy the Ark Survival Ascended crashing your Windows 11/10 PC. However, there isn’t necessarily any guaranteed way to fix that game crashing. Remember that Ark Survival Ascended is still in early access in 2024, so its developer will likely release patch updates that address the crashing issues in the foreseeable future.