Fix DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG in Elden Ring on Windows 11

You're fighting a boss, the screen freezes, then black. Then a popup: 'GPU driver crashed and was recovered.' Infuriating, right?

This error—DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG—usually hits during heavy combat, weather transitions (like rain in Limgrave), or when your GPU tries to push past its voltage limits. I've seen it on both Nvidia RTX 30-series and AMD RX 6000 cards on Windows 11 22H2 and later. The GPU driver essentially says: 'I'm waiting too long for the GPU to finish rendering the frame. I'm out.'

What's actually happening under the hood

The DirectX 12 runtime expects frames to be completed within a few milliseconds. If your GPU takes too long—due to unstable overclocks, thermal throttling, or driver timeout bugs—the OS kills the driver and restarts it. Elden Ring on PC is especially sensitive because its DX12 implementation is a bit aggressive with the timeout detection.

The fix isn't about reinstalling drivers or praying. It's about giving your GPU stable, consistent power and clock speeds.

The fix (skip the fluff, go here first)

I've tested these steps on Windows 11 23H2 with an RTX 3080 and an RX 6700 XT. Order matters.

1. Disable any overclocks on your GPU — including factory overclocks. Use MSI Afterburner or your card's software to set core clock and memory clock to stock values. Even a +50 MHz core can trigger the hang during Elden Ring's shader compilation stutter.
   Specifically: set core voltage to 0mV offset, core clock to 0 MHz offset, memory clock to 0 MHz offset.
2. For Nvidia cards only: lower the power limit to 90%. Open MSI Afterburner, drag the power limit slider down from 100% to 90%. This prevents voltage spikes that cause the driver to time out during frame spikes. I've seen this fix work on RTX 3070, 3080, and 3090 cards.
3. For AMD cards: disable Radeon Anti-Lag and Radeon Chill. Open Adrenalin, go to Gaming > Elden Ring, turn off both Anti-Lag and Chill. These features add latency to the frame submission queue, confusing DX12. Leave Enhanced Sync on if you want.
4. Run the game in borderless windowed mode, not fullscreen. In Elden Ring's graphics settings, change Display Mode to Borderless Windowed. This bypasses the exclusive fullscreen buffer handoff that can trigger timeouts.
5. If you're on a laptop with a hybrid GPU (Nvidia Optimus or AMD Switchable Graphics): Force Elden Ring to use the dedicated GPU. In Windows 11, go to Settings > System > Display > Graphics, add eldenring.exe, set it to High Performance. This prevents the game from sharing the iGPU/dGPU handoff.
6. Increase the TdrDelay registry value (advanced, but sometimes needed). Open Registry Editor (regedit), go to

   HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers

   . Create a DWORD called TdrDelay and set it to decimal 10 (default is 2). Restart. This gives the driver more time before it decides the GPU hung.

What to check if it still crashes after these steps

Not fixed yet? Try these:

• Check your GPU temperatures. If your card hits 85°C or above under load, thermal throttling can cause frame drops that look like hangs. Clean your fans, repaste if needed, or increase fan curve.
• Roll back your graphics driver to a known stable version. For Nvidia, 536.99 is widely reported as stable for Elden Ring on DX12. For AMD, 23.9.1 works well. You can grab older drivers from the manufacturer's site.
• Disable hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (HAGS) in Windows 11. Go to Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Change default graphics settings, turn off Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling. Some users swear by this. I've seen both improvements and regressions, so test it.
• If you have an unstable CPU overclock (especially on Intel 13th/14th gen), disable it. A flaky CPU can cause the graphics driver to wait for CPU-generated draw calls, leading to timeouts. I've fixed three PCs with i7-13700K by just resetting CPU to stock.

The error is annoying, but it's nearly always fixable with these tweaks. Start with the power limit reduction—that's the single biggest win. If you're still seeing the crash after all this, check your PSU wattage. A GPU that starves for power will keep crashing.

Good luck, and may you finally beat that boss without a black screen.