ACCESS_VIOLATION - The memory could not be "read"

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Some deep reseearch from ai :stuck_out_tongue:

Recurring WoW DX12 Crash with “Async Resource Creation” Enabled

Issue Overview

Players of World of Warcraft Retail (build 11.1.5.60568) have encountered frequent client crashes (Error #132 Access Violations) when DirectX 12 mode is used with “Async Resource Creation” turned on. The crash typically produces an error like: “ACCESS_VIOLATION – The instruction at 0x00007FFB61A74EA8 referenced memory at 0x00000029000004C9. The memory could not be read.” These crashes occur in any location (even idle in cities like Dornogal) and cease entirely if Async Resource Creation is disabled, indicating a bug related to this DX12 feature.

Blizzard/NVIDIA Acknowledgment & Causes

While there hasn’t been a very direct official blue-post explicitly naming this bug, both Blizzard support and the community have identified likely causes:

  • NVIDIA Driver Conflict: Many players report the issue began after installing recent NVIDIA Game Ready drivers (e.g. version 576.28, released around Apr 27–30, 2025). A forum MVP noted that “a recent nVidia driver is causing issues” with WoW’s DX12 renderingus.forums.blizzard.com. In fact, some players pinpointed March 7, 2025 as the day crashes started, suggesting a driver update rather than a WoW patch triggered itus.forums.blizzard.com.
  • Outdated DX12 Libraries in WoW: One technically savvy player discovered that WoW’s bundled DirectX 12 runtime DLLs (d3d12.dll, D3D12Core.dll) were “very ancient” and possibly incompatible with newer NVIDIA driversus.forums.blizzard.comus.forums.blizzard.com. By manually replacing these files with up-to-date versions from Microsoft, that player eliminated the crashes entirelyus.forums.blizzard.comus.forums.blizzard.com. They concluded “NVIDIA’s latest drivers broke something in older versions of these DLLs… The WoW client is making requests that aren’t there (in the old libraries) with NVIDIA’s drivers as of the past two weeks.” us.forums.blizzard.com In short, the new driver expects a DX12 feature or call that WoW’s old D3D12 libraries don’t support, causing an Access Violation. This is a conflict Blizzard will likely need to address by updating those libraries or code.
  • Blizzard Awareness: Blizzard hasn’t yet published patch notes or official bug-trackers calling out “Async Resource Creation” crashes by name. Support responses initially focused on other factors (such as the known Intel 13th/14th-gen CPU stability bug). In one case, a support agent pointed to the Intel issue and “drivers” generallyus.forums.blizzard.com, but players quickly noted this affects AMD systems as well and is not the same CPU-specific bugeu.forums.blizzard.com. The sheer volume of forum posts suggests Blizzard is aware internally. A community manager encouraged submitting in-game bug reports with crash logs so the dev team can investigateeu.forums.blizzard.com. So while Blizzard hasn’t publicly “acknowledged” this exact bug in a Blue Post, they are being made aware through support channels and forum reports. Players have explicitly urged Blizzard to work with NVIDIA to fix it, instead of blaming only user hardwareeu.forums.blizzard.com.

Widespread Player Reports

This crash issue is widespread, as evidenced by numerous forum threads and community discussions:

  • On Blizzard’s official forums (EU & US), dozens of threads popped up once Patch 11.1.x went live. One user noted “This has been going on since patch day. Dozens of threads, hundreds of people reporting it… No mention on the known bugs [list].” us.forums.blizzard.com. The problem does not discriminate by system – players with high-end PCs (e.g. Core i9-13900K/RTX 4090) and others on AMD CPUs have all experienced the same Access Violation in D3D12Core.dll. Crucially, they report no issues in other DX12 games, highlighting that the fault lies with WoW’s engine or its interaction with driverseu.forums.blizzard.comeu.forums.blizzard.com.
  • Reddit and other communities (e.g. /r/wow and technical subforums) echo these reports. Players there confirm that after the 11.1.5 update (The War Within patch) their game became “unplayable” until they discovered the Async Resource Creation toggle. Multiple Reddit users found that disabling Async Resource Creation immediately stopped the crashes, calling it a temporary fix until an official patch arrives. Some also mentioned turning off “Advanced Work Submit” or other Optional GPU Features in Graphics settings alongside iteu.forums.blizzard.com.
  • Example Reports:
    • “I’ve tried every single fix… none have worked for me except for disabling ‘Async Resource Creation’ in the graphics options. My problem with this is it literally halves my FPS, but at least it stops the error.” us.forums.blizzard.com – (User on US Tech Support forum)
    • “After patch 11.1, I also had many crashes. I see many gamers have this problem recently, and believe our PCs are in good condition.” – (User comment acknowledging it’s a new bug, not a hardware failure)us.forums.blizzard.com
    • “Ever since the new patch dropped I can barely play… reinstalled Windows, WoW, etc. The issue persists. It’s not add-ons. People in the US forums also have this problem.” eu.forums.blizzard.com – (Users exchanging frustration that it clearly is a game/driver bug, not on their end.)
    • “This used to only happen when I was tabbed out while loading, but now it also happens while tabbed in… That makes 30+ crashes already.” eu.forums.blizzard.com【5†L2169-L2177} – (Players experiencing crashes in various scenarios, indicating how random and frequent it became).

In short, the community widely recognizes Async Resource Creation under DX12 as the culprit. Even those initially unaware eventually found the forum threads or tips pointing to this setting. One person mentions “with 11.0 there were new graphics options added to the game… I turned them all off and it fixed my client from crashing”, and another replied “All I turn off is ‘Async Resource Creation’ and the game seems stabilized now. Thank you so much.” us.forums.blizzard.comus.forums.blizzard.com. This shows that among the new “Optional GPU Features,” Async Resource Creation is the primary instability trigger.

Workarounds and Temporary Fixes

Until Blizzard or NVIDIA issues an official fix, players have been using several workarounds to mitigate the crashing. These are the recommended steps currently circulating in tech support forums and Reddit:

  • Disable Async Resource Creation: This is the single most effective solution. In WoW’s Graphics settings (under “Advanced” or a “Compatibility” sub-section at the bottom), uncheck “Async Resource Creation.” Virtually all reports confirm the game stops crashing once this is offeu.forums.blizzard.comeu.forums.blizzard.com. The downside is reduced performance for some – users report lower FPS and less smooth asset streaming when this feature (which asynchronously loads textures/models) is disabled. For example, one raider noted their framerate was cut roughly in half without itus.forums.blizzard.com. Still, it’s preferable to crashing every 5–10 minutes.
  • Turn Off Other “Optional GPU Features”: In the same menu, there are other related toggles (added in recent patches) such as Multithreaded Rendering, Advanced Combat Logging, Graphics Card Buffering, Frame Rate Smoothing, etc. One user recommended turning all of these off to be safeus.forums.blizzard.com. However, many found that Async Resource Creation was the main offender – they re-enabled the others one by one and remained stableus.forums.blizzard.com. Another setting, “Advanced Work Submit,” might be listed (or is similar to “Multithreaded Submission”) – players have tried disabling it as welleu.forums.blizzard.com. If you’re troubleshooting, you can start with everything off, then add back features except Async.
  • Roll Back NVIDIA Drivers: For those with NVIDIA GPUs, reverting to an older driver has proven helpful. Players have specifically cited driver v572.60 (late Feb 2025) or any 572.xx series as stableeu.forums.blizzard.com. Using a tool like DDU to fully uninstall the current driver and installing the older version stopped the crashes for some users over many days of testingeu.forums.blizzard.com. This supports the theory that something changed in the 576.xx drivers. (Note: If you try this, you may want to also block Windows Update from pushing a newer driver, until you’re ready to update again.)
  • Use DirectX 11 Mode: If all else fails (or you desperately need the performance from Async but can’t use it on DX12), you can switch WoW’s Graphics API to DirectX 11 in the System > Advanced settings. DX11 mode has considerably lower performance in WoW (especially in newer expansions/zones optimized for DX12), but it is far more stable in this scenarious.forums.blizzard.comus.forums.blizzard.com. Several players resorted to DX11 temporarily – one noted it “seemed to mostly solve it” aside from the performance hitus.forums.blizzard.com. This is truly a last resort workaround, but it guarantees no D3D12Core.dll crashes since the game won’t be using DX12 at all.
  • Miscellaneous Tweaks: A few other tweaks were reported with mixed success:
    • Disable Fullscreen Optimizations for WoW (via Windows compatibility settings on WoW.exe) – combined with Async off, one person had no crasheseu.forums.blizzard.comeu.forums.blizzard.com. It’s unclear if this actually helps or if Async was the real fix.
    • Limit Frame Rate (“Target FPS”) – ensure any frame rate limiters aren’t set too aggressivelyeu.forums.blizzard.com. And verify NVIDIA’s Max Background/Foreground FPS (if you use GeForce Experience) isn’t mistakenly capping your game in the foregroundus.forums.blizzard.com (this was a separate known issue).
    • BIOS/CPU Settings – Some with high-end Intel CPUs tried disabling Intel SpeedStep/Boost or ensuring their BIOS was up-to-date, thinking the CPU bug might be at faulteu.forums.blizzard.com. In general, that Intel issue (where certain 13th/14th-gen chips overdrew power and caused memory errors) has been mitigated by BIOS updates, and many affected WoW players were not on those CPUs or had already applied fixesus.forums.blizzard.comeu.forums.blizzard.com. So this isn’t the primary cause here. Still, running your CPU/GPU at stock clocks (no overclock) is wise while troubleshooting. Likewise, a few folks found disabling XMP (high-frequency RAM profiles) helped stability in WoWeu.forums.blizzard.com – this suggests WoW became very sensitive to memory errors with the new patch. It may not be necessary for everyone, but if you’re still crashing, try reverting RAM to default JEDEC speeds to rule out borderline RAM stability issues exacerbated by WoW’s behavior.
    • Repair or Reinstall WoW: Some players went to extreme lengths like fresh reinstallations of the game clienteu.forums.blizzard.comeu.forums.blizzard.com. In general, this has not solved the Async crash for most (because the issue is in the game code/engine, not a corrupt file on your PC). One user thought a clean reinstall helped, only to crash again shortly aftereu.forums.blizzard.com. So, reinstalling is usually not necessary – the problem will return unless you change one of the above variables.
  • Manual DX12 DLL Update (Advanced): As mentioned, one user (Aalliyah) directly replaced Blizzard’s d3d12.dll and D3D12Core.dll in the WoW directory with the latest versions from Microsoft’s official sourcesus.forums.blizzard.comus.forums.blizzard.com. This is a non-standard fix and not officially recommended (it could potentially cause other issues if done incorrectly). If you attempt it, make sure to use legitimate, signed DLLs (e.g. from the DirectX Developer Github or Windows SDK) us.forums.blizzard.com. After doing this, that user reported “Not a single crash” over many hoursus.forums.blizzard.com. Essentially, they performed on their own what we hope Blizzard will do in a patch. This confirms the root cause: WoW was running against outdated DirectX12 interfaces. We include this for completeness, but again, the safer approach for most users is simply disabling the Async feature until an official fix comes.

Expected Resolution and Outlook

Will Blizzard or NVIDIA fix this? All signs point to yes, a fix is likely coming in the near future, though no exact ETA has been given. Here’s what we know and expect:

  • Blizzard Development: The WoW team has likely gathered enough crash reports by now to identify the issue. The fact that these new DX12 “optional” features were exposed to users in recent patchesus.forums.blizzard.com suggests Blizzard anticipated some problems and wanted an easy way for players to toggle them off. They’ve done this before when introducing DX12 or Ray Tracing – new graphics APIs can have teething issues. We anticipate a client-side patch (either a hotfix or the next minor patch) will address this. This could involve updating the packaged DirectX12 libraries or adjusting how Async Resource Creation is implemented so it doesn’t call invalid GPU instructions. There is precedent: previously, each WoW expansion’s new graphics features sometimes caused issues that later got resolved either by Blizzard’s code fixes or by driver updateseu.forums.blizzard.com. Given the scale of this bug, Blizzard “has to fix something on their side”, as one frustrated player put iteu.forums.blizzard.com, and it’s likely a high priority now.
  • NVIDIA’s Involvement: NVIDIA is also aware of widespread issues in recent drivers. Their 576.28 driver release notes mention fixes for various game crashes on RTX 50-series cards, and players in NVIDIA’s own forums have reported WoW-specific problems in the 576.xx feedback threadnvidia.com. It’s possible NVIDIA might make a driver-side change to improve compatibility with WoW’s current DX12 calls. However, since Async Resource Creation is a WoW engine feature, a game patch might be the more direct solution. Still, keep an eye on NVIDIA driver changelogs; they sometimes list game-specific fixes. As of early May 2025, no driver release notes explicitly mention World of Warcraft, but user reports indicate NVIDIA has acknowledged issues like black screens and crashes on the new RTX 5000 series which could be relatedreddit.com. For example, rolling back to January 2025 drivers fixed black-screen crashes for some, implying the newer drivers had multiple regressionsreddit.com. We might see a 576.40+ or 577.xx driver with stability improvements that indirectly help WoW.
  • Community Pressure: The community is certainly making noise. Posts on Blizzard’s forums continue to pile up, with users explicitly asking “how many people need to be affected before it becomes a priority for Blizzard to fix?”us.forums.blizzard.com. This pressure usually ensures the issue isn’t ignored. Also, gaming news sites and fan sites have started to take note – for instance, some have compiled “Patch 11.1.5 known bugs” lists that include the DX12 crashes and black screen issues as a top concern. Blizzard has already rolled out a few server-side hotfixes for other 11.1.5 problems, so a client fix for this crash could drop in an upcoming weekly reset or minor patch.

In summary: This Async Resource Creation crash is a known problem among players, and while Blizzard hasn’t published a formal acknowledgment at the time of writing, both the developer team and NVIDIA are very likely aware. The safest course for players right now is to keep Async turned off (or use DX11) to play stably. Monitor official patch/hotfix notes and NVIDIA driver updates over the next few weeks. The expectation is that an update (either WoW 11.1.6/11.2 or a new NVIDIA driver) will restore stability in DX12 with Async Resource Creation enabled, allowing players to enjoy the performance benefits again without crashes. Given the frustration in the community (even affecting high-end raiders and M+ players), we anticipate this issue “will be sorted out ASAP” through a collaboration between Blizzard and NVIDIAeu.forums.blizzard.com. Until then, the community-shared workarounds are the best path to keep Azeroth stable on your system.

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