You're staring at your monitor. The game just closed. No error message, just the cold, indifferent view of your desktop wallpaper. Or maybe it was the dreaded "Out of Video Memory" error that pops up even though you’re rocking an RTX 4090. If you’ve been scouring Steam forums or Reddit threads lately, you’ve probably seen a specific piece of advice repeated like a mantra: try running without the -dx12 or -d3d12 command line argument. It sounds like tech gibberish, but it’s actually one of the most effective ways to troubleshoot modern PC ports that are acting like divas.
The reality is that DirectX 12 (DX12) was supposed to be the promised land for PC gaming. It promised better CPU utilization and fancier effects. Instead, for a lot of players, it brought stuttering and instability. When a game's launcher or a guide tells you to force a specific API, they often suggest adding these flags to your launch options. But honestly? Sometimes that’s exactly what’s breaking your game.
The Problem With Forcing DirectX 12
Let's get into the weeds for a second. DirectX 12 is a "low-level" API. This basically means it gives developers more direct control over your graphics card. In the hands of a wizard, it’s magic. In the hands of a rushed dev team porting a console game to PC, it can be a nightmare. When you use the -dx12 or -d3d12 argument, you are explicitly telling the game's engine, "Ignore whatever you think you should do and use this specific protocol."
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If the game wasn't built from the ground up to handle that instruction—or if your drivers have a conflict with that specific implementation—everything breaks. You get shader compilation stutters. You get crashes during high-action scenes. You might even see your VRAM usage skyrocket for no reason.
I've seen this happen specifically with games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Next-Gen update) and Cyberpunk 2077. Players think forcing DX12 will give them Ray Tracing (which it does), but if the system isn't perfectly stable, that command line argument acts like a forced march for your GPU. If you remove it, the game often defaults to a more stable DirectX 11 path. It might look 5% less shiny, but a game that runs is always better than a game that crashes.
Why Shaders Hate Forced Arguments
Shaders are the biggest headache in modern gaming. You've probably sat through those "Optimizing Shaders" progress bars. Those bars are DX12’s way of trying to prevent stuttering. When you manually try running without the -dx12 or -d3d12 command line argument, you are often allowing the game to revert to its native, often more tested, initialization sequence.
When you force a version of DirectX, the game might skip its pre-caching routine. This leads to what we call "traversal stutter." Every time you turn a corner and the game has to load a new texture or effect, the whole thing hitches for a millisecond. It’s annoying. It ruins the flow. By stripping away those extra command line flags, you let the software communicate with the Windows hardware abstraction layer the way it was originally intended.
Unreal Engine 4 and the DX12 Curse
If you’re playing a game built on Unreal Engine 4—think Jedi: Survivor or The Callisto Protocol—the DX12 implementation has been historically rocky. These games often have a "fallback" mode. If you’ve gone into your Steam properties and typed -dx12 into the launch options because a YouTuber told you it would boost your FPS, you might have inadvertently disabled the game’s ability to use its more stable DX11 pipeline.
Digital Foundry has covered this extensively. They’ve noted that in many UE4 titles, DX12 introduces "frame time spikes" that simply don't exist in DX11. While DX12 is technically "better," the implementation is often the bottleneck. If your frame rate feels like a roller coaster, go into your settings and delete that text. Just delete it.
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How to Actually Remove the Arguments
Don't feel bad if you forgot where you put them. It’s easy to lose track of these things when you’re desperate to make a game work.
On Steam, it’s a simple process. Right-click the game in your library. Select Properties. Under the General tab, look for Launch Options. If you see -dx12, -d3d12, or even something like -force-d3d12, highlight it and hit backspace. Close the window and launch the game.
On the Epic Games Store, it’s a bit more buried. You have to go to your profile icon, click Settings, scroll all the way down to the bottom where your installed games are listed, click the game title, and uncheck the box that says Additional Command Line Arguments.
It’s a "less is more" situation.
When Should You Actually Use DX12?
I'm not saying DirectX 12 is trash. It isn't. If you want to use features like Ray Reconstruction, DLSS 3 Frame Generation, or Path Tracing, you need DX12. These technologies are built on the newer API. If you have a 40-series NVIDIA card or a high-end AMD 7000-series card, DX12 is usually the way to go.
But here is the catch: You should enable it inside the game's menu, not via a command line argument if you can help it. Using the in-game toggle allows the engine to restart and reconfigure its memory management properly. Forcing it through a command line argument is like shouting at a waiter instead of just ordering off the menu. It might get the job done, but it’s going to be messy.
The Intel 13th and 14th Gen Issue
Recently, there’s been a massive surge in instability for people using Intel Core i9-13900K and 14900K CPUs. They’re getting "Out of Video Memory" errors in games like Tekken 8 or Outlast Trials. Interestingly, a lot of these users found that when they try running without the -dx12 or -d3d12 command line argument, the frequency of these crashes drops.
Now, the root cause there is actually power limits on the motherboard (a whole different rabbit hole), but DX12's heavy CPU demand exacerbates the instability. By dropping back to a less demanding API or just letting the game handle its own startup, you take the pressure off the hardware. It’s a band-aid, sure, but it lets you play.
What About the -dx11 Argument?
Sometimes, removing the DX12 flag isn't enough. If the game defaults to DX12 and it’s still crashing, you might actually want to do the opposite and try -dx11 or -d3d11. This is the "safe mode" of the gaming world.
DirectX 11 is mature. It’s stable. It doesn't do fancy shader pre-computation in the same way, which means less stuttering on many mid-range systems. If your game is a stuttery mess, switching to DX11 is the oldest trick in the book for a reason. It works.
Summary of Actionable Steps
If you are experiencing crashes, low FPS, or weird graphical glitches, follow this workflow:
- Check your Launch Options: Open Steam or Epic and clear out anything in the command line box. Start fresh.
- Test the "Native" Experience: Run the game without any forced overrides. See how the developers intended it to run on your hardware.
- Update Your Drivers: If you decide to go back to DX12, make sure you are on the latest "Game Ready" or "Adrenalin" drivers. DX12 relies heavily on the driver to manage memory.
- Check Windows Settings: Ensure "Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling" (HAGS) is turned on in your Windows Display settings if you're using DX12, as this often helps with the very stutters that make people want to switch APIs in the first place.
- Monitor VRAM: If you’re on an older card with 8GB of VRAM or less, DX12 can sometimes overflow your memory. If the game keeps crashing, removing that command line argument and sticking to DX11 is likely your only path to stability.
The "right" way to play is whatever way doesn't result in you looking at your desktop every twenty minutes. Sometimes, the most advanced tech isn't the best tech for your specific rig. Don't be afraid to strip things back to basics.
Start by cleaning out those launch options. If the game runs better, leave it alone. If it still struggles, then you can look into deeper issues like undervolting or reinstalling Windows. But usually? It’s just that one little string of text causing all the grief. Change it, restart, and get back into the game.