Game crashing to desktop, like many others

UPDATE: Fixed after changing thermal paste (CPU & GPU)

Hello, I am having the same issue as many others here, crashing to desktop without error message, nothing useful in Windows Event Viewer except drivers having to restart. I just returned to PoE on my brand new PC, all upgrades except PSU and GPU. Because of this I have been troubleshooting and stress testing my new system relentlessly for days, thinking maybe it's just unstable, since I'm also getting DirectX/Vulkan crashes in Baldur's Gate 3, but at this point I am running out of ideas.

Specs:

CPU: Ryzen 5 5500 6-cores 12-threads
RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz CL16
GPU: MSI Gaming X GTX 1070 8GB VRAM
PSU: Thermaltake Hamburg 530W
MOBO: ASUS Prime B450M-A II
SSD: TeamGroup 1TB M.2 NVMe

Things I've tried:

Verifying game files
Reinstalling PoE
Trying every possible in game setting, all three renderers
Trying 5 different NVIDIA drivers, fresh install with DDU
Reinstalling audio drivers
Giving PoE admin perms
Deleting shader cache, increasing cache size to 100GB
Turning off all overlays
Underclocking GPU with MSI Afterburner
Updating Windows
Updating everything in Windows Store
Checking system files for corruption with SFC
Checking SSD with Windows chkdsk
Disabling DOCP/XMP
Checking RAM with memtest86
Physically reseating all hardware
Buying & installing new case fans to help with temp (highly doubt it's overheating at this point, but I'm gonna reapply thermal paste soon anyways)
Assigning GPU to PhysX in NVIDIA Control Panel
Excluding PoE from Firewall & Windows Defender
Flashing new BIOS onto GPU
Uninstalling MSI Afterburner

Probably more that I just can't remember anymore. Since all my hardware is brand new and tested I thought maybe it's the PSU or GPU that's the culprit, but my PC never shuts down, only crashing to desktop - so it's probably not the PSU. My GPU is some 7 years old, but it was working perfectly a few leagues ago on my older PC, and now I even have it underclocked -100MHz core, -500MHz memory, on lowest in-game settings. My CPU and GPU temps reach around 70-75C currently, and I can't even go into any league mechanic without crashing. Looking at how many people are having similar issues with various systems I don't think this is on me anymore. Checking forums, patch notes, and logging in just to crash after 3 minutes has become part of my daily routine, but I can't actually play sadly.

Here's a screenshot of my game crashing since GGG asked for it:


As soon as too many things appear on the screen, the game client is toast.

Im having the same problem after this patch. Cant play the game atm.

I am also having this problem, my game cannot complete a map without crashing. Very Sad :(

im having the same problems it usually when that lightening gfx is on the screen like you see in that screen shot I have a good gpu and cpu idk what the issue is

Constant crashing to desktop with any renderer tryed all 3. Cant do TOTA because boom screen freeze and crash asap. Crashing in maps to. Literaly cant play the game. There goes my weekend i guess.

When you guys say crash, does your game just freeze completely then closes? because thats whats been happening with my game, I'm doing a map then out the blue the game halts freezes and crashes to desktop

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Mistan wrote:

When you guys say crash, does your game just freeze completely then closes? because thats whats been happening with my game, I'm doing a map then out the blue the game halts freezes and crashes to desktop

Yes, exactly. No error message with DirectX and some device lost or something with Vulkan. Although I tested mostly with DX12 as that has the best performance for me.

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Scootymac wrote:

im having the same problems it usually when that lightening gfx is on the screen like you see in that screen shot I have a good gpu and cpu idk what the issue is

Oh well I only tested with my Spark build so idk if it's related to lightning effects.

Exactly the same here. I've literally done everything I can.

I lose all my portals to constant game crashes and by constant I mean it stays running maybe 10 seconds before I crash to desktop.

100% unplayable at the moment.

Same. + other problems like missing textures, invisible mobs, etc.

Ryzen 5 1500X, 16GB RAM, Radeon RX 580