AMD driver crash *(fix!) 7900XTX Windows 11 HDR

Support Technical Support
1

*UPDATE: Unfortunately did not resolve the crashing. Only fixed the lag/fps drops when browsing stuff on other windows while the game is running. Still an improvement, but the crashing needs to be fixed!

Solution

Go to Settings
->System
->Display
->Graphics
->Scroll down to the game that is crashing/lagging and select “Don’t use optimizations for windowed games”

Note that this disables windows auto-HDR.
Disabling it in game or just as a whole did not fix the crashing issue and I am still running the monitor as HDR, but of course the quality is worse than it was with Windows auto-HDR.

I play Wrath and Era. They seem to have been completely fixed by this. WoW only runs in Windowed or Fullscreen Windowed mode.
I believe true full screen would not have this issue and we could run the game with Windows auto-HDR on, but it is what it is.
My fonts and UI were also pretty pixelated in Wrath Classic, but with this setting the UI is no longer pixelated.

Technical Info

GPU: 7900 XTX
CPU: 7800X3D
OS: Win 11
Monitor: Alienware AW3423DWF (HDR)
Mobo: Asus B650E
RAM: 32GB DDR5
PSU: 1200W EVGA Supernova Gold
Drivers: All up to date, but tried various different ones, none of which solved the issue.
GPU currently on 23.12.1 driver, but the driver itself did not fix the issue.
Full stock system, but also had EXPO on at some points. EXPO did not make the issue any worse.

My friend is also running the game with an AMD GPU, CPU, Windows 11 and HDR, but he has a 6800 XT so I suspect this might be a 7000 -series issue.
I have no idea if this could help Nvidia users if they have similar issues, but I recommend trying it out.

More Backstory

I have had major issues with the game lagging and crashing recently.
None of the “fixes” I found online helped long term, the issues always returned.
Sometimes I got the lag to go away, but the game still randomly crashed out of the blue.

The game mostly lagged when I did stuff on my second monitor.
With Discord I could pretty easily recreate the crash by scrolling a channel/chat rapidly.
The stuff I did on the second monitor also lagged and Discord often crashed with WoW, when I got the driver crash. The game also crashed and lagged without Discord so it was not a Discord only issue. It also crashed if I was just playing and not doing anything on my second monitor.
Strangely enough there was no lag if I ran the game in normal windowed mode though. All the other games I play I play in normal full screen mode and none have had any crashing issues.

Hope this reaches the people having issues and helps someone. The game was becoming unplayable and I was considering to RMA my GPU.
I could post the various fixes, different drivers etc. I tried, but none helped at all really so don’t see a point. This fix I found out on my own and I want to share it with the community.

1 Like
2

Hi i have the same problem with the same computer , do u find the fix please ?

3

The OP provided a potential fix at the start of their post which requires you to change some settings in Windows.

4

You likely just stable for like a day or 2 maybe 3, and then those crashes return.
Always worth trying out things tho so do not get demotivated by my response, just keep in mind that driver crashes are random and so will be te result, so anything you think fixes it may look like it does but might not fix anything.

Optimizations for windowed games bassicly engages flip which directx12 already supports the option would only do something in dx11 bassicly which does not engage flip for world of warcraft, altho directx is technically also capable of that.

If it does end up helping its more likely due to autohdr which can easily be confirmed to be false cos not everyone has HDR

Anyway keep on trying things maybe you find something out.

5

Unfortunately you are correct.
The “fix” did remove the lag completely, but it does not fix the crashing. The game still crashes completely out of the blue.

Event viewer shows the following error “Display driver amduw23g stopped responding and has successfully recovered.” Searching info on this and you will see it affects other games too, but there seems to be no actual fix. Some people claim that “newest” drivers at the time they comment fix the issue, but none of the drivers I have tried have fixed it.

I have contacted AMD support, but most likely they will just recommend reinstalling some driver I already tried and call it a day. I will get the card refunded if they do not provide a working fix.

Even if I can get it fixed I recommend anyone playing WoW or wanting a stable system that can run any game without issues to stay far away from AMD GPUs. I don’t like Nvidia as a company, but when I buy a product the bare minimum is that it works out of the box. without issues, in stock settings, AMD does not meet this basic requirement.

6

Yep there are multiple threads about this with he issue seemingly related to the 7000 series AMD cards. Blizz recognized this a couple of months ago but no fix in sight.

7

Does DX11 work for you without any crashes?
At least earlier before any of the dozen fixes/“steady drivers” it also crashed.
Haven’t tried it yet though, but maybe with the one or a combination of some of the new fixes it might work. Would want to avoid going through a refund process…
I’m living on compium, send help.

EDIT: DX11 also crashes

8

It’s not there just more 7000 series users, these issues existed since 2022 driver 22.5.2 the way it crashes is different on each system, it may have gotten worse on rdna3 graphics cards tho.

If played on both a 6900 XT and a 7900 XTX with same issues

Seems recently discovered bug long loading times with dx12 effects Overwatch 2 as well just not with launching the game, instead it takes 3 times longer to quit the game which is not an issue on NVIDIA gpu’s.

Either Blizzard is failing really hard on AMD gpu’s, or AMD is failing really hard on Blizzard games, i suspect its the first one.

Nothing is gonna change probably for a while even AMD is not acknowledging the freezes or driver timeouts even tho they probably least should list issue in their release notes to avoid wasting time troubleshooting an issue that is not hardware related.

Trying to motivate either AMD or Blizzard to contact each other about the issue seems imposible, neither side cares oh well i know who to blame tho.

2 Likes
9

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.