What nogpucrashdebugging does in WARDOGS, and how to add it

What it is: a launch option, not an error

Nothing in WARDOGS displays “nogpucrashdebugging”. It is text a player types into Steam’s Launch Options box, which Steam passes to the game every time it starts. WARDOGS runs on Unreal Engine 5, and in that engine GPU crash debugging is a documented feature: Epic’s documentation says NVIDIA Nsight Aftermath can be turned on with the console variable r.GPUCrashDebugging=1, or “by passing it as a command line argument: -gpucrashdebugging”. Epic describes Aftermath as light enough that “it can even ship with finished games” to collect crash data from players’ machines. The “no” form players use is the opposite switch by its name; Epic’s page does not document it, and BULKHEAD has not said whether WARDOGS turns crash debugging on by default.

What engine WARDOGS runs on →

What Intel says, for the Arc B580

Intel’s support article 000103295, last reviewed 15 September 2026, is about one card. It says WARDOGS caused frame drops and stuttering for Arc B580 users “occurring every 3-5 seconds and unaffected by changes to graphical settings”, that “the game's request for GPU crash debug information is the likely cause of the stuttering”, and that adding the option to the game’s boot options in Steam “completely resolved” it. Its listed resolution is not the option but a driver: “Please update to 32.0.101.8993 or later.” So on an Arc B580 the first step is the driver; the option is the workaround Intel describes. The article says nothing about NVIDIA or AMD cards.

The “Outdated Graphics Driver” warning and the minimum versions players report →

What players report on other cards

Everything else is player accounts on the Steam board, and they split. Some describe large frame-rate gains, one says it stopped hourly crashes, others notice nothing. Nobody posts a benchmark, names a build, or says what else changed between runs — a driver, a patch, a setting — so treat these as reasons to try it, not as measurements.

• The crash claim is one player’s. It is the opposite of what the option’s name says it does — it turns crash debugging off, it does not fix crashes — and no other source connects the two.
• The option often travels inside a longer string, such as “-dx12 -high -USEALLAVAILABLECORES -nogpucrashdebugging -xgeshadercompile -nothreadtimeout -NoVerifyGC -gc.Interval=60” (11 October). This page covers one option only. Answering that string in another thread, a player wrote that “The dx12 flag is useless as the game is DX12 only”.

How to add it, and how to take it out

The path players give is Steam’s standard one. Steam saves the box per game, so the option stays until you delete it, and it does nothing outside WARDOGS. If the box already holds other options, put a space between them. To undo it, delete the text and close the window — or use the line builder at the top of this page, which keeps the rest of your line intact.

1. 01

   Open your Steam Library

   In the Steam client, not the store page.

2. 02

   Right-click WARDOGS → Properties…

   The General tab opens first.

3. 03

   Find Launch Options

   The text box at the bottom of the General tab.

4. 04

   Type -nogpucrashdebugging

   With the leading hyphen, no quotes. Close the window; Steam saves it.

5. 05

   Start the game normally

   Steam passes the option on every launch until you remove it.

What it may cost you

If the option does what its name says, the game collects less information when the graphics card crashes. That matters to the studio more than to you: BULKHEAD’s Season 1 notes say GPU crash reports now carry more detail so the team can act on them faster. No source says whether the option changes what WARDOGS’ crash report contains, and nothing suggests it is against the rules — it is a standard Steam setting, not third-party software. If you are reporting a GPU crash to BULKHEAD, saying whether the option was on is useful context.

What BULKHEAD has fixed and what is still reported about crashes →

What is not established

No source checked for this page — Intel’s, Epic’s and BULKHEAD’s included — publishes the following:

• What the option does on NVIDIA and AMD cards, measured on a named build.
• Whether WARDOGS turns GPU crash debugging on by default, and on which cards.
• Whether the option changes what a WARDOGS crash report contains.
• Whether driver 32.0.101.8993 alone fixes the Arc B580 stutter without the option.
• Whether BULKHEAD considers it safe, unnecessary or harmful. The studio has not mentioned it.

Common questions