8 Ways To Fix Baldur’s Gate 3 Crashing

Baldur’s Gate 3 is finally here and we can get our hands on it and start exploring this amazing RPG. But, as with every other fresh game, Baldur’s Gate 3 is no exception to bugs and glitches that prevent players from having a smooth gameplay experience. One of the most notorious problems players are facing is Baldur’s Gate 3 crashing issue.

If you are one of those players, then fret not because we’ll help dissect this problem and help you solve it with our error fix guide.

Check Baldur’s Gate 3’s System Requirements

For several players, Baldur’s Gate 3 crashes on start-up or while resting or saving their game. Some of these issues are being investigated by Larian Studios and the community only. But before we dive into the fixes I’ve discovered, we have to make sure that your PC is capable enough to run the game in the first place. Here are the official system requirements for Baldur’s Gate 3 you need to check. 

Minimum System Requirements For Baldur’s Gate 3

• Note: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Intel i5-4690 / AMD FX 8350
• System Ram: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 970 / AMD Radeon RX 480 (4GB+ of VRAM)
• DirectX Version: 11
• Storage Space Requirement: 150 GB of available space

Recommended System Requirements For Baldur’s Gate 3

• Note: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Intel i7 8700k / AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• System Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 2060 Super / AMD RX 5700 XT (8GB+ of VRAM)
• DirectX Version: 11 or Vulkan
• Storage Space Requirements: 150 GB of available space

Try Switching Between Vulkan And DX11 APIs

According to a forum post by Larian Studios, the Vulkan implementation in Baldur’s Gate 3 will get you the best performance, but It’s unstable for some players. The Vulkan API for the game is still in early access and will need some time before it’s stable for all players to try.

This is why if you’re facing crashes frequently, it’s best that you change the graphics API to DX11 instead of Vulkan. 

You can switch the API in the game’s launcher. Here’s how to do it: 

1. Launch Baldur’s Gate 3 from the desktop, and the game launcher will appear. 
2. In the launcher, click on the settings icon (cogwheel) right next to the play button. 
3. Once you click on the cogwheel icon, you can select DX11 here and then proceed to click on the play button and launch the game. 

Doing this will help you run Baldur’s Gate 3 in DX11 mode and hopefully resolve any issues like crashing for good. Keep up with the game’s Twitter feed so you can play in Vulkan once it’s improved. 

Avoid Interacting With Some In-Game Items

There are some items that, if you interact or consume during an activity or saving, will actually crash your game. This is a widespread issue that players are facing. It’s mainly happening for the food and quest items you can find in the BG3 world. Best avoid food items as much as you can or any canisters or boxes that contain them.

Reddit user LT_GamesTTV accumulated a small list of items that you should avoid if you want to prevent Baldur’s Gate 3 crashes:

• Wyvern’s poison from Nettie is causing crashes for players. Better not have it in your inventory while resting or saving. 
• Almost all Food items, besides supply packs, are bugged, and you shouldn’t interact with them. This means you shouldn’t loot them, pick them up, or send them over to the camp.
• Item contains that can contain food like empty bottles, jars, plates, and cauldrons should be avoided, as well as they can also be bugged. 
• Some quest items are also bugged, and they become unremovable from your character’s inventory. Some examples include “tattered letter” and “tarnished locked”, as both had caused the OP’s game to crash when he saved the game after selling them individually. 
• Even during fights, looting some in-game items mid-fight can also cause your game to crash. The best course of action is to first quick-save, then loot selective items weeding out food items. 

Apart from this list, there are also other items that become buggy when you remove them from your inventory. However, it’s been a while, and hopefully, usage of some of these items might be relatively safer than before. Still, I suggest caution to avoid losing any meaningful game progress due to a crash. 

Boot Up Baldur’s Gate 3 Directly From The Game Directory

If you face unexpected crashes every time you launch Baldur’s Gate 3 from the desktop, you should try an alternative method. Sometimes the shortcut has some parameters baked in that become unstable and cause your game to crash.

So the best method is to either launch Baldur’s Gate 3 directly from the main executable file in the installation. Here’s what you need to do: 

1. First, you need to launch Steam and locate Baldur’s Gate 3 in your game library. 
2. Once you located Baldur’s Gate 3, right-click on it and then click on Browse Local Files under the manage option.

   

3. Once you click on the browse local files option, Windows Explorer will open up, and you’ll be directed toward the main Baldur’s Gate 3 installation folder. Go inside the BIN folder to locate the main executable files. 
4. You must launch the bg3_dx11.exe file to start Baldurs Gate 3 in DX11 mode. 

After the game launches, play for a while and observe if the Baldur’s Gate 3 crashing is happening again. If it’s not, then you’re better off launching the game directly from the install folder. I also recommend that you create a new shortcut for the game on the desktop and delete the previous one to avoid opening up the install folder every time. 

Run Baldur’s Gate 3 As Administrator

Sometimes the lack of proper permissions and privileges can prevent Baldur’s Gate 3 from accessing your system resources properly. This is a well-known reason behind the crashing issue, and hence you should always launch the game as an administrator. To do this, just follow the steps below: 

1. Simply locate the Baldur’s Gate 3 installation folder, similar to the previous step, by going into Steam and locating the game files.
2. After you’re inside the game’s installation directory, simply go into the BIN folder and right-click on the main executable file you’ll be using (either DX11 or Vulkan version). After right-clicking, you’ll need to access the file’s properties. 
3. Once you’re inside the properties, go to the compatibility tab.

   

4. Here, all you need to do is check the two options named Run this program as an administrator and disable fullscreen optimizations. 
5. After doing this, click on OK to save changes and close down the window.

Once you’re done, now you can launch Baldur’s Gate 3 right from the desktop, and the game will always run with administrative privileges. This will surely resolve your BG3 crashing problem if it occurs due to improper permissions. 

Verify Baldur’s Gate 3 Files On Steam

Sometimes, the game files can get corrupted due to several reasons, majorly due to third-party applications like your antivirus or system cleaners. Due to missing files, Baldur’s Gate 3 will either refuse to launch or simply crash randomly mid-game.

To resolve this issue without having the headache of redownloading the whole game, you can simply verify its game files on Steam. Here’s how to do it: 

1. Go ahead and launch the Steam application from the taskbar on the bottom right. 
2. Once Steam opens up, simply locate Baldur’s Gate 3 in your game library. 
3. After finding it, right-click on it and select the properties option.   

   

4. Once you gain access to the properties, you’ll need to click on the installed files tab on the left and then click on the Verify Integrity of Game Files option on the right.

   

Once you click on the verify game integrity of game files option, Steam will begin scanning your installation folder to detect missing or corrupted game files. Once found, it’ll automatically start a download for those missing files and replace them in Baldur’s Gate 3 installation directory once finished. After this process is done, you can launch the game and be assured that Baldur’s Gate 3 crashing issue has been resolved. 

Update Your GPU Drivers

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the major game releases of the year. So, GPU manufacturers will be pushing out critical driver updates for your graphics card. These updates will include performance tweaks and essential bug fixes to make your gaming experience as smooth as possible.

I recommend updating your GPU drivers as soon as possible, and these can help you resolve the crashing problem as well. 

Nvidia

If you own an Nvidia GPU, you can update your driver in several ways. However, let me show you the simplest way to update your GPU drivers. All you need to do is download and install the GeForce Experience Application and follow the steps I’m going to show you below:  

1. Now you need to open up GeForce Experience software by simply going to the taskbar and launching it from there, as shown in the image above. 
2. After you open up the software, simply head toward the Drivers tab and click on Check for Updates to ensure there are any updates available for your GPU. If there are, a Download button will pop up. 

3. If there are updates available for your GPU, simply click on the Download button to start downloading it right away. 
4. Once the download is complete, click on Express Installation to start installing the update.
5. After a few minutes, the update will be fully installed. All you need to do is restart your PC after installing the update to finalize the installation. 

Now your Nvidia GPU drivers are finally up-to-date, and it should resolve any crashing problems you were having with Baldur’s Gate 3. You can further improve the game’s performance by visiting my best Nvidia settings guide.

AMD

If you have an AMD GPU, we recommend the same, that you update your drivers to the latest ones. Similar to Nvidia, there are multiple ways you can update your AMD graphics card. However, the simplest way is to download the AMD Adrenaline Software and let it update the drivers for you. After you’ve downloaded and installed AMD Adrenaline, here’s what you need to do:

1. Start by opening up Radeon Software from either the taskbar at the bottom-right corner or by looking for it in the Windows Search. 
2. Once AMD Adrenaline opens up, you’ll spot a Drivers & Software section on the home screen. You’ll see the current version of your driver as well as the status of that driver (whether it’s the latest or outdated.)
3. Here, you first need to click on the Check for Updates button to check for any latest updates. If you see there are updates available, click on the download button to start downloading them. 
4. After the download completes, you’ll need to choose to install them and the software will start the installation process. 
5. After the installation completes, simply reboot your PC to finalize this process. 

This will successfully update your AMD GPU to the latest drivers. Now you can enjoy playing Baldur’s Gate 3 smoothly without any interruptions if the problem was occurring due to outdated GPU drivers. If you want to go a step further and improve your in-game performance, check out our AMD best settings optimization guide. 

Reduce Graphics Settings

Baldur’s Gate 3 is still being improved day by day as developers continue to improve its gameplay mechanics to technical performance. That said, even if you’re running it on a high-end PC, you may still face problems like Baldur’s Gate 3 crashing issue. 

So, to avoid problems like these, you should start lowering the graphics settings one increment at a time and play the game. Keep repeating this process until you’re getting stable performance and no crashing issues. Once the game releases completely and it’s in better condition, you can crank the settings back up and enjoy Baldur’s Gate 3 graphical fidelity.

If performance is an issue that’s bothering you, you can enhance it further by following our best Windows optimization guide.

Whitelist Baldur’s Gate 3 In Antivirus

Antivirus becomes really problematic when it comes to games. By giving out false positives, it restricts Baldur’s Gate 3’s access to your system resources as well as deleting its files which leads to crashes. 

So first, you need to make sure if your antivirus is really the problem. So, first, you need to disable your antivirus or its real-time protection then run the game to check whether it’s crashing or not. We’ll be taking Windows default antivirus (Windows Defender) as an example. Here’s what you need to do:

1. First, you need to open up the Windows Security panel by typing it up in the Windows Search. Once the results pop up, select the first one. 
2. Inside Windows Security settings, you need to go to the Virus & Threat protection tab on the left and then you’ll need to access its setting by clicking on Manage Settings.

   

3. Inside the settings, you need to toggle off the Real-Time Protection feature.

   

When you turn off the Real-Time Protection, it’ll disable any interference from the antivirus side. Now you can try launching the game and check whether it’s crashing or not.

If it’s not crashing then you’ve identified the antivirus to be the issue. But you can’t leave your PC unprotected, hence I recommend you whitelist the install folder of Baldur’s Gate 3 and turn back the antivirus on. Here’s how to do it: 

1. Since you will be already present within the Windows Defender settings, all you need to do is scroll down to the Add or Remove Exclusions option. Simply click on it.

   

2. After selecting the exclude install folder option, you need to click on the +Add An Exclusion option and then select the folder option. 
3. Now you simply need to browse to the Baldur’s Gate 3 installation fold and add it to the exclusion list. 
4. After clicking on it, you need to select the +Add an Exclusion option and choose to add a folder.

   

Once you’re done, Baldur’s Gate 3 will be excluded from any scan or interference from the antivirus side. This means, even if Windows Defender is actively scanning your system, it’ll stay away from your game which will lead to a smoother experience without any crashing issues. 

Did You Finally Get Rid Of BG3 Crashing?

We’ve finally listed every possible fix there is to solve Baldur’s Gate 3 crashing issue on PC. By the end of this guide, we’re confident that you’ll have fixed this issue.

What you can expect is more future updates and patches that will further improve the game’s performance and stability on your hardware, so don’t worry. If you’re still having issues regardless of applying the fixes above, I recommend hitting up Larian Baldur’s Gate 3 support whenever you can. 

Check out more coverage of Baldur’s Gate 3 guides on eXputer: 

• Baldurs Gate 3 Sorcerer: BEST Build Guide
• Baldurs Gate 3: What Is Max Level?
• Baldurs Gate 3 Class Tier List [July 2023]
• Baldurs Gate 3: All Companions [Class, Unlock & Stats]
• Baldur’s Gate 3 Wildheart Barbarian [Subclass & Progression]