How to fix ARC Raiders crashes and shader compilation issues on PC. Steam players have problems launching the game

ARC Raiders, the new extraction shooter, is finally out. It’s arriving a little late on Xbox and PS5, but early playtest reviews already promised a great experience. Despite not being free-to-play and doesn’t have a solo mode, its Steam player count has absolutely blown up. Naturally, that’s led to server issues, and PC players have also been dealing with frequent crashes. Luckily, there are some fixes you can try.

• What to do when ARC Raiders is crashing on PC
• What to do when ARC Raiders is crashing during shader compilation

What to do when ARC Raiders is crashing on PC

There are plenty of reasons why ARC Raiders might be crashing on your PC, everyone’s setup is different. But if you’re sure your system meets the recommended specs (you can check those at the bottom of the game’s Steam page), here’s what you can try if the game keeps crashing:

1. For AMD users: Turn off ray tracing. When the first settings menu appears, don’t hit “Confirm” right away, click “All Settings” instead. Then go to the Graphics tab, scroll down to Ray Tracing, and set it to “Static.”
2. Update or reinstall your graphics drivers: It might sound basic, but some players have actually fixed crashes by reinstalling their drivers.
3. Check for Windows updates: Another simple step, but easy to miss. Make sure your system is fully up to date.
4. Restart your PC: After updating or reinstalling drivers, restart your computer or laptop and try launching the game again.

What to do when ARC Raiders is crashing during shader compilation

If your PC is crashing during shader compilation, it could mean your system is either too weak or maybe overclocked a bit too aggressively. If your rig only meets the minimum requirements for ARC Raiders, try tweaking different settings to find that sweet spot. And if you need to reverse any overclocking you probably know how to do it, but here’s a quick reminder:

1. If you’re using overclocking software (like MSI Afterburner, Ryzen Master, or similar), just hit the “Reset to Default” button.
2. Via BIOS/UEFI: Look for CPU, GPU, or RAM overclocking settings and select “Load Optimized Defaults” or “Load Default Settings”. Save and exit to restart your PC.

Other things you can try to fix shader crashes:

1. Disable any frame limit.
2. Make sure your PC and graphics card drivers are fully up to date.
3. Turn off any overlays.
4. Delete the shader cache, you can do this via Windows’ Disk Cleanup utility.

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