Path of Exile 2’s DX12 Freeze Problem Gets a Fix in NVIDIA Driver 610.88
NVIDIA Driver 610.88 addresses a long-running Path of Exile 2 DX12 issue that caused intermittent pauses after extended gameplay, while GGG’s patch 0.5.4e improves shader loading and Vulkan cache behavior.
Path of Exile 2 players using NVIDIA graphics cards have received an official fix for one of the game’s most disruptive PC performance problems. NVIDIA’s new Game Ready Driver 610.88 addresses intermittent long pauses that could appear after extended gameplay sessions in DirectX 12, while Grinding Gear Games has also deployed patch 0.5.4e with several major shader-related improvements.
A problem that was difficult to reproduce
The issue had affected Path of Exile 2 players for an extended period, particularly during long and demanding gameplay sessions. Instead of producing a simple and predictable crash, affected systems could suddenly freeze or pause while the game attempted to recover from a GPU-related failure.
Grinding Gear Games reportedly identified that the problem involved NVIDIA’s driver, but proving the cause was only the beginning. NVIDIA needed a reliable way to reproduce the failure before its engineers could investigate and deploy a driver-level correction.
GGG built a specialized replay system
GGG built a specialized replay system
To turn an unpredictable player report into a repeatable engineering test, GGG expanded its internal diagnostic tools and created a specialized replay system capable of running recorded gameplay sessions for hours on multiple computers.
The engine team added additional systems for recording useful gameplay and performance data.
Long gameplay sessions could be captured and automatically replayed on test computers.
The team eventually produced a replay that triggered the problem roughly every five to seven minutes.
GGG packaged the replay and sent NVIDIA the exact computer on which the issue could be reproduced.
The shipment reportedly included the PC, monitor, mouse and keyboard to preserve the complete test environment.
“The saga is over.”
Jonathan Rogers, Path of Exile 2 Game Director
What NVIDIA Driver 610.88 fixes
NVIDIA released Game Ready Driver 610.88 on July 28, 2026. Its official release notes list a Path of Exile 2 fix for intermittent long pauses that could occur after extended gameplay sessions when using the DX12 renderer.
Patch 0.5.4e also improves shader handling
The NVIDIA driver update arrived alongside Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5.4e, a restartless client update focused heavily on shader loading, cache size and renderer recovery.
- Shader loading times have been significantly improved.
- The total size of compiled shaders has been reduced.
- Shaders should load faster after the game recovers from a GPU crash while using Vulkan.
- The Fossilize Vulkan layer has been disabled for the Steam version to prevent the Steam shader cache from growing to an immense size.
- Locked is now the default VSync setting because GGG no longer recommends Adaptive VSync due to frame-pacing problems.
What Path of Exile 2 players should do
- Install NVIDIA Game Ready Driver 610.88 through the NVIDIA App or NVIDIA’s official driver page.
- Restart the Path of Exile 2 client to make sure patch 0.5.4e has been downloaded.
- Allow the game time to rebuild its shaders during the first sessions after updating.
- Players who moved away from DX12 specifically because of the long-pause problem can carefully test the renderer again after installing the new driver.
- Continue reporting any remaining freezes with the renderer, GPU model, driver version and reproduction details clearly listed.
Why this fix matters
Performance problems are especially damaging in Path of Exile 2 because a long freeze can occur in the middle of a boss encounter, a dangerous endgame map or a fight involving valuable rewards. A pause lasting several seconds may be enough to kill a character before the player regains control.
The story also demonstrates why some game bugs remain unresolved for months even after developers understand their probable cause. A third-party hardware or driver company may still require a compact, reliable and repeatable demonstration before it can safely change low-level code used by millions of systems.
By creating an automated replay, reproducing the failure every few minutes and sending the complete test computer to NVIDIA, GGG transformed a difficult player-facing problem into a test that driver engineers could investigate directly. Driver 610.88 and patch 0.5.4e now give affected players the strongest official fix released for this specific DX12 issue.
Sources
Grinding Gear Games — Path of Exile 2: Shaders and Device Removed Issues Fixed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDEJLOHcdWw
Grinding Gear Games — Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.4e
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3991222
NVIDIA — GeForce Game Ready Driver 610.88 Release Notes
https://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/610.88/610.88-win11-win10-release-notes.pdf
NVIDIA — Game Ready Driver 610.88 Announcement
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/gears-of-war-e-day-beta-halo-campaign-evolved-game-ready-driver/
PC Gamer — Report on GGG’s investigation and test computer
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/after-a-year-and-a-half-of-rigorous-testing-path-of-exile-2-devs-finally-convinced-nvidia-to-fix-a-driver-bug-by-sending-it-an-entire-pc/