TDR Registry Fix Guide
What is this error?
Guide to adjusting Windows TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery) settings via registry to prevent GPU timeout crashes during demanding games.
Common causes
- default TDR timeout too short for demanding games
- GPU driver taking too long on complex shaders
- VRAM-heavy scenes exceeding timeout
- multiple monitor setups causing longer GPU responses
How to fix it
- Modify TdrDelay and TdrDdiDelay registry values to give the GPU more time before Windows resets the driver
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If you're getting frequent 'Display driver stopped responding' errors, you can increase Windows' TDR timeout to give your GPU more time to finish rendering before Windows kills the driver.
The default timeout is just 2 seconds — demanding games, especially with ray tracing or high VRAM usage, can exceed this.
How to modify TDR settings:
- Press Win+R, type 'regedit', press Enter to open Registry Editor
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers
- Right-click in the right pane > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value
- Name it 'TdrDelay' and set the value to 10 (decimal) — this gives the GPU 10 seconds instead of 2
- Create another DWORD called 'TdrDdiDelay' and set it to 10 as well
- Restart your PC for the changes to take effect
Important notes:
- This doesn't fix the root cause — it just prevents Windows from killing the driver prematurely
- If your GPU is truly hanging, increasing TDR means longer black screens before recovery
- Always try updating GPU drivers and checking temperatures FIRST
- If crashes persist even with increased TDR, the issue is hardware or a severe driver bug
- To revert: delete the TdrDelay and TdrDdiDelay values from the registry
When to seek help
If this error keeps happening after trying the fixes above, it may point to a deeper hardware or system issue. Consider professional help if:
- The crash occurs across multiple games or applications
- You see the same error after a clean Windows install
- Your PC is less than a year old (could be a warranty issue)
- You smell burning or hear unusual sounds from your PC
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