Project crash on launch: Assertion failed

I was using the Nvidia RTX branch of 4.25.1 & was moving some reflection captures around when the engine crashed saying GPU device removed, this happened a few times but this latest time: the project will no longer open & states:

Please help if you have any ideas, I need to recover this project.

Things already tried:
Confirmed it’s an issue with the project, switched version to 4.25 & compiled only to be met with the same error.
Clearing paging file
Tdr Delay & level adjustment
deleted intermediate, vs, saved Etc. then rebuilt - no effect

left to try: opening different rtx project using same engine version…