Affinity Apps causing AMD display driver to crash.

[Nox]

The Affinity apps crash my AMD display driver a lot and very random. Most of the times they happen when I move/pan or zoom the view.
The screen where the App is running then will turn black, the system is still a little bit responsible (for example: media buttons still work) but not the display, the secondary display is frozen and it takes around half a minute for AMD to restore the graphics driver (I use the appearing crash report every time), in 99% of the cases the Affinity App has crashed too then. Sometimes (rarely) the graphic driver isn't able to restore itself, then I have to reset the PC, this will result in no crash reports on both sides.

It is more likely to happen when I have Live Effect layers in the document. But sometimes the driver also crashes when I edit vector curves or for example change letter kerning/tracking on Artistic text.

This problem is present in Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Affinity Publisher in Version 2 and 1.
Enabling or disabling OpenCL hardware acceleration also has no effect on this issue.

I have this issue for quite a while now and I've waited to report this issue for the OpenCL bug to be fixed, because I thought this might fix the issue. But no luck as it seems.

Just for clarification before the blame is put on AMD again: Adobe Products, DaVinci Resolve, Krita, Blender, Inkscape do not have any issues on my hardware nor did the graphics driver ever crash once while I was using these Apps. In fact Affinity Apps (and Valheim in Vulkan) are the only source of display driver crashes on my PC.

 

My PC configuration for reference:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (Driver: AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Version 22.11.2)
RAM: 32GB @ 3200MHz
Display: 2x 1080p (144Hz + 72Hz)
OS: Windows 11 Version 22H2 (OS Build 22623.1020)

 

Crash Reports are attached

49f1e9ca-17cc-4679-931a-835f091b3c53.dmp attachment_Log.txt

[Franiac]

Same for me. Using a lot of different audio/photo/video software and Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher are the only applications that cause this issue. The AMD display driver just crashes and the displays freeze. It happens on all kind of different tasks like dragging, selecting, opening images. I cannot put my finger on it when it exactly happens since it is not reproducable every time. Affinity Suite V2 crashes about every 3-5 minutes, sometimes even less, which makes it basically unusable.

After a restart, the Adrenaline Software has a notification indicating that the display driver crashed unexpectedly.

What is interesting is the fact that I too have a 6800XT and a similar setup compared to the OP:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (Driver: AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Version 22.11.2)
RAM: 32GB @ 3200MHz
Displays: 2x 1440p (165Hz FreeSync)
OS: Windows 10 Pro Version 22H2 (OS Build 19045.2251)

Edited December 12, 2022 by Franiac

[Komatös]

Hi @Nox and @Franiac

I recommend disabling Freesync (if used) on a trial basis and setting a fixed refresh rate of 60 Hz.

If this does'nt helps, disable hardware acceleration via Edit -> Preferences -> Performance.

 

[Callum]

Hi All, Sorry to hear the app is crashing your display driver.

I have seen one other report of AMD display driver crashing and in that case the user updated Windows and then reinstalled their GPU driver and it seemed to solve the issue. Please could you try this for me? I will debug the crash report now to see if I get any extra info that might help.

Thanks
C

[Franiac]

@Callum I am running the lastest possible updates on my Win 10 Pro. I have tried to re-install the driver multiple times (including DDU for removal) and also tried the non-optional WHQL driver 22.5.x. I have tried with/without Adrenaline Software but it does not make any difference. The thing keeps crashing. Btw. I can also confirm that V1 runs perfectly fine, so there must be something going on in V2. Also tried disabling FreeSync temporarily but that also has no effect (would be weird anyways, since it is only a handshake between GPU and Display and does not interfere with rendering).

[Callum]

Just now, Franiac said:

@Callum I am running the lastest possible updates on my Win 10 Pro. I have tried to re-install the driver multiple times (including DDU for removal) and also tried the non-optional WHQL driver 22.5.x. I have tried with/without Adrenaline Software but it does not make any difference. The thing keeps crashing. Btw. I can also confirm that V1 runs perfectly fine, so there must be something going on in V2. Also tried disabling FreeSync temporarily but that also has no effect (would be weird anyways, since it is only a handshake between GPU and Display and does not interfere with rendering).

Please could you also provide a crash report found using the below guide?

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/168448-where-do-i-find-crash-reports-for-affinity-v2-apps/

 

[Franiac]

@Callum I totally forgot to attach those... but see the timestamps of those dump files, that's how frequent Affinity crashes.

0c2447c0-f11e-4d6c-986b-55f9847d68fb.dmp 3b21b511-d80f-4185-868d-86081942aa51.dmp 8c3b08db-ed0b-4252-940b-5d86ef351ed7.dmp 09fc49b1-f744-49e5-a25d-3ff9fb34e03b.dmp

[Franiac]

I have found this in the Windows Event Viewer:

Application: Photo.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.AccessViolationException
   at <Module>.Affinity.LayersExpandedState.OnDocumentClosed(Affinity.LayersExpandedState*, Kernel.Counted<DocumentController const >*)
   at Serif.Interop.Persona.Data.LayersDataSource.InteropService_CloseDocumentNotification(System.Object, Serif.Interop.Persona.CloseDocumentNotificationEventArgs)
   at Serif.Interop.Persona.CloseDocumentNotificationHandler.Invoke(System.Object, Serif.Interop.Persona.CloseDocumentNotificationEventArgs)
   at Serif.Interop.Persona.Services.InteropService.OnCloseDocumentNotification(Serif.Interop.Persona.NativeWrapper<Kernel::NonCounted<Kernel::Notification> >)
   at Serif.Interop.Persona.Services.InteropService.HandleNotification(Kernel.Counted<Kernel::Notification>*, Boolean)
   at Serif.Interop.Persona.Services.InteropService.OnNotify(Kernel.Counted<Kernel::Notification>*)
   at <Module>.GetNotificationDispatch.<lambda_2bcb078db99a2694ff26461d0eed393e>.()()(?GetNotificationDispatch@@$$FYA?AV?$function@$$A6AXXZ@std@@V?$Counted@VNotification@Kernel@@@Kernel@@@Z.__l2.<lambda_2bcb078db99a2694ff26461d0eed393e>*)
   at MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(System.Windows.Interop.MSG ByRef)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherFrame)
   at System.Windows.Application.RunDispatcher(System.Object)
   at System.Windows.Application.RunInternal(System.Windows.Window)
   at Photo.Application.Main(System.String[])

 

But I think this is not the actual error stacktrace but the .NET runtime struggling to handle the application crash due to the display driver crash. There is the possibility that when the display driver crashes, after a minute of waiting, Windows manages to restart the driver. Explorer windows or Browsers are still open and running, but Affinity Photo always get completely killed.

[Callum]

Thank you I'll look into these now, in the meantime you could make sure you have the latest version of the .NET framework installed from the below link just so I can rule this out? https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework

[Franiac]

My .NET version is 528372, which means .NET 4.8. As a professional .NET Software Engineer I highly doublt an update to the latest 4.8.1 will have any effect. There are so many .NET applications out there running Windows Forms or WPF frontends on .NET 4.8. If you read the official release notes it is highly unlikely that there will be any improvement on the current matter. And if the .NET runtime had any rendering issues on AMD graphics cards, the Microsoft forums would already explode.

I do not know the internal processing structure of Affinity Photo, but crashing a display driver is usually caused by direct unsafe rendering calls via the graphics API. What does Affinity use in Windows? DirectX, OpenGL or Vulkan? I am sure it is Metal for MacOS, right? Since all crashes on my end have to do with transformations, adjustments, layers, cropping and such, my guess is that Affinity delegates those tasks directly to the GPU for acceleration and somehow manages to tear it down.

Also, I am open to help in any way possible. Meaning running debug builds for logging and such. I really want V2 to work... I mean... I kinda paid for it  

 

 

[Nox]

Another crash - where the graphics driver was able to recover and therefore I have crash reports.

@Callum I've reinstalled the GPU driver multiple times in the past, uninstalled via DDU to make sure everything is gone. Also my Windows is always up to date.
I'm on the Beta update channel, I guess and hope this isn't a problem because I can't unenroll and change to a release build - without reinstalling Windows, I have to wait until the next one releases.

I use the AIMP music player and I have the feeling that crashes are more likely to happen when I use this program to listen to music while working with the affinity apps - totally far-fetched and probably does have nothing to do with anything. Might be totally unrelated but I thought I might mention this.

295ba229-b989-4f0f-9329-d675b2a60030.dmp attachment_Log.txt

[Franiac]

This is far from a bad hint. First I was not sure but now... I realized Affinity works more stable if nothing is opened simultaneously. In my case if I open up Brave Browser (Chromium) and watch something (YouTube or Twitch) while working in Affinity it most likely crashes very quickly while using the standard transform tools and so on.

@Callum So here's maybe another path you could dig in: Try launching addinional programs that simultaneously use hardware acceleration. It definitely messes with Affinity. If I stop the YouTube/Twitch video in Brave, Affinity holds up 10 times longer without crashing. Press "play" again, and Affinity is gone in 60 seconds...

[Nox]

32 minutes ago, Franiac said:

This is far from a bad hint. First I was not sure but now... I realized Affinity works more stable if nothing is opened simultaneously. In my case if I open up Brave Browser (Chromium) and watch something (YouTube or Twitch) while working in Affinity it most likely crashes very quickly while using the standard transform tools and so on.

Hmmm, I always (barely don't) have firefox open with at least a twitch stream running, when I work mostly in the background (muted) to still support their channels, but then I'll listen to music in addition. I need these background noises to be able to concentrate.

[Franiac]

I am pretty shure AMIP uses hardware acceleration, too. Maybe OpenCL, maybe not, that I don't know.

[SrPx]

2 hours ago, Nox said:

Hmmm, I always (barely don't) have firefox open with at least a twitch stream running, when I work mostly in the background (muted) to still support their channels, but then I'll listen to music in addition. I need these background noises to be able to concentrate.

I work with many chrome tabs, need to for references, doc, some bg music etc. Doesn't crash, here. But if you have not much RAM, that can be a problem. Also , I believe (maybe it's some pages' faulty JS, I dunno) Chrome could have some  memory leak or sth that makes it eat more memory as time goes by, but not sure.

I've had at same time painting tools that are actually GPU accelerated (and use the gpu quite a lot) and Photo (beta, tomorrow I'l put the new one) does not crash.

But the opposite can be a reality in other systems. I only say that don't assume it is going to be the case for you until you try it, as it could happen that it'd work well with other apps aside, like my case.

[Nox]

10 hours ago, Franiac said:

I am pretty shure AMIP uses hardware acceleration, too. Maybe OpenCL, maybe not, that I don't know.

AIMP utilises the GPU quite a bit when the Window is maximised, but almost none when minimised. I use it minimised most of the time. (That said, the Affinity also crash the GPU driver when I don't have AIMP open)

 

@SrPx I don't think RAM is an issue here. Like said in my first post, I have 32 GB of RAM, that should be more than enough and the usage barely goes over 35% when working with the affinity apps with all the other background stuff I have open (Firefox, discord, etc.).

[Nox]

Another one with a crash log.

Other programs opened while the crash happened:
Foreground (opened on taskbar):

• Firefox, AIMP (minimised), Discord, MPC-HC, Notepad

Background (minimised in system tray):

• Steam, Google Drive, KeePassXC, Powertoys

 

I still have the suspicion that AIMP is causing some weird cross-compatibility issues, I'll switch the music player for a while and report back how this is going.

16a6dd29-67e1-48da-aeda-31e2340d0cc1.dmp attachment_Log.txt

[Nox]

Publisher crash.
Because this is a problem across all apps I attach it here too instead of creating a new topic in the Publisher bug report forum.

I'm sure, unlike previously suspected, AIMP does not cause these crashes. This crash happened without it running. The same applications as described in the previous post but AIMP ran this time.

I hope these minidumps are useful, if not, let me know and I'll stop posting them.

attachment_Log.txt e5033032-3ab3-47a7-9737-b61e4d248368.dmp

[eqyizo]

I've just started having this issue on all v2 products running 2.0.3. Windows, AMD 6800, amd cpu too. Happens only when using Affinity, sometimes multiple times within an hour. Turned off hardware acceleration, but made no difference.

If I turn my surround sound reciever on, windows thinks I'm plugging on another monitor, so it resets my black-screened monitor, so then I can keep working.

I can't remember now if simply turning the monitor off and on did the trick too...

[eqyizo]

On 1/26/2023 at 10:17 AM, eqyizo said:

I've just started having this issue on all v2 products running 2.0.3. Windows, AMD 6800, amd cpu too. Happens only when using Affinity, sometimes multiple times within an hour. Turned off hardware acceleration, but made no difference.

If I turn my surround sound reciever on, windows thinks I'm plugging on another monitor, so it resets my black-screened monitor, so then I can keep working.

I can't remember now if simply turning the monitor off and on did the trick too...

Update: it magically worked again hours later. But still: screw this poor AMD support from affinity. It's not worth the dread that this app is going to break my computer.

 

I wish I didn't have to come here to update so soon.... After the screen going dark yet again tonight, it never came back on. Reboots left and right, and my screen will not turn on. I think Affinity just bricked my AMD 6800 graphics card. DO NOT USE AFFINITY WITH AN AMD 6800 GRAPHICS CARD, OR ANY AMD GPU. Now to raise hell with customer support...

I was using the latest version of V1 Publisher. Not even V2, trying to avoid this nonsense. Now I have to get another gpu just to ******* troubleshoot my expensive one, just so I can use my computer at all. Thanks Affinity. Loved you when I was using my Nvidia laptop. Can't say the feeling remains. God this is dumb. I want to rant more than I have. I'm so pissed.

[Nox]

This is a brad new Windows 11 installation, and this is my first driver crash - caused by Affinity Photo - on it:

Affinity Crash reports:

1. 7230f4d5-ad6a-4b63-a4b0-18233e102d3e.dmp attachment_Log.txt
2. 51fc2540-c8fe-4435-9f29-4da12db60d33.dmp attachment_Log.txt
3. 1cc57f41-00be-4562-aaa3-e6c3801d517a.dmp attachment_Log.txt <-OpenCL Errors

AMD crash report:
AMD Bug Reporting Form Submitted Data 20230203T231319.zip 🔑

I hope that the addition of the AMD crash report will provide additional helpful resources to resolve this issue.

 

it crashed multiple times on the same document, description of the said document:

dimensions: 1920x1080
Layers:

• Group
  • Artistic Text
  • Linked .afdesign document (700x700 vector art)
• Solid Fill

Steps leading to the crashes:

• I duplicated the Group [Ctrl + J].
• Blurred the lower Group with a 100px radius Gaussian Blur Live Filter.
• Set the blurred Group's layer opacity to 80%.
• Added an Outer Shadow Layer Effect to the upper Group. <- first crash happened here
  • Blend mode: Normal
  • Opacity: 30%
  • Radius: 10px
  • Offset: 0, Intensity: 0, Colour: black, Angle 270°, [x] Fill knocks out shadow
• Zoomed and panned the View
• Duplicated the bottom Solid Fill layer. <- second crash happened here
• Changed the upper Fill Layer to Radial.
• Changed the Fill Layer Gradient position.
• Changed the Gradient colours.
• Tried to change the Gradient's position. <- third crash happened here

Other opened application windows:

• Firefox on the second monitor with a lot of tabs open, but the active one was the website of the project I'm working on.
• Steam - viewing a Steam user's profile (has these animated video backgrounds), on the main monitor behind Affinity Photo 2; Chat window; Friends list. (On the third crash all steam windows were closed, still running in the background)
• Minimised: Windows 11's Media Player, (Windows) Terminal, VS Code, Discord

[HoneyOTU]

Hey, adding in here to say I've been having the exact same problem now.

CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
MB: ASRock Z790 PG SONIC
OS: Windows 11 22H2
GPU Driver: AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Version 22.11.2
Displays: 1440p165, 1080p60

App crashes the whole GPU driver, screen goes black for approx. 30-60 seconds. Sometimes stays responsive, sometimes not. Definitely a GPU driver crash, though. Happens regardless of enabling/disabling OpenCL, or using the Intel iGPU vs the AMD dGPU.

Strangely, just opening the app seems to be enough to cause it. I closed the app while the loading splash window was still active, and the driver crashed ~30 seconds later. Dunno what's causing it, but I'll try and get as many logs as I can at some point. Super frustrating - would love to actually use the app again.

[Ian R]

Hi,

I have an all AMD pc and had it overclocked at 2% - my PC was crashing alot using Affinity and other software. However, since I turned off overclocking, using Affinity has become much more stable, as has the pc in general. Practically no black screen crashes or resets needed.

Not my intention to muddy the waters of this thread, just to say my AMD 5900x and 6800xt with 32gb of ram doesn't crash with a black screen, hasn't done using V1 or V2 of AF Photo since I fixed the issue (for me). It has crashed sporadically from time to time ... reason unknown at present.

... as an aside... I do have a separate regular issue, when working in the viewport the rest of the app (icons, menu, shortcuts) eventually freezes after a given number of operations (I use brush tool mainly and have masks and live filters operating, but can happen at any stage). I then have to move to the taskbar and choose another app or use ALT+TAB to flick between windows back to Affinity (Photo) and the app responds again as it should. I thin kiots connected to windows explorer in windows 11 as I had this issue in other apps such as chrome, but its much much worse in Affinity software for some reason.

Hardware Acceleration left turned on. I will see how it goes with it turned off, and get back here if there's a difference.

There's other bugs to such as brush lag, pan tool sticking on, lag on brush use (quite bad in AF Photo V2 compared with V1) and others but I'll try to get over to those threads too.

Windows 11 latest update and AMD Adrenalin V 22.11.2