GPU Crash Recorder

GPU Crash Recorder is an AMD-first Windows diagnostic tool for unexplained game, GPU, and graphics-driver crashes. Press one hotkey to begin a synchronized system-wide recording, reproduce the problem, then press the hotkey again to generate a complete offline report.

It is observational only: it does not tune clocks or voltage, inject into games, install a driver, or upload data.

Beta: The recorder has been tested on Windows 11 with an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. It is useful today, but hardware and Windows-event coverage varies by system. Always treat automated findings as evidence, not proof of a root cause.

What it records

• AMD GPU utilization, clocks, VRAM, temperatures, board power, voltage, and fans through ADLX when the card exposes them;
• CPU load, memory pressure, process activity, and foreground-window history;
• system-wide frame times, FPS, presentation mode, latency, dropped frames, tearing, and stutters through PresentMon;
• WHEA, display-driver, LiveKernelEvent, application-crash, WER, kernel, and related Windows events;
• new crash dumps, WER reports, LiveKernelReports, and user-configured game crash folders;
• Windows, BIOS, motherboard, CPU, RAM, GPU, driver, storage, and page-file inventory;
• timestamped bookmarks and focused five-minute-before/one-minute-after crash windows.

Every collector uses a shared timeline. If one source is unavailable, the others keep recording and the report explains the gap.

Download and use

Download the Windows x64 ZIP from GitHub Releases. This early build is unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen may show a warning.

1. Run GPUCrashRecorder.exe and accept the administrator prompt.
2. Press Ctrl+Alt+F10 to start recording. The tray icon turns red.
3. Reproduce the crash, freeze, stutter, or visual problem.
4. Optionally press Ctrl+Alt+F11 to add a manual marker.
5. Press Ctrl+Alt+F10 again to stop and generate the report.
6. Right-click the tray icon and select Open Latest Report.

Sessions are stored under:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\GPUCrashRecorder\Sessions\YYYY-MM-DD\SESSION_HH-MM-SS\

The main output is a self-contained report.html. The session also retains its authoritative SQLite database and CSV, JSON, and JSONL exports for deeper investigation.

Privacy

Nothing is uploaded automatically. Reports stay on your PC, but they can contain process names and paths, hardware identifiers, Windows events, and crash dumps. Review a session before sharing it publicly. Crash dumps may contain fragments of application memory.

AMD and other GPUs

AMD cards receive detailed GPU telemetry through the ADLX runtime installed with AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition. Metrics depend on the GPU and driver, and unsupported values are marked unavailable.

On a non-AMD system, the recorder can still collect system, process, Event Log, crash-artifact, and PresentMon evidence, but vendor-specific GPU telemetry is not implemented yet. The collector design is vendor-neutral so NVIDIA and Intel providers can be added later.

Configuration

The tray menu opens %LOCALAPPDATA%\GPUCrashRecorder\config.json. Restart the application after editing it.

• Start/stop hotkey: Ctrl+Alt+F10
• Manual marker hotkey: Ctrl+Alt+F11
• AMD GPU sample interval: 250 ms
• System sample interval: 1 second
• Process sample interval: 500 ms

Artifact paths are additive. Generic Windows crash locations are included by default; add a game or application's own crash directory in artifact_paths when needed.

Build from source

Requirements:

• Windows 10 or 11 x64;
• Rust stable with the x86_64-pc-windows-msvc target;
• Visual Studio Build Tools with the MSVC C++ workload and Windows SDK.

Clone the ADLX submodule and build:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/MaharshPatelX/gpu-crash-recorder.git
cd gpu-crash-recorder
cargo build --release

The executable is written to target\release\gpu-crash-recorder.exe. PresentMon 2.5.1 is embedded and checksum-verified before use. The application manifest requests administrator privileges for reliable ETW, Event Log, process, and crash-artifact access.

Run the checks with:

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo test --lib
cargo check --all-targets

Current limitations

• Windows 10/11 x64 only; AMD is the first fully supported GPU vendor.
• The executable is not code-signed and there is no installer or auto-updater.
• CPU temperature and package power require a future optional sensor provider.
• Polling can observe a process exit without knowing its exact exit code unless Windows records separate crash evidence.
• The recorder collects existing crash dumps but does not change the global WER LocalDumps policy.
• Low-level PCIe state not exposed by ADLX or Windows is inferred from WHEA and device/event evidence; no kernel driver is installed.

See plan.md for the detailed architecture and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for bundled components.

Contribution policy

This repository is published for transparency and downloads, but it is not accepting pull requests, Issues, or feature requests. Security vulnerabilities can still be reported privately as described in SECURITY.md.

License

GPU Crash Recorder is available under the MIT License. Third-party components retain their own licenses.