If you also have ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on your computer, sometimes with fatal errors, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Before Studio Wildcard fixes the ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on PC problem once and for all, there are a few things that you can try to bypass the crashes and fatal errors in ARK: Survival Ascended.
In this article, we’ll share some of the most effective fixes that have worked to help many other gamers fix the ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on PC problem for them. Read on and see more.
Try these fixes for the ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on PC problem
You don’t have to try all the following fixes: simply work your way down the list until you find the one that does the trick to fix the ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on PC problem for you.
- Ensure your computer meets the minimum system requirements
- Turn off hardware acceleration
- Modify in-game graphics settings (esp. if you have an RTX display card)
- Update display card driver
- Verify the game file integrity
- Launch Ark Survival Ascended with DirectX 11
- Modify the TDR values
- Ensure your computer is cool and has enough power supply
1. Ensure your computer meets the minimum system requirements
If ARK: Survival Ascended crashes easily on your computer, you should first check to ensure that your computer meets the minimum system requirements for the game. If your machine is below or just at the requirements, you may need to upgrade your hardware for ARK: Survival Ascended to run smoothly without crashes or freezes.
Here are the requirements for RK: Survival Ascended for your reference:
| Minimum | Recommended | |
| OS | Windows 10/11 with updates | Windows 10/11 with updates |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K | AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K |
| Memory | 16 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 1080 | AMD Radeon RX 6800, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 70 GB available space | 70 GB available space |
| Network | Broadband Internet connection | Broadband Internet connection |
| Additional Notes | SSD Required (Solid-state Drive) | SSD Required (Solid-state Drive) |
If you’re not sure how to check your computer specs, you can press the Windows key and the R key on your computer at the same time, then type msinfo32 to check your system specs in detail:
Generally speaking, the system requirements for ARK: Survival Ascended to run smoothly are a bit high, especially for the graphics card(s). Plus it does specifies that your system is updated to the latest version. So if you aren’t sure whether your computer is updated, please try the following:
- On your keyboard, hit the Windows key, then type check for updates, then click Check for updates.
- Click Check for updates, and Windows will scan for any available updates.
- If there are available updates, Windows will automatically download them for you. Restart your computer for the update to take effect if needed.
- If there are no available updates, you’ll see You’re up to date like this.
When you’re sure that your machine meets the system requirements to run the game, and that your Windows is already updated to the latest version, but ARK: Survival Ascended still crashes, please move on to the other fixes below.
2. Turn off hardware acceleration
Some gamers reported that turning off Frame Generation in ARK: Survival Ascended helps to stop it from crashing further. Frame Generation is disabled by default when hardware acceleration is off. On a different note, hardware acceleration could also cause latency, lags, or even crashes with games, which could also be the culprit to the ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on PC problem.
To see if this is the case for you, you can turn off hardware acceleration in this way:
- On your keyboard, press the Windows key and the I key at the same time to open Settings.
- Select Gaming, and make sure that the toggle for Game Mode is set to On. Then click the Graphics tab.
- Click Change default graphics settings.
- Make sure that the toggle for Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling is set to Off.
- Restart your computer for the change to take effect.
Try to launch ARK: Survival Ascended again to see if it still crashes now. If so, please move on.
3. Modify in-game graphics settings (esp. if you have an RTX display card)
Other than the above change to in-game Frame Generation, some other graphical tweaks are working well too when dealing with the ARK: Survival Ascended crashing problem. Most of the tweaks involve tuning down the graphic settings, which work great for quite a few gamers, especially for players with an RTX NVIDIA display card. To see if they do wonders for you as well:
- Launch ARK: Survival Ascended and make sure that you’ve saved the game progress.
- Then go to the game setting window by pressing Esc. Click SETTINGS.
- Go to VIDEO and find Enable Foliage & Fluid Interaction on the right side. Click it to turn it OFF.
- Go to RTX and click Nvidia DLSS to turn it OFF. Also, make sure that Frame Generation is OFF too. Then click SAVE and exit.
- Close ARK: Survival Ascended and restart your computer.
Try to launch ARK: Survival Ascended again and see if it stops crashing. If the crashing problem remains, please move on.
4. Update display card driver
An outdated or incorrect display card driver could also be the culprit to your ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on PC problem, so if the above methods don’t help to stop ARK: Survival Ascended from crashing, it’s likely that you have a corrupted or outdated graphics driver. So you should update your drivers to see if it helps.
There are mainly 2 ways you can update your graphics driver: manually or automatically.
Option 1: Update your graphics driver manually
If you’re a tech-savvy gamer, you can spend some time updating your GPU driver manually.
To do so, first visit the website of your GPU manufacturer:
Then search for your GPU model. Note that you should only download the latest driver installer that’s compatible with your operating system. Once downloaded, open the installer and follow the on-screen instructions to update.
Option 2: Update your graphics driver automatically (Recommended)
If you don’t have the time, patience or skills to update the driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy. Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to be troubled by the wrong driver you would be downloading, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing. Driver Easy handles it all.
You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 steps (and you get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee):
- Download and install Driver Easy.
- Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
- Click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system. (This requires the Pro version which comes with full support and a 30-day money-back guarantee. You’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All. If you’re not ready to buy the Pro version, Driver Easy offers a 7-day free trial which includes access to all the Pro features such as high-speed download and one-click install. You won’t be charged anything until your 7-day trial has ended.)
- Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
Launch ARK: Survival Ascended again and see if the latest graphics driver helps to stop it from crashing. If this fix doesn’t work for you, try the next fix, below.
5. Verify the game file integrity
Sometimes game files in Steam could get clogged up and/or corrupted, which could cause problems like the game not launching properly or crashing randomly. To see if this is the culprit to your ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on PC problem, you can verify the game files in this way:
- Launch Steam.
- In the LIBRARY, right-click ARK: Survival Ascended and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
- Select the Installed Files tab and click on the Verified integrity of game files button.
- Steam will verify the game’s files – this process may take several minutes.
When the verification is done, launch ARK: Survival Ascended again to see if it still crashes. If so, please move on to the next fix below.
6. Launch Ark Survival Ascended with DirectX 11
Even though the game requirements ask for DirectX 12, some gamers have tested and found it true that ARK: Survival Ascended stops crashing when launched with DirectX 11. To see if this works for you, you can change the launch option in this way:
- Launch Steam.
- In the LIBRARY, right-click ARK: Survival Ascended and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
- Under the launch options, add -dx11. Then save and try to launch ARK: Survival Ascended to see if it still crashes.
If ARK: Survival Ascended still crashes, please move on.
7. Modify the TDR values
TDR, timeout detection and recovery, detects when the GPU takes too long to complete a request. Some gamers find that the default timing for TDR is too short for demanding games like ARK: Survival Ascended, and therefore with the crashes. To see if this is also your case, you can modify the TD values in this way:
- Firstly, create a system restore point as instructed here: How to enable and create restore points in Windows 10 (the screenshots here are from Windows 10, but the instructions work on Windows 11 as well).
- On your keyboard, press the Windows key and the R key together. Type regedit and hit Enter.
- Go to the following location:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers
- On the right side, right-click the empty area and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the new entry TdrDelay, then double-click it to set the Value data to something like 60 (as in 60 seconds). Click OK to save.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 to create a new entry named TdrDdiDelay with the Value data set to 60.
- Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
Launch ARK: Survival Ascended again to see if it still crashes on your computer. If so, undo the changes with the restore point you’ve created in step 1, then try the next method below.
8. Ensure your computer is cool and has enough power supply
Other than software issues mentioned above, hardware problems could also be the culprit to ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on PC. Poor computer ventilation and insufficient power supply are two of the most common reasons for game crashes.
To see if your computer has problems with its cooling system or power supply, you can check more detailed information here: Make sure that your computer is not overheating and here: Make sure that your PSU is powerful enough
Long story short, you’ll need third-party tools (available for free) to run more tests to see if hardware components are the reason why ARK: Survival Ascended crashes on your computer. If you don’t have the time or patience to do so, you can always seek help from a hardware technician instead.
Thank you for reading the post above. Hope one of the methods helps to fix the ARK: Survival Ascended crashing on PC problem for you. If you have other suggestions, please feel free to share by leaving a comment below.