After working in the editor for some time or during rendering, my GPU suddenly crashes — complete power cut, black screen. The scene is heavy, but I never had this problem in UE 5.4. Since updating to 5.6, it happens consistently.
Scene stats:
- Fully Loaded Memory - 13 658 768 KB
- Objects - 3 125
- HWInstances - 759 148
- Inst Sections - 851 825
- Sum Tris - 1 140 844 131
- Size - 1 740 042,375 KB
PC Configuration:
- 12th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i9-12900KF 3.20 GHz, x64
- RAM 128 GB
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti (24 GB)
- Windows 10 Pro 22H2, збірка 19045.6216
- NVIDIA Studio Driver - 576.80
- Unreal Engine 5.6.1
I noticed the crashes happen when there are lots of objects active. For example, with active PCG on scene, the GPU fans ramp up immediately, and after 15–25 minutes the screen goes black. If I disable PCG visibility in Outliner, everything works fine.
There are no issues with the power supply — it’s a Corsair 1200 W unit.
No overheating.
The GPU passes 40-minute OCCT stress tests under heavy load without any errors or warnings.
TDR in the registry has been increased to 60 seconds.
I even limited the Power Limit to 85% and capped the frequency curve to 1900 MHz via MSI Afterburner — the power cuts still occur.
Logs show GPU hangs (DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG / DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_RESET) right before the crash.
[2025.09.02-16.00.49:747][932]LogD3D12RHI: Warning: GPU timeout: A payload (0x00000203BB7F3480) on the [0x000001FFF0CDE2C0, 3D] queue has not completed after 5.000000 seconds.
[2025.09.02-16.00.49:761][932]LogD3D12RHI: Warning: GPU timeout: A payload (0x00000203377ED900) on the [0x000001FFF0CDE840, Compute] queue has not completed after 5.000025 seconds.
[2025.09.02-16.00.57:804][932]LogAudioMixer: Display: FMixerPlatformXAudio2: Changing default audio render device to new device: Role=Console, DeviceName=DELL S2722DZ (NVIDIA High Definition Audio), InstanceID=1
[2025.09.02-16.00.57:804][932]LogAudioMixer: Display: Attempt to swap audio render device to new device: '{0.0.0.00000000}.{497569b8-71f2-496f-a92a-aa107dd1577e}', because: 'FMixerPlatformXAudio2::OnDefaultRenderDeviceChanged', force=1
[2025.09.02-16.00.57:804][932]LogAudioMixer: Display: FMixerPlatformXAudio2: Changing default audio render device to new device: Role=Console, DeviceName=DELL S2722DZ (NVIDIA High Definition Audio), InstanceID=12
[2025.09.02-16.00.57:805][932]LogAudioMixer: Display: Attempt to swap audio render device to new device: '{0.0.0.00000000}.{497569b8-71f2-496f-a92a-aa107dd1577e}', because: 'FMixerPlatformXAudio2::OnDefaultRenderDeviceChanged', force=1
[2025.09.02-16.00.57:807][932]LogAudioMixer: Warning: FMixerPlatformXAudio2::OnCriticalError: 0x88880001: UNKNOWN
[2025.09.02-16.00.57:810][932]LogAudioMixer: Warning: FMixerPlatformXAudio2::OnCriticalError: 0x88880001: UNKNOWN
[2025.09.02-16.01.02:747][932]LogAudioMixer: Display: Ignoring device swap request, AudioStreamInfo.StreamState: 5
[2025.09.02-16.01.02:747][932]LogAudioMixer: Display: Ignoring device swap request, AudioStreamInfo.StreamState: 5
When launching with debug parameters (-gpuvalidation -d3ddebug -log -nvaftermath -gpubreadcrumbs), the scene runs more stably. The cooling system doesn’t ramp up as aggressively, and GPU crashes happen much later.
However, these debug flags are very resource-intensive, so it’s not practical for normal work.
nvaftermath does not report any GPU driver or hardware-related errors.
Logs during UE launch with debug parameters reported the following errors:
A power cut occurred during CullDistanceFieldObjectsForLight MeshSDF, TranslucencyLightingVolume, with this log:
- Device 0 Removed: DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_RESET [2025.09.02-17.23.33:257][888]LogRHI: Error: Active GPU breadcrumbs: Device 0, Pipeline Graphics: (In: 0x831aea8f, Out: 0x831aea8b) (ID: 0x831ae9a7) [ Active] Frame 24885 (ID: 0x831ae9c6) [ Active] SceneRender - ViewFamilies (ID: 0x831aeace) [ Active] RenderGraphExecute - /ViewFamilies (ID: 0x831ae9d3) [ Active] Scene (ID: 0x831aea7e) [ Active] RenderDeferredLighting (ID: 0x831aea7f) [ Finished] DiffuseIndirectAndAO (ID: 0x831aea80) [ Finished] LumenReflections (ID: 0x831aea81) [ Finished] InitTranslucencyLightingVolumeTextures (ID: 0x831aea82) [ Finished] Lights (ID: 0x831aea83) [ Finished] DirectLighting (ID: 0x831aea85) [ Finished] UnbatchedLights (ID: 0x831aea86) [ Finished] UEDPIE_0_Main.Ultra_Dynamic_Sky (ID: 0x831aea87) [ Finished] ShadowProjectionOnOpaque (ID: 0x831aea88) [ Finished] DistanceFieldShadows (ID: 0x831aea89) [ Finished] BeginRayTracedDistanceFieldShadow (ID: 0x831aea8a) [ Finished] CullDistanceFieldObjectsForLight MeshSDF (ID: 0x831aea8b) [ Active] TranslucencyLightingVolume (ID: 0x831aea8c) [ Active] InjectTranslucencyLightingVolume(View=0) (ID: 0x831aea8e) [ Active] FilterTranslucentVolume 64x64x64 Cascades:2 (ID: 0x831aea8f) [ Active] DiffuseIndirectAndAO (ID: 0x831aea91) [Not Started] ComputeVolumetricFog (ID: 0x831aea92) [Not Started] VolumetricFog (ID: 0x831aea93) [Not Started] DirectionalLightFunction (ID: 0x831aeeef) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aeef1) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef0d) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef0e) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef15) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef19) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef1d) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef1e) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef23) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef25) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef29) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef2b) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef2e) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef2f) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef37) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef38) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef3c) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef3d) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef41) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef44) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef48) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef49) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef4e) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef51) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef55) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef56) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef5b) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef5c) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef60) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef61) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef67) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef68) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aea95) [Not Started] VolumetricCloud (ID: 0x831aea97) [Not Started] TemporalSuperResolution (ID: 0x831aea99) [Not Started] SkyAtmosphere (ID: 0x831aea9a) [Not Started] ExponentialHeightFog (ID: 0x831aea9c) [Not Started] VolCloudComposeOverScene (ID: 0x831aea9d) [Not Started] PostRenderOpsFX
Another power cut occurred during VT updates + Lumen cache feedback, with this log:
[2025.09.03-20.17.41:052][846]LogRHI: Error: Active GPU breadcrumbs: Device 0, Pipeline Graphics: (In: 0x80d873cb, Out: 0x80d873ca) (ID: 0x80d811b0) [ Active] Frame 45844 (ID: 0x80d871f7) [ Active] SceneRender - ViewFamilies (ID: 0x80d873e1) [ Active] RenderGraphExecute - /ViewFamilies (ID: 0x80d87203) [ Active] Scene (ID: 0x80d873ca) [ Active] VirtualTextureUpdate (ID: 0x80d873cb) [ Active] Submit Lumen surface cache feedback (ID: 0x80d873f3) [Not Started] SceneRender - ViewFamilies (ID: 0x80d873f4) [Not Started] RayTracingGeometry (ID: 0x80d873f5) [Not Started] GPUSkinCache_UpdateSkinningBatches (ID: 0x80d8742b) [Not Started] UpdateLumenSceneBuffers (ID: 0x80d875dd) [Not Started] RenderGraphExecute - /ViewFamilies (ID: 0x80d873fd) [Not Started] UpdateDistanceFieldAtlas (ID: 0x80d873ff) [Not Started] Scene (ID: 0x80d87401) [Not Started] FXSystemPreRender (ID: 0x80d875de) [Not Started] GPUParticles_PreRender (ID: 0x80d875df) [Not Started] NiagaraUpdateDrawIndirectBuffers (ID: 0x80d87402) [Not Started] GPUSceneUpdate (ID: 0x80d87405) [Not Started] BuildRenderingCommandsDeferred(Culling=On) (ID: 0x80d87408) [Not Started] Shadow.Virtual.ProcessInvalidationsGPU (ID: 0x80d8740b) [Not Started] PrePass DDM_AllOpaqueNoVelocity (Forced by Nanite) (ID: 0x80d875e1) [Not Started] ParallelDraw (Index: 0, Num: 1) (ID: 0x80d8740d) [Not Started] RenderVelocities (ID: 0x80d875e4) [Not Started] ParallelDraw (Index: 0, Num: 1) (ID: 0x80d8740f) [Not Started] Nanite::VisBuffer (ID: 0x80d87410) [Not Started] Nanite::InitContext (ID: 0x80d87411) [Not Started] Nanite::VisBuffer (ID: 0x80d87413) [Not Started] Nanite::DrawGeometry (ID: 0x80d87415) [Not Started] MainPass (ID: 0x80d87416) [Not Started] InstanceCulling (ID: 0x80d87417) [Not Started] NodeAndClusterCull (ID: 0x80d87418) [Not Started] PatchSplit (ID: 0x80d87419) [Not Started] BuildPreviousOccluderHZB (ID: 0x80d8741a) [Not Started] BuildHZB (ID: 0x80d8741b) [Not Started] PostPass (ID: 0x80d8741c) [Not Started] InstanceCulling (ID: 0x80d8741d) [Not Started] NodeAndClusterCull (ID: 0x80d8741e) [Not Started] PatchSplit (ID: 0x80d8741f) [Not Started] NaniteBasePass (ID: 0x80d87420) [Not Started] Nanite::EmitDepthTargets (ID: 0x80d87421) [Not Started] HZB (ID: 0x80d87422) [Not Started] BeginOcclusionTests (ID: 0x80d875e5) [Not Started] BeginOcclusionTests (ID: 0x80d875e6) [Not Started] ViewOcclusionTests 0 (ID: 0x80d875e8) [Not Started] ShadowFrustumQueries (ID: 0x80d875e9) [Not Started] GroupedQueries (ID: 0x80d875ea) [Not Started] IndividualQueries (ID: 0x80d87423) [Not Started] HZB (ID: 0x80d87424) [Not Started] BuildHZB(ViewId=0) (ID: 0x80d87425) [Not Started] BuildHZB (ID: 0x80d87426) [Not Started] ComputeLightGrid (ID: 0x80d87427) [Not Started] CullLights 37x37x32 NumLights 0 NumCaptures 0 (ID: 0x80d87428) [Not Started] LightFunctionAtlasGeneration (ID: 0x80d8742a) [Not Started] SkyAtmosphereLUTs (ID: 0x80d8742c) [Not Started] LumenSceneUpdate: 300 card captures 0.028M texels (ID: 0x80d8755b) [Not Started] Nanite::InitContext (ID: 0x80d8755d) [Not Started] Nanite::RasterizeLumenCards (ID: 0x80d8755e) [Not Started] Nanite::DrawGeometry (ID: 0x80d8755f) [Not Started] NoOcclusionPass (ID: 0x80d87560) [Not Started] InstanceCulling (ID: 0x80d87561) [Not Started] NodeAndClusterCull (ID: 0x80d87562) [Not Started] Nanite::LumenMeshCapturePass (ID: 0x80d875e7) [Not Started] 13 materials (ID: 0x80d87563) [Not Started] CopyCardsToSurfaceCache (ID: 0x80d87565) [Not Started] RayTracingDynamicGeometry (ID: 0x80d875e0) [Not Started] RayTracingDynamicGeometryUpdate (ID: 0x80d875e2) [Not Started] Build (ID: 0x80d87566) [Not Started] RayTracingScene (ID: 0x80d8756f) [Not Started] BasePass
Another power cut happened during RenderDeferredLighting → TranslucencyLightingVolume → FilterTranslucentVolume, with this log:
- Device 0 Removed: DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_RESET [2025.09.02-17.23.33:257][888]LogRHI: Error: Active GPU breadcrumbs: Device 0, Pipeline Graphics: (In: 0x831aea8f, Out: 0x831aea8b) (ID: 0x831ae9a7) [ Active] Frame 24885 (ID: 0x831ae9c6) [ Active] SceneRender - ViewFamilies (ID: 0x831aeace) [ Active] RenderGraphExecute - /ViewFamilies (ID: 0x831ae9d3) [ Active] Scene (ID: 0x831aea7e) [ Active] RenderDeferredLighting (ID: 0x831aea7f) [ Finished] DiffuseIndirectAndAO (ID: 0x831aea80) [ Finished] LumenReflections (ID: 0x831aea81) [ Finished] InitTranslucencyLightingVolumeTextures (ID: 0x831aea82) [ Finished] Lights (ID: 0x831aea83) [ Finished] DirectLighting (ID: 0x831aea85) [ Finished] UnbatchedLights (ID: 0x831aea86) [ Finished] UEDPIE_0_Main.Ultra_Dynamic_Sky (ID: 0x831aea87) [ Finished] ShadowProjectionOnOpaque (ID: 0x831aea88) [ Finished] DistanceFieldShadows (ID: 0x831aea89) [ Finished] BeginRayTracedDistanceFieldShadow (ID: 0x831aea8a) [ Finished] CullDistanceFieldObjectsForLight MeshSDF (ID: 0x831aea8b) [ Active] TranslucencyLightingVolume (ID: 0x831aea8c) [ Active] InjectTranslucencyLightingVolume(View=0) (ID: 0x831aea8e) [ Active] FilterTranslucentVolume 64x64x64 Cascades:2 (ID: 0x831aea8f) [ Active] DiffuseIndirectAndAO (ID: 0x831aea91) [Not Started] ComputeVolumetricFog (ID: 0x831aea92) [Not Started] VolumetricFog (ID: 0x831aea93) [Not Started] DirectionalLightFunction (ID: 0x831aeeef) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aeef1) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef0d) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef0e) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef15) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef19) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef1d) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef1e) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef23) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef25) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef29) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef2b) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef2e) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef2f) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef37) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef38) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef3c) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef3d) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef41) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef44) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef48) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef49) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef4e) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef51) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef55) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef56) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef5b) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef5c) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef60) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef61) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aef67) [Not Started] Mesh Draw (ID: 0x831aef68) [Not Started] MID_Inside_Clouds_Fog_Particle_1 Cube (1 instances) (ID: 0x831aea95) [Not Started] VolumetricCloud (ID: 0x831aea97) [Not Started] TemporalSuperResolution (ID: 0x831aea99) [Not Started] SkyAtmosphere (ID: 0x831aea9a) [Not Started] ExponentialHeightFog (ID: 0x831aea9c) [Not Started] VolCloudComposeOverScene (ID: 0x831aea9d) [Not Started] PostRenderOpsFX
Additionally, I also experienced GPU crashes when using:
r.VolumetricRenderTarget.Mode = 0
r.VolumetricRenderTarget = 0
I had to reduce quality for the GPU power cut to stop:
r.VolumetricRenderTarget.Mode = 2
r.VolumetricRenderTarget = 1
Has anyone else experienced similar GPU power cut / black screen issues specifically with UE 5.6 or 5.6.1?
Could this be related to UE 5.6 changes in GPU workload handling compared to 5.4, or should I keep digging into hardware/driver issues?
Is there any way to at least prevent the GPU from abruptly powering down (black screen + power cut)? It’s extremely disruptive and makes it very difficult to work.
