AC Shadows crashing? Let's look for a fix

To many naysayers' discontent, Assassins Creed Shadows has not flopped and is actually rather successful, yet safe, entry in AC franchise. While it’s still hard to judge how this part of series will do in the long run, it is currently placed quite favorably, not far behind the best rated installments. This doesn’t mean, however, that AC Shadows doesn’t have its fair share of problems, ranging from less serious like 30 FPS lock during cutscenes, missing DLSS option, to more troublesome which are audio issues or very severe related to DX12 error 0x80070057. To add a (rotten) cherry on top, many players are experiencing various crashes. If you are one of fans who were eagerly waiting for this Japanese themed part of AC saga, yet can’t enjoy it, here we present some possible solutions that can be implemented in order to fix the problem.

Possible fixes for AC Shadows crashes

You’ve probably heard it many times, yet video games are magnitudes more complex than what they used to be just a mere decade ago. Due to that, they pose a challenge to how they can be correctly optimized and work flawlessly on multitudes of PC configurations that we use. AC Shadows is no different in that regard and can crash randomly at the start and during the game, even on the most powerful machines. How to fix it then?

Unfortunately, as mentioned before, there can be a myriad of reasons why the title is crashing in your particular case. Without deeper understanding of the nature of the problem, it is impossible to provide one specific fix that would be a silver bullet for all possible causes. Below you can find a bit more generic solutions that can be of use:

1. Keep your Windows updated. It can happen that outdated versions of the OS can be posing problems with newer games. Even though there is “Windows 10/11” mentioned in AC Shadows minimum requirements, it doesn’t mean that all of their sub-versions are supported. Some newer revisions can have specific libraries necessary to run the title, which are not present in the previous iterations of the system.
2. Since we all customize our OSes to suit us the most and install a lot of different software, sometimes such changes can make vital Windows features malfunction. To fix it, you can try repairing your system’s image. This is also what the developers suggested as one of the possible solutions.
3. If you are using the latest generation of Intel processors (13th and 14th gen), make sure to update your motherboard’s firmware and BIOS / UEFI.
4. It often happens that overlay software (MSI Afterburner, SteelSeries GG, Steam, Ubisoft Launcher, to name a few) can cause games to flat out. Try launching AC Shadows without an overlay feature enabled in those pieces of software or turn them off completely if possible.
5. There is a good chance that you are using outdated GPU drivers. If you haven’t updated them in a while, try doing so. Should it not help or whether you’ve already done that, you can attempt clean reinstallation of the drivers by using programs like DDU.

1. You may want to attempt disabling G-Sync in Nvidia Control Panel / GeForce Experience App. This applies only to people who use Nvidia GPUs, obviously.
2. Staying in Nvidia’s garden, there are voices of players who claim that disabling frame generation helps.
3. Many of us would like to squeeze out as much as possible from our hardware. There is a chance that over or underclocking of your graphics card or processor might have affected how the system and applications behave. Try running the game with factory settings of your devices.
4. Verifying game files has a small chance of working, but it is simple enough to give it a shot.
5. As a last resort, we cannot forget about the most obvious solution – contacting Ubisoft player support. They might ask you some additional questions, so try to include as much information as possible by following their guide.

While AC Shadows has sparked many controversies and even being addressed by the prime minister of Japan, it is still a production worth checking out. If you have successfully dealt with the crashes and finally got to venture into the XVI century country of the rising sun, don’t forget to check out a guide that we have prepared. Ubisoft has paid special attention to the world and made it really big, so exploration can be difficult. If you need a hand with it, we have an interactive map that will guide you to the most interesting places and let you uncover all of the game’s treasures. Good luck and have fun!

Assassin's Creed: Shadows

March 20, 2025

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• Guide
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• Ubisoft
• Japan
• exploration
• parkour
• Assassin's Creed (franchise)
• bugs / technical problems (games)
• TPP action games