Technical Support (Path of Exile 1) - Game Fails to Launch with DirectX 12 - "Device Removed" Error - Forum

Hello, I'm hoping to get some help with a technical issue that started a few days ago. The Problem: My game will no longer launch when using the DirectX 12 renderer. It either crashes to the desktop immediately or gets stuck on a black screen. This issue began about 2-3 days ago; before that, the game ran perfectly on DX12 with good performance on my system. Workaround & Performance: I can get the game to run by manually editing the production_config.ini file and changing the renderer_type to DirectX11 or Vulkan. However, the performance on both of these renderers is significantly worse than what I had on DX12, making the game very choppy and difficult to play. What I've Tried So Far: Manually changing the renderer in the config file to DX11/Vulkan. (You can add other steps you've taken here, e.g., "Updated my graphics drivers," "Verified game files on Steam," etc.) System Information: GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M OS: Windows 10 Build 19045 NVIDIA Driver Version: 32.0.15.7680 Looking at the client log, it seems to be generating a critical [D3D12] Device Removed error right before it fails. I've included the full log below for anyone who can help diagnose the problem. Has anyone else experienced this recently, especially on a laptop with a similar setup? Any suggestions on what else I could try to get DX12 working again would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and help! LatestClient.txt File Contents Spoiler 2025/06/19 19:51:50 *** LOG FILE OPENING *** 2025/06/19 19:51:50 967906 f2498ee7 [INFO Client 8920] [JOB] Irrecoverable Exception Callback: SET 2025/06/19 19:51:50 968062 f9543146 [INFO Client 8920] [HTTP2] User agent: PoE release/tags/3.26.0c Windows x64 2025/06/19 19:51:50 968062 f9543147 [INFO Client 8920] [HTTP2] Using backend: cURL 2025/06/19 19:51:50 968078 9fe6088b [INFO Client 8920] Enumerated adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969000 9fe5d200 [INFO Client 8920] Enumerated device for adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M. Selected feature level: 45056. Max feature level: 45056 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969000 9fe5eec2 [INFO Client 8920] Enumerated output for adapter NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M of \\.\DISPLAY2 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969000 9fe5eec2 [INFO Client 8920] Enumerated output for adapter NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M of \\.\DISPLAY1 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969000 9fe6088b [INFO Client 8920] Enumerated adapter: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969093 9fe5d200 [INFO Client 8920] Enumerated device for adapter: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530. Selected feature level: 49408. Max feature level: 49408 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969109 9fe6088b [INFO Client 8920] Enumerated adapter: Microsoft Basic Render Driver 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969109 9fe5d200 [INFO Client 8920] Enumerated device for adapter: Microsoft Basic Render Driver. Selected feature level: 49408. Max feature level: 49408 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969109 88fcfced [INFO Client 8920] [ENGINE] Init 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969109 88fcfcec [INFO Client 8920] [ENGINE] Current directory: C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Path of Exile 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969109 88fcfcef [INFO Client 8920] [ENGINE] Cache directory: C:\Users\---\AppData\Roaming\Path of Exile\ 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969109 88fcfcee [INFO Client 8920] [ENGINE] Download directory: C:\Users\---\AppData\Roaming\Path of Exile\Download\ 2025/06/19 19:51:51 969109 88fcfce9 [INFO Client 8920] [ENGINE] Settings directory: C:\Users\---\Documents\My Games\Path of Exile\ ... ... 2025/06/19 19:51:53 971171 4de16f2a [INFO Client 8920] [RENDER] Starting device: DirectX12 ... 2025/06/19 19:51:59 976796 847c33ad [CRIT Client 8920] [D3D12] Device Removed. Reason: 0x887a0001 2025/06/19 19:51:59 976890 89f3cf8f [CRIT Client 8920] [D3D12] Pipeline creation failed [CS: TiledLightAssign] (error: 0x80070057) 2025/06/19 19:51:59 976890 89f3cf8f [CRIT Client 8920] [D3D12] Pipeline creation failed [CS: Burn Progress] (error: 0x80070057) 2025/06/19 19:51:59 976890 89f3cf8f [CRIT Client 8920] [D3D12] Pipeline creation failed [CS: Burn Clear] (error: 0x80070057) 2025/06/19 19:51:59 976921 4de16de4 [INFO Client 8920] [RENDER] Restarting device ... (The log repeats this restart-and-fail loop several times) ... 2025/06/19 19:52:12 990484 847c33ad [CRIT Client 8920] [D3D12] Device Removed. Reason: 0x887a0001 2025/06/19 19:52:12 990484 98c76d5b [DEBUG Client 8920] [D3D12] Failed to CreateResource (error: 0x887a0005) 2025/06/19 19:52:12 990484 98c76d79 [DEBUG Client 8920] [D3D12] Device removed reason: 0x887a0001 2025/06/19 19:52:12 990484 89f3cf8f [CRIT Client 8920] [D3D12] Pipeline creation failed [CS: TiledLightAssign] (error: 0x80070057) 2025/06/19 19:52:12 990500 89f3cf8f [CRIT Client 8920] [D3D12] Pipeline creation failed [CS: Burn Progress] (error: 0x80070057) 2025/06/19 19:52:12 990500 89f3cf8f [CRIT Client 8920] [D3D12] Pipeline creation failed [CS: Burn Clear] (error: 0x80070057) 2025/06/19 19:52:12 990515 4de16de4 [INFO Client 8920] [RENDER] Restarting device 2025/06/19 19:52:12 990515 a0d81d7 [INFO Client 8920] [RENDER] Stopping device Last bumped on Jun 19, 2025, 5:02:41 PM	Posted by GrungeIsMyLife#3817 on Jun 19, 2025, 1:38:18 PM Quote this Post
Hello there! Having the same issue. With the same GPU and OS. Looking for help in this. Thx	Posted by Renascido#3373 on Jun 19, 2025, 3:18:45 PM Quote this Post
Having the same issue, though for me changing the production config.ini didn't work. Reinstall from standalone to steam also didn't work. I'm 950M as a difference	Posted by Doddydad#5634 on Jun 19, 2025, 4:15:15 PM Quote this Post
" GrungeIsMyLife#3817 wrote: My game will no longer launch when using the DirectX 12 renderer. It either crashes to the desktop immediately or gets stuck on a black screen. This issue began about 2-3 days ago; before that, the game ran perfectly on DX12 with good performance on my system. If they added more DirectX 12-exclusive functionality, your GPU may no longer be supported by that renderer. There's a decent chance you won't be able to resolve this issue at all. " GrungeIsMyLife#3817 wrote: GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M This card supports DirectX 12, feature set 11_0. That's rather paltry support, tbqh. For example; DirectX 12 was updated to Shader Model 6.0 in April 2017 (8 years ago now). By contrast, the GTX 960M only has hardware-level support for Shader Model 5.0. If you want to utilise the most recent graphics API, you'll need newer hardware than that to do so. (Obviously the game engine should be handling it massively more gracefully than what it is - but that's part of the "charm" of Path of Exile, unfortunately.) Today… by divine decree… your patch of Excel, begins.	Posted by Sarno#0493 on Jun 19, 2025, 4:24:28 PM Quote this Post
" If they added more DirectX 12-exclusive functionality, your GPU may no longer be supported by that renderer. There's a decent chance you won't be able to resolve this issue at all. I was assuming something similar. Just wanted the team know about the issue so they can see for themselves. I am aware of the hardware and how outdated it is. But it has to do for now. Let's see what the team will say about this issue. Currently, I can make it work with Vulkan. At least make it playable. I was able to play through 3.26 for a long while (With DirectX12) actually and like 2-3 days ago it decided to not work so I would assume this is not intended.	Posted by GrungeIsMyLife#3817 on Jun 19, 2025, 5:02:41 PM Quote this Post