Many players report that Path of Exile crashes a lot when they’re playing it. A PoE player said this on Steam: “As of very recently, PoE1’s been crashing frequently, almost constantly for no rhyme or reason – after loading a character, entering a map, running into an NPC, and more. This hasn’t been an issue when I played it last 4 months ago.” These are some ways you can fix regular in-game Path of Exile crashing on Windows PCs.
Disable Engine Multithreading
Disabling the Engine Multithreading setting is a more widely confirmed way to fix regular in-game Path of Exile crashing. This sets the game to utilize only one core of a multi-core CPU. You can disable Engine Multithreading in Path of Exile like this:
- Start the Path of Exile game.
- Click Options on the start screen.
- Select the Graphics tab.
- Set the Engine Multithreading option under Advanced Settings to Disabled.
The Engine Multithreading setting
- Click Save to apply.
Change the Path of Exile Renderer Type Setting to DirectX 11 or Vulkan
Some players say they’ve fixed regular Path of Exile crashing by changing the Renderer Type option to DirectX 11 or Vulkan. You can try experimenting with both if necessary. This is how you change the Renderer Type option in Path of Exiles.
- Start Path of Exiles to select Options > Graphics tab.
- Change the Renderer option to DirectX 11.
- Select Save to apply.
- If that doesn’t work, try changing the Renderer option to Vulkan.
Disable MSI Afterburner
It has been confirmed by some PoE players that disabling MSI Afterburner fixed their Path of Exile crashing. Is the MSI Afterburner software on your PC? If so, try closing that background program before starting Path of Exile like this:
- Go into Task Manager by right-clicking a space on your taskbar to select a shortcut for that tool.
- Click Processes to view that tab.
- Right-click the process for MSI Afterburner to select End task.
The End task option
Or you can try setting a clean boot to disable MSI Afterburner from automatically starting, along with other third-party apps. Clean-booting Windows is a troubleshooting method that will disable all third-party programs from the Windows startup, which would likely include MSI Afterburner. Check out this page on the Microsoft site for details about how to clean boot.
The Startup tab
Set a Frame Rate Cap
Setting a frame rate cap, like 120 or 60, has fixed Path of Exile crashing for some players. A frame rate cap of 60 will probably be fine for most gaming PCs. You can set a frame rate cap like this.
- Run Path of Exile and go into its Graphics tab.
- Set the value for the Foreground FPS Cap setting to 60.
The Foreground FPS setting
- Apply the settings by selecting Save.
Verify the Game Files for Path of Exile
Verifying Path of Exiles will check for and repair game file corruption that might be causing crashing issues to occur. You can apply this possible fix by selecting the Verify option for PoE in Steam. Steam’s page for verifying game files tells you how users can select that troubleshooting option.
The Verify integrity of game files option
Update Graphical Drivers
New graphics drivers provide bug fixes and performance enhancements for games. So, updating your graphics card’s driver might be worth trying if you haven’t done so in a while. Install the latest, compatible GPU driver for your graphics card using a method in this KeenGamer guide.
The graphics driver page
There isn’t any surefire troubleshooting method that will fix regular in-game Path of Exile crashing for all players. Yet, the potential resolutions discussed above are more widely confirmed ways to resolve PoE crashing issues. So, applying those possible fixes might make your PoE game more playable by reducing its crashes.
