How to Fix the GPU Crash Dump Bug in Gray Zone Warfare

There are…quite a few bugs in Gray Zone Warfare, and one of the most frustrating is the kernal32 GPU Crash Dump problem. If it happens to you, your game will freeze, crash to desktop, and will probably do so after a few minutes every time you load up the game. Here are a few fixes to GPU Crash Dump in Gray Zone Warfare.

How to Fix GPU Crash Dump in Gray Zone Warfare

In my testing, I came across two instances where I could consistently cause the GPU Crash Dump to occur. The first was when I was using FSR upscaling with Frame Generation. For the second, I had my game in fullscreen or windowed borderless with a lot of graphics settings turned up and lots of background programs running. That makes me think Gray Zone Warfare is very hungry for VRAM, and overloading your GPU’s VRAM with GZW data causes the crash.

So, to fix the GPU Crash Dump bug, you should:

• Play without Frame Generation when using FSR, especially if you have an older-generation GPU.
• Play with as few background applications running as possible.
• Lower your graphics settings below what would otherwise still be playable.
• Use another type of upscaling (DLSS or XeSS) that sidesteps the Frame Generation option.

In my research, I found some anecdotal reports that disabling in-game overlays also helps. If you have both the Steam and an NVIDIA overlay running, you can try disabling them to see if that solves the issue. Additionally, you might want to disable your GPU overclock, though I haven’t tested that particular use case, but I’ve had other demanding games like Escape from Tarkov act funny with even a mild overclock on the GPU.

Another trick you can try is playing in Windowed mode with reduced settings. That’s Windowed, not Windowed Borderless. Switching serves two purposes. First, it lets you swap to a lower resolution without stretching or distorting the game image, and second, it’s a bit lighter on the GPU overall. Making the WIndowed adjustment is especially helpful if you’re playing on a 4K or Ultrawide monitor at native resolution with an older graphics card.

I rock a 3080 Founder’s Edition from when the thing first came out in 2020, and I’m asking it to output to an ultrawide monitor with a bunch of other apps running at the same time. It’s a lot of a solid but aging GPU, and I can confirm that Gray Zone Warfare ran its best when I was windowed at 1440p.

The one thing I don’t recommend doing is trying to play Gray Zone Warfare without upscaling. The game simply doesn’t run nearly well enough without it to justify not using it. You should, however, toy around with which upscaling tech you like the most. I’ve had my best luck with XeSS, oddly, insofar as framerate consistency is confirmed. FSR gives me the highest total FPS, but both it and DLSS feel just a bit too skippy for my tastes.

In any event, those are my best tips for fixing and avoiding the kernel32 GPU Crash Dump bug in Gray Zone Warfare. As with any game this early in development, your mileage may vary regarding fixes to bugs and other issues.

For more coverage, check out Gray Zone Warfare guides hub, as well as how to fix the GameThread timed out and Anti-Cheat errors.