DirectX Dump Files are now ready for your retail games - DirectX Developer Blog

At GDC 2026, we shared our vision for bringing console-level GPU developer tools to Windows, and in June we released the DirectX Dump Files public preview. Thank you to everyone who tried the preview and sent us feedback.
Today, DirectX Dump Files are ready for your retail games. Starting with Agility SDK 1.620 and PIX 2610.28, you can capture GPU crashes on your players’ PCs and on your own machines, then investigate them in PIX using one consistent workflow across hardware vendors.
We couldn’t have done this alone. DirectX Dump Files bring together data from Windows, Direct3D, and each hardware vendor’s driver, and we built them in close collaboration with AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. Thank you to all of our hardware partners. Because each vendor provides its own data, what you’ll see varies by hardware vendor and driver version.
Step-by-step guides are on Microsoft Learn, and the full details are in the specification, D3D12: DirectX Dump Files. For everything else in this release, see the Agility SDK 1.620 announcement and the PIX 2610.28 release post.
A screenshot of all four vendors support of PIX DXDMP files
How a DirectX Dump File gets from a GPU crash to PIX.
How much detail you get depends on where your game is running. Higher overhead options capture more data at a higher runtime cost, so you can choose the right balance for each scenario.
When it makes sense: A crash happens on your own machine, or your QA team hits crashes while testing across a range of PC hardware. You don’t need to reproduce it: you get a dump file when a crash happens. Detail matters more than runtime cost here.
What to do: Call the RetainDumpFile API to keep dump files on disk, ready to open in PIX or attach to a bug report. If the driver doesn’t support NO_OVERHEAD, or a NO_OVERHEAD dump file doesn’t have enough data to find the root cause, select MEDIUM_OVERHEAD or HIGH_OVERHEAD with ConfigureDumpFile in your development and QA builds, or with D3DConfig on your own machine without changing code. Learn more
When it makes sense: Your game has shipped. You don’t want to affect your players’ experience, but if the GPU crashes, you want data you can act on.
What to do: The NO_OVERHEAD dump file driver option is on by default, with no code changes and no impact on players. Drivers that don’t support it ignore it, and you still get a dump file with Direct3D runtime context and your application’s data. To make each dump file useful, add context such as your build ID or current level with AddBlobToDumpFile, and use the dump file end callback to upload the dump file through your crash pipeline. Learn more
When it makes sense: A crash keeps showing up on players’ PCs, you can’t reproduce it, and the default dump files don’t tell you enough to fix it.
What to do: On a few players’ PCs, turn on MEDIUM_OVERHEAD or HIGH_OVERHEAD with ConfigureDumpFile, for example with a command-line argument or a setting your game checks at startup. Higher overhead can lower frame rates or use more memory, so keep it to a session or two, upload the dump files through your crash pipeline, and then turn it back off. Learn more
Here’s what you need and what to do at each stage. The Learn more links go to the step-by-step guides.
Dump files from any GPU include Direct3D runtime context and your application’s data. NO_OVERHEAD is suitable for regular gameplay, with no impact on players; MEDIUM_OVERHEAD and HIGH_OVERHEAD capture more data at a higher runtime cost. Each hardware vendor shares which of its drivers support DirectX Dump Files. For more information, contact your hardware vendor’s developer relations representative.
PIX uses the same views for dump files from every hardware vendor, but what each view can show depends on the data that vendor’s driver and PIX plugin provide. Views marked with an asterisk (*) depend on hardware vendor support. For screenshots and details of each view, see the PIX 2610.28 release post.
* Depends on hardware vendor support.
Tell us what’s working, what isn’t, and what you’d like to see next in the #dxdmp channel on the DirectX Discord, with Help > Send Feedback in PIX, or at dxdmpsupport@microsoft.com.
Senior Product Manager for PIX
Principal Software Engineer
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