Blender: GPU Driver Lost Connection / Display Driver Stopped Responding

How to fix it

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

1. 1. Lower the per-frame load

   Copy steps
   1. Reduce tile size in Render Properties > Performance.
   2. Lower resolution or samples.
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Use separate GPUs

   1. Connect the monitor to a different GPU than the one used for rendering.
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Increase the timeout

   1. Raise the Windows TDR timeout; the UI will be less responsive during heavy renders.
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Screen goes black during a render, or Windows reports the display driver stopped responding.

Why it happens

• Windows time limit for GPU compute on the display GPU (TDR)
• Very heavy scene or shader
• Single GPU used for display and rendering

This guide also covers

• blender display driver stopped responding
• blender black screen render
• opengl driver lost connection blender

Other Blender errors

• Blender Crashing When Rendering
• 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