War Thunder DirectX 12 or 11? Check your GPU

Use DirectX 12 in War Thunder for its newer graphics features, and try DirectX 11 through the launcher when DX12 crashes on a compatible Windows PC. Check your GPU before making that switch: Intel Arc automatically moves from DX11 to DX12, while Radeon driver fixes have different scopes. Choose around stability and the effects you want to keep, rather than treating either API as the fastest option for every PC.

Choose what you want to keep

DirectX 12, labelled Direct3D 12 in the game's graphics options, arrived with Firebirds on 19 November 2024. It provides the Windows path for ray tracing and features including FSR anti-aliasing and XeSS. Switching to DX11 means giving up those DX12 features. Keep DX12 when it runs reliably and you want those options; use a DX11 comparison when getting through a session matters more than the extra effects.

You can also reduce ray tracing before changing the whole API. Gaijin lets you switch the shadow, ambient-occlusion and reflection effects independently. That preserves a choice of effects instead of making every visual compromise at once. Compare the same vehicle and location, keeping resolution and other quality settings steady. Judge crashes and responsiveness alongside image quality, and restore your original choices if the comparison makes play worse.

Try the launcher fallback on supported GPUs

For a DX12 crash, close the game and select DirectX 11 in the War Thunder launcher before starting again. Gaijin explicitly recommended this temporary route for the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT crash reported with driver 26.10.41.01 in August. That notice also offered a driver rollback. Start with the reversible renderer choice so you can compare it without replacing a driver used by your other games.

After restarting, check the selected graphics API before returning to the situation that failed. A successful launch is the first check; completing the activity that previously crashed is the next. Keep your original selection recorded so you can return to DX12 through the same launcher choice. If both modes still crash, collect the exact error and your GPU, driver and game versions for a report through community.gaijin.net.

Let Intel Arc use its automatic path

On Intel Arc, use DX12 rather than repeatedly trying to force DX11. Update 2.55.1.47, released on 9 April 2026, explicitly changed an Arc launch under DX11 to switch automatically to DX12 without crashing. A return to DX12 can therefore be intentional hardware handling. Keep that distinction in your report if you encounter a launch problem: a setting reverting and a game crashing are separate observations.

Use the exposed graphics choices and report persistent faults with the selected API and a screenshot of the error. Keep configuration files writable and preserve your controls while investigating. You can compare individual graphics settings within DX12, recording each original value before changing it. That gives you a clear route back to the previous setup and a useful account of which change affected the problem.

Match Radeon advice to the card and symptom

AMD's 29 September Adrenalin 26.9.2 notes list a fixed DX12 timeout involving RX 6000 cards with both Instant Replay and Borderless Region Capture enabled. The same release lists a separate War Thunder timeout on RX 5000 cards as a known issue and recommends 26.9.1 for affected users. Check your card family and recording setup against the release notes before applying someone else's driver advice.

The game build matters too. Update 2.59.0.68 on 15 October fixed frame generation, ray reconstruction and FSR in the Microsoft Store version, and removed the incompatible combination of VR and ray tracing. Update that edition before chasing those missing features. If your Radeon PC also crashes in Apex Legends, use our Apex Radeon driver-fix coverage for its separate RX 9000 issue.