"DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG" crash in Cyberpunk 2077 - fixed

You're mid-firefight in Cyberpunk 2077's Night City, or maybe you're lining up a Widowmaker shot in Overwatch 2, and bam—the game freezes for two seconds, then crashes to desktop with DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG. This error means your graphics driver stopped responding within the time Windows allows it (usually 2 seconds). Windows then resets the driver, and the game bails.

I've seen this on RTX 3000 series cards, Radeon RX 6000 series, and even older GTX 10-series cards. The common trigger? A sudden spike in GPU load—like a fire effect, smoke particle, or transition between menus and gameplay. It's not a hardware defect in most cases. It's the Windows GPU timeout being too short.

Why it happens

Windows has a watchdog called TdrDelay. It gives your GPU driver 2 seconds to respond after a command is sent. If your GPU is busy rendering a complex frame (ray tracing in Cyberpunk, heavy fog in Overwatch), and the delay crosses that threshold, Windows assumes the driver is frozen and resets it. The game doesn't handle the reset gracefully—so you get the DXGI error.

Part of the problem is driver optimization. Both Nvidia and AMD have pushed cards to run at higher clocks out of the box, which can cause micro-stutters just long enough to trip the timeout. Overclocking? Makes it worse. But even stock cards can hit this.

The real fix

You have three options. Start with the first—it fixes 80% of cases. I'll tell you which one to skip.

Option 1: Increase TdrDelay in the registry

This extends the timeout Windows gives your driver. You're telling Windows: "Hey, chill out—the GPU's doing heavy work."

1. Press Win+R, type regedit, hit Enter.
2. Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers.
3. Right-click in the right pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
4. Name it TdrDelay.
5. Double-click it, set Base to Decimal, enter 8 (that's 8 seconds—I've used this for two years with no side effects).
6. Click OK, close Registry Editor, restart your PC.

That's it. Launch Cyberpunk 2077 again. The crash should be gone. If you still see it, move to Option 2.

Option 2: Disable fullscreen optimizations for the game .exe

Windows 10 and 11 have a feature called Fullscreen Optimizations. It's meant to improve alt-tabbing but sometimes messes with DirectX and triggers the timeout.

1. Find the game's .exe file—for Cyberpunk, it's Cyberpunk2077.exe in the game folder. For Overwatch 2, it's Overwatch.exe.
2. Right-click the .exe, select Properties.
3. Go to the Compatibility tab.
4. Check Disable fullscreen optimizations.
5. Click Change high DPI settings, then check Override high DPI scaling behavior and pick Application from the dropdown.
6. Click OK, Apply, OK.
7. Restart the game.

Option 3: Downclock your GPU (skip this unless you've overclocked)

If you've overclocked your GPU, dial it back. If you haven't, skip this. It's rarely the fix for stock cards. But if both options above failed, try reducing your core clock by 50-100 MHz in MSI Afterburner or AMD Adrenalin.

What if it still fails?

Check your power supply. A dying PSU can cause voltage drops that trigger driver hangs. Also, run sfc /scannow from an admin Command Prompt to rule out corrupted system files. If you're on a laptop, make sure you're using the dedicated GPU, not integrated graphics—go to Windows Graphics Settings and set the game to High Performance. And for Cyberpunk 2077 specifically, try lowering ray tracing to Medium or disabling it entirely. That engine is still a beast for GPUs.

This error tripped me up the first time too. I spent a weekend chasing driver reinstalls before I found the TdrDelay key. It's been rock solid ever since.