Blender Crashing When Rendering

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Update to the official GPU driver

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   1. Download the driver from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel directly, not the laptop maker's page, which is often outdated.
   2. Do a clean install and restart.
   3. Reopen Blender and re-test the render.
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Reduce memory use

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   1. Open Preferences > System > Memory & Limits and lower Undo Steps.
   2. Use smaller textures: 8K images use about 256 MB each, 2K about 16 MB.
   3. Hide or simplify heavy objects and render with Simplify (Render Properties > Simplify) lowering subdivision levels.
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Switch to CPU or lower tile load

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   1. In Render Properties set Device to CPU to see if the crash is GPU related.
   2. If CPU works, the problem is VRAM or driver; see the out of memory guide.
   3. Lower resolution or samples to test.
   Did this fix it? Yes No

4. 4. Read the crash log and recover your work

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   1. The crash file is written to the temporary directory (test.crash.txt on Windows, /tmp/blender.crash.txt on Linux).
   2. Use File > Recover > Auto Save to get your last auto-saved copy, then Save As immediately.
   3. Attach the crash file if you report a bug.
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Blender closes without warning or freezes the whole PC when you press F12 or render an animation, often on heavy scenes or after a few frames.

Why it happens

• Scene needs more system RAM or GPU memory than you have
• Outdated or buggy graphics driver
• GPU also drives your display, so the OS resets it (TDR timeout)
• Too many undo steps and high-resolution textures eating memory
• A bug in a specific Blender version or add-on

This guide also covers

• blender crashing when rendering
• blender crashes on render
• blender crash on f12
• blender keeps crashing

Other Blender errors

• Blender GPU Not Detected / Not Showing in Preferences
• Blender CUDA / OptiX Error: Kernel Compilation Failed
• Blender Out of Memory Error When Rendering
• Blender Viewport Lag / Slow Viewport
• Blender Pink Textures / Missing Textures
• Blender FBX Export Textures Missing
• Blender glTF Export Missing Materials or Textures
• How to Recover Unsaved or Crashed Blender Files