ryujinx crash on startup fix

Ryujinx closes the moment you open a game, or a game crashes before the first frame. The last official Ryujinx build and Ryubing share the same codebase, so the steps below apply to both. In the issue tracker this shows up as “crashes on booting up a game”, “any game crashing upon startup”, and “crashes instantly when trying to open a game” — same root causes, different wording.

The good news: almost none of these are the game’s fault. Three things cause the vast majority of startup crashes, in order of frequency.

1. The graphics backend isn’t finding your GPU

Ryujinx renders through Vulkan. If it can’t initialise a Vulkan device, it often dies on game load rather than at launch.

1. Open Settings → Graphics
   Check the Graphics API. If it's on OpenGL and your machine has a weak or missing OpenGL driver, or if Vulkan is selected but your driver is stale, the renderer can fail when a game actually starts drawing.
   The API dropdown shows a backend your GPU actually supports.
2. Set the API to Vulkan and update your GPU driver
   Vulkan is the default and best-tested path. If you've never updated graphics drivers since installing Windows, do that first — a "GPU not detected" report in the log almost always means a driver issue, not a broken emulator.
   The log no longer says it failed to create a Vulkan instance.
3. If you have two GPUs, force the discrete one
   Laptops with both an integrated and a discrete GPU sometimes hand Ryujinx the wrong one. In Windows Graphics Settings, set the emulator to the high-performance GPU.
   Task Manager's GPU column shows the discrete card doing the work while a game runs.

2. A corrupted shader or PPTC cache

PPTC (the profiling cache) and the shader cache speed up boot, but a half-written cache from a crash can make the next boot crash too.

1. Clear the caches
   Use Tools → Clear Cache and select both Shader Cache and PPTC Cache, then reopen the game. This is the single most effective fix for "it crashed, now it crashes every time".
   The game recompiles shaders on first launch instead of loading a broken cache.

3. A controller config or a locked file

Two narrower causes appear often enough to check:

• Controller regression: a configured gamepad can crash boot-to-game on some builds (an NpadController motion bug). Temporarily remove the controller profile and retry; if it boots, update to a current build.
• File Explorer locking: if File Explorer windows are open on the game or save folder, Ryujinx’s filesystem layer can fail to commit. Close Explorer, then launch.

Still crashing?

If clearing caches and fixing the backend didn’t help, confirm keys and firmware are present — see the prod keys and firmware mismatch pages. Those failures look like a crash or a black screen at the same point. Comparing forks? Read which Switch emulator still works.