ARK: Survival Ascended is a reimagined dinosaur survival experience built with Unreal Engine 5.
Players wake up on a mysterious island with vibrant surroundings and exotic creatures.
The game features advanced graphics, including realistic lighting and reflections.
It also incorporates physics systems for dynamic water and interactive foliage.
Players can form tribes, tame and breed dinosaurs, explore, craft, build, and fight.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to fix ARK Survival Ascended keeps crashing, not launching, or freezing.
How to fix ARK Survival Ascended crashing
Fix 1: Update your graphics card
- For Nvidia: Visit nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/download/ > Download Now > open the app > sign up or log in > Drivers > Download.
- For AMD: Visit amd.com/en/support > Download > open the app > follow the on-screen instructions to update your graphics card.
Fix 2: Verify integrity of game files
- Go to your Steam library and right-click “ARK Survival Ascended”.
- Select “Properties” and select “Installed Files”.
- Select “Verify integrity of game files”.
Fix 3: Set Nvidia PhysX to your graphics card
- Search for “Nvidia Control Panel” using Windows Search.
- Select “Configure Surround, PhysX”.
- Under “Processor”, select your graphics card.
Fix 4: Add launch parameters
- Go to your Steam library and right-click “ARK Survival Ascended”.
- Select “Properties” and select “General”.
- Paste this into the “Launch Options”: -dx11
Other launch options: “-force-d3d11” OR “-USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10 -nomansky -lowmemory -novsync -high” OR “-windowed -d3d11” (without quotations).
Fix 5: Turn off Nvidia DLSS and Frame Generation
- Launch ARK Survival Ascended.
- Settings > General > RTX.
- Turn off “Nvidia DLSS”.
- Turn off “Frame Generation”.
Further reading
How to Fix Exception Access Violation in ARK Survival Ascended
