Freezing/Crashing on AMD integrated GPUs [November 2024]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been using Zwift very happily for the past 4 years without any issues. However, for the last 3 weeks, the software has been crashing every single time I use it. Here’s a summary of what’s happening:

First two crashes: Occurred after 38 minutes, but only 30 minutes were saved each time.
Latest crash: Happened after 31 minutes, and once again, only 30 minutes were saved.
What happens during the crash: The screen freezes (this includes the companion app), and the software becomes completely unresponsive.
Details from my recent attempts:

Yesterday’s session: Ran smoothly with no stuttering until the sudden crash at the end.
First two crashes: Showed some stuttering about 4 minutes before the final freeze, with a small initial lag after about 4 minutes.
What I’ve Tried So Far:
Deleted all Zwift files from my PC and reinstalled the software – no success.
Tried using another PC, but the software crashed after only 5 minutes. Additionally, on both PCs, the program freezes when an activity is started and then ended.
I’ve never experienced issues like this before.

PC Specifications:
PC 1: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U, 8GB RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD
PC 2: AMD Ryzen R5-4500U, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD

Has anyone else experienced similar problems or have suggestions on how to fix this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best regards,
Tobi

Its the AMD drivers, think the solution was updating them.

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There have been a lot of reports of problems on Ryzen systems lately. Example…

You can search the forum for this kind of thing

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This didn’t solve it for me. Still crashing after downloading drivers from the AMD site.

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Have a Ryzen 9 PC upstairs and it works fine with new drivers but my Ryzen 5 3400G with integrated graphics downstairs keeps freezing when watching videos on twitter, am going to have a go and try and fix it again, already updated drivers so might try a roll back, let you know if I solve the problem.

Can you look at device manager/displayadapters/ AMD/events
I get, “device not started (amdwddmg)” which is when my screen freezes, after updating driver to newest it still freezes so I downloaded AMD cleanup utility and ran it then I downloaded the drivers again, so far so good but it can work for a while then freeze so not sure if its fixed.

I would try RAM upgrade (8 GB is the minimum for Zwift).

This isn’t helpful, but thanks. It’s an issue on Zwift’s end they need to resolve, and I can’t upgrade the RAM anyway as it’s soldered on the board.

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A Ryzen system with integrated graphics and 8GB RAM doesn’t even have 8GB RAM for Windows because some is used by the GPU, so it’s left below minimum spec. But personally I think Zwift should make it a priority to support those machines because there are just too many of them to be cut off and it was working OK until recently

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Interesting, what is the make/model of this laptop? All the ones I have come across so far that have soldered memory also have an expansion slot. Lots of them are built that way.

It’s an Acer Aspire 3 A315-24P-R7VH but it’s irrelevant. Zwift’s software should work for any machine that meets it’s minimum specs.

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Yeah looks like it can’t be upgraded which is unusual in laptops like that. I agree they should support your laptop. However you don’t have 8GB for Windows because of the integrated GPU stealing some of your RAM. I don’t know if the Zwift minimum specs are intended to cover that scenario. This is not the first time we’ve seen bugs that affect Ryzen systems with integrated graphics and not enough memory, for example:

A good first step would be for Zwift to publicly acknowledge that this is a problem and that they caused it with a recent update. As far as I know that hasn’t happened yet.

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You could also investigate the BIOS settings of your laptop and see if it provides a way to adjust the amount of memory allocated to the integrated GPU. A BIOS update is sometimes necessary for that. It would not be surprising if it were taking up to 2GB of your RAM for the integrated GPU, leaving you with only 6GB for Windows and Zwift. The other thing I would do is hunt for anything else consuming memory on the laptop. For example if you have antivirus software other than Microsoft Defender, remove it. Any other apps running while you use Zwift should be terminated. If there are background processes associated with installed apps, think about killing them or removing the app.

I searched Ryzen 5 3500U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx
AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics on Zwiftaliser site for you and theres 37 seperate benchmarks from the last few years all very poor frame rates, the only recent one from 2024 showed New York
Basic + 720 and it only averaged 10 FPS, am sure New York is one of the least intense routes for CPU and GPU on Zwift, the crowdness was only 5 % also so the frame rates are going to drop/crash as soon there is a lot of riders, sorry.

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So pleased I found this post because this has happened twice to me in two days - yesterday it froze one minute from the end of my VO2 max session and today it froze SIX SECONDS before the end of my threshold session. Like you it becomes completely unresponsive and I have to shut it down and lose the ride data. I’ve contacted Zwift support and I hope they can help me as all these responses about system specifications and RAM and drivers etc etc are completely over my head. I didn’t realise I needed to moonlight as an IT engineer in order to keep Zwift running smoothly :frowning:

If you run the Windows program “DXDIAG” and post screenshots of the system and display tabs, you could get some advice about what you might try. Zwift support can see some of that info as well with no effort on your part, but I’m unsure how long you’ll wait for that and I might have a different set of suggestions.

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Thanks Paul - very grateful for that. Here are some screenshots. If you do feel inclined to have a look and let me know if anything looks amiss, I’d be really grateful! If not no probs, I will wait for Zwift support to reply to me. It’s really strange as I’ve been using Zwift a few years with the same laptop and this has never happened - then suddenly it’s happened on two consecutive sessions in the last few days. Nothing has changed on my side so I’m very confused! Thanks again

Here’s some of the info downloaded as well if helpful?


System Information

  Time of this report: 11/20/2024, 22:52:17
         Machine name: LAPTOP-TCTCRVLU
           Machine Id: {1184B4E9-1D3C-4C0B-AA54-2C922048478E}
     Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 22631) (22621.ni_release.220506-1250)
             Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
  System Manufacturer: HP
         System Model: HP Pavilion Laptop 15-eh0xxx
                 BIOS: F.17 (type: UEFI)
            Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 4300U with Radeon Graphics          (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
               Memory: 8192MB RAM
  Available OS Memory: 7542MB RAM
            Page File: 15632MB used, 4196MB available
          Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
      DirectX Version: DirectX 12
  DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     User DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
   System DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
      DWM DPI Scaling: UnKnown
             Miracast: Available, with HDCP

Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
DirectX Database Version: 1.6.2
DxDiag Version: 10.00.22621.3527 64bit Unicode


DxDiag Notes

  Display Tab 1: No problems found.
    Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
      Input Tab: No problems found.

DirectX Debug Levels

Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)


Display Devices

       Card name: AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics
    Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
       Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x1636)
        DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
     Device Type: Full Device (POST)
      Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_1636&SUBSYS_87C5103C&REV_C4
   Device Status: 0180200A [DN_DRIVER_LOADED|DN_STARTED|DN_DISABLEABLE|DN_NT_ENUMERATOR|DN_NT_DRIVER] 

Device Problem Code: No Problem
Driver Problem Code: Unknown
Display Memory: 4266 MB
Dedicated Memory: 495 MB
Shared Memory: 3770 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
HDR Support: Not Supported
Display Topology: Internal
Display Color Space: DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709
Color Primaries: Red(0.578125,0.347656), Green(0.348633,0.571289), Blue(0.158203,0.116211), White Point(0.313477,0.329102)
Display Luminance: Min Luminance = 0.500000, Max Luminance = 270.000000, MaxFullFrameLuminance = 270.000000
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: unknown
Monitor Id: AUOB78F
Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.164Hz)
Output Type: Internal
Monitor Capabilities: HDR Not Supported
Display Pixel Format: DISPLAYCONFIG_PIXELFORMAT_32BPP
Advanced Color: Not Supported
Driver Name: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\u0378324.inf_amd64_a7e40852e116c240\B378130\aticfx64.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\u0378324.inf_amd64_a7e40852e116c240\B378130\aticfx64.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\u0378324.inf_amd64_a7e40852e116c240\B378130\aticfx64.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\u0378324.inf_amd64_a7e40852e116c240\B378130\amdxc64.dll
Driver File Version: 30.00.14046.0000 (English)
Driver Version: 30.0.14046.0
DDI Version: 12
Feature Levels: 12_1,12_0,11_1,11_0,10_1,10_0,9_3,9_2,9_1
Driver Model: WDDM 3.0
Hardware Scheduling: DriverSupportState:AlwaysOff Enabled:False
Displayable: Supported
Graphics Preemption: Primitive
Compute Preemption: DMA
Miracast: Not Supported by Graphics driver
Detachable GPU: No
Hybrid Graphics GPU: Integrated
Power P-states: Not Supported
Virtualization: Paravirtualization
Block List: DISABLE_HWSCH
Catalog Attributes: Universal:False Declarative:True
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 22/03/2022 00:00:00, 1844608 bytes
WHQL Logo’d: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: Unknown
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-5576-11CF-8C73-1B916BC2D335}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x1636
SubSys ID: 0x87C5103C
Revision ID: 0x00C4
Driver Strong Name: oem13.inf:cb0ae414f4dedb16:ati2mtag_Renoir:30.0.14046.0:PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_1636&SUBSYS_87C5103C&REV_C4
Rank Of Driver: 00CF0000
Video Accel: Unknown
DXVA2 Modes: DXVA2_ModeMPEG2_VLD {86695F12-340E-4F04-9FD3-9253DD327460} DXVA2_ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT {4245F676-2BBC-4166-A0BB-54E7B849C380} {6719B6FB-5CAD-4ACB-B00A-F3BFDEC38727} {9901CCD3-CA12-4B7E-867A-E2223D9255C3} DXVA2_ModeHEVC_VLD_Main {EA72396A-67EC-4781-BEDE-56F498F04EF2} {C152CA8F-738C-461B-AD89-FC292CF8F162} {514A356C-7027-4AFF-8A60-AFD2C1F672F1} DXVA2_ModeH264_VLD_Stereo_Progressive_NoFGT DXVA2_ModeH264_VLD_Stereo_NoFGT DXVA2_ModeVC1_VLD {CA15D19A-2B48-43D6-979E-7A6E9C802FF8} {D1C20509-AE7B-4E72-AE3B-49F88D58992F} {84AD67F6-4C21-419A-9F0B-24F0578906C1} {725AD240-786C-471E-AD3C-38F739936517} {95664FF5-9E03-4C74-BB4F-9178D6035E58} {5EF7D40D-5B96-49E7-B419-23342094A4CF} DXVA2_ModeHEVC_VLD_Main10 {65D1FA41-58AF-453A-9CAB-5D981156DA9F} {2DB154B6-DBB2-4079-A3FF-60D7A898A6AB} {C74A3FD0-D713-4581-A02E-8EDFB112ACE3} DXVA2_ModeVP9_VLD_Profile0 DXVA2_ModeVP9_VLD_10bit_Profile2 {603A4756-A864-4F91-BB62-2C935B7A1391} {C58B9A06-7E89-11E1-BB00-70B34824019B}
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
D3D9 Overlay: Not Supported
DXVA-HD: Not Supported
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
MPO MaxPlanes: 3
MPO Caps: ROTATION,VERTICAL_FLIP,HORIZONTAL_FLIP,RGB,YUV,BILINEAR,STRETCH_YUV,STRETCH_RGB,HDR (MPO3)
MPO Stretch: 16.000X - 0.250X
MPO Media Hints: rotation, resizing, colorspace Conversion
MPO Formats: NV12,420_OPAQUE,R16G16B16A16_FLOAT,R10G10B10A2_UNORM,R8G8B8A8_UNORM,B8G8R8A8_UNORM
PanelFitter Caps: ROTATION,VERTICAL_FLIP,HORIZONTAL_FLIP,RGB,YUV,BILINEAR,STRETCH_YUV,STRETCH_RGB,HDR (MPO3)
PanelFitter Stretch: 16.000X - 0.250X
Extension Drivers:
Driver Name: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\amdwddme.inf_amd64_fb03e4466f61a171\amdwddme.inf
Driver Version: 30.0.14046.0
Driver Date: 03/22/2022
Driver Provider: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Catalog Attributes: Universal:False Declarative:True
Component Drivers:
Driver Name: Unknown
Driver Version: Unknown
Driver Date: Unknown
Driver Provider: Unknown
Catalog Attributes: N/A

This is happening to a lot of people who have AMD Ryzen based laptops like yours. The majority of those I have spoken to about it have found relief by installing the latest Radeon graphics driver downloaded directly from the AMD website. There have been a few exceptions where it didn’t help but it’s free and easy to update so I recommend trying that first. Let me know if this helps.

Can you show any examples of these people that had driver updates solve their issues? I’ve seen you post this multiple times but I’ve yet to see any posts of this myself.

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