War Thunder is a popular multiplayer war simulation game often marred by regular crashing. Many WT players report that War Thunder regularly crashes on their PCs every time they play it. For example, one WT player said in a Reddit post, “Every time I fly in War Thunder, my game crashes at some point in the 10-minute battle.” This kind of regular crashing can make War Thunder quite unplayable for some players. Here are some possible ways you can remedy regular War Thunder crashing on Windows PCs.
Verify War Thunder’s Game Files
Corruption of War Thunder’s files is something you should check for when the game keeps crashing. To start troubleshooting, try verifying War Thunder in Steam to see if that detects and fixes game files. This Steam page provides instructions for verifying game files with Valve’s gaming client.
The Verify integrity option in Steam
Update Your PC’s Graphical Driver
An old or faulty driver for your PC’s graphics card could be causing War Thunder to crash on your PC. This is quite a common cause for general gaming issues because the graphics driver is important for controlling graphical components. Some players also report installing new graphics drivers has fixed War Thunder crashing on their PCs, as in this Steam forum thread. You can update a driver for an NVIDIA/AMD graphics card like this.
- First, check your PC’s graphics card model info by pressing the Windows logo + R hotkey, typing dxdiag into Run, and clicking OK. This will bring up the DirectX Diagnostic Tool that shows graphics card info for your PC on its Display tab.
The DirectX Diagnostic Tool
- Open your web browser and go to the NVIDIA or AMD page to download graphics drivers.
- Select the graphics card model shown in the DirectX Diagnostic Tool and click Search or Submit.
The NVIDIA driver download page
- Click the option for downloading the driver compatible with your PC’s graphics card.
The Download option for a NVIDIA driver
- Next, hold the Windows logo keyboard button and press E to go to the folder that includes the downloaded graphics driver in File Explorer.
- Double-click the downloaded AMD/NVIDIA file to bring up a window for installing the graphics driver. Go through the steps in the setup window to install the graphics driver.
- Restart your PC after installing the new driver before playing War Thunder again.
Delete the War Thunder Cache
War Thunder has a cache folder for storing downloaded data. Corrupted data within that cache can cause War Thunder crashing. So, try clearing that cache by deleting it as follows.
- Open Steam and select to view the Library tab.
- Right-click on War Thunder and move the cursor over Manage to select Properties.
- Click Local Files and press the Browse button.
The cache data folder
- Right-click the cache subfolder in the War Thunder folder to select Delete.
Disable NVIDIA GeForce Highlights
The automatic NVIDIA Highlights recording feature can potentially conflict with War Thunder when triggered, causing the crashing to occur. To ensure no conflict occurs, try disabling NVIDIA Highlights if GeForce is installed on your PC. This is how you can disable the GeForce Experience Highlights feature.
- Start the War Thunder game.
- Press the Alt + Z hotkey to bring up the GeForce Experience overlay.
- Click the cog button > Highlights.
The Highlights option
- Next, click the War Thunder toggle switch to disable NVIDIA Highlights for that running game. Or turn off the general Capture option to disable it for all games.
The NVIDIA Highlights settings
Apply the Clean Boot Troubleshooting Method
The clean boot troubleshooting method disables all third-party apps and services that start with your Windows PC. This will free up system resources for War Thunder and eliminate the possibility of conflicting background apps and services causing crashing issues. You can apply this suggested troubleshooting method by following the guidelines on Microsoft’s clean-boot page.
The Services tab in MSConfig
Repair Windows System Files
Corrupted Windows system files required by War Thunder can feasibly cause crashing issues. So, check for and repair corrupted Windows files by running the System File Checker utility. Microsoft’s SFC page explains how you can apply this possible remedy for War Thunder crashing by executing the sfc /scannow command.
The sfc /scannow command
Reinstall War Thunder
Reinstalling War Thunder will give the game a clean slate by refreshing all its files. Some WT players also confirm on forums that reinstallation of the game resolved their crashing. War Thunder is a relatively small 17 GB game that won’t take too long to download and reinstall. This is how you can reinstall War Thunder with Steam.
- Start your Steam gaming client to access the game Library tab in it.
- Click War Thunder with the right mouse button to select Manage > Uninstall.
The Uninstall option in Steam
- Select Uninstall when asked to confirm.
- Restart the PC before reinstalling War Thunder.
- Go back into Steam and select War Thunder’s Install option.
Other Possible Ways to Fix War Thunder Crashing
War Thunder can crash in different ways for many reasons when you’re playing it. These are some additional suggestions for fixing War Thunder crashing if the possible solutions above make no difference:
- Select the Vertical Sync option in War Thunder’s video settings.
- Set War Thunder to run as an administrator and try launching the game directly from its installation folder.
- Select the High performance option within the Power Options Control Panel applet.
- Don’t overclock your Windows PC. Undo any CPU or GPU overclocking if you’ve applied any by restoring default values.
- Disable overlay features in apps like GeForce Experience, Discord, and Steam.
It can’t be said there’s any surefire way to fix War Thunder crashing. However, the potential solutions above will more likely fix or at least reduce regular War Thunder crashing on Windows PCs, making the game more playable. Also, note that the game will more likely frequently crash on more limited PCs that don’t meet the recommended War Thunder system requirements.
