[BUG] Crashes, stutters and FPS drops (Vulkan, DirectX, specs)

Beacon Mag banner: Crashes, stutters and FPS drops (Vulkan, DirectX, specs)

The symptoms: the game suddenly closes (crash to desktop), stutters or loses a lot of frames per second.

✅ Known cases

🟢 Crash to desktop, error 3221225477 (Vulkan): if you have an Nvidia card on driver 616.56, roll back to the previous driver or switch the game to DirectX 11 (Graphics options › Renderer).
🟢 FPS drops on Vulkan: lower the resolution, update your driver or switch to DirectX.
🟡 Stutters after a patch or a new driver: clear the shader cache (%localappdata%\Star Citizen, see the first-aid kit).
🔴 FPS drop when opening the starmap: known bug, no workaround.

🖥️ Current specs 🟢

Component	Minimum	Recommended
OS	Windows 10/11 64-bit	Windows 11
CPU	4 cores with AVX, AVX2 and FMA3	Ryzen 7 5800X3D / i7-12700K
RAM	16 GB	32 GB
Graphics card	4 GB VRAM, DirectX 11.1 and Vulkan 1.2	8 GB VRAM or more
Storage	150 GB on SSD (required)	NVMe SSD

💡 🟡 With 16 GB of RAM, the game can ask for 18 to 24 GB in busy areas. Keep at least 32 GB free on your fastest SSD for the Windows page file.

😏 On a mechanical hard drive, expect 5 to 10 minutes of loading. Total immersion in the slowness of interstellar travel.

Key: 🟢 official CIG fix · 🟡 community tip, no guarantees · 🔴 no workaround, you’ll have to wait for a fix.

🆘 Still stuck?

Work through the first-aid kit in order, then report the bug properly. Found another tip that works? Post it as a reply and we’ll add it to this sheet with credit.

📚 Every bug and its fix (contents) · 📖 The great bug bestiary, on a single page

Sheet 11 · Alpha 4.10.2 LIVE, updated 19 October 2026. Sources: RSI support (Known Issues 4.10.2), patch notes and Community Tech Support on Spectrum. Star Citizen is a game by Cloud Imperium Games.