Constant "Device Removed" / DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG (Error 0x887a0006) - DWM crashes simultaneously

Hello everyone,

I'm experiencing constant and unplayable GPU crashes in Path of Exile 2. The game freezes, the screen goes black for a second, and then it crashes to the desktop.

I want to specify right away that my PC is perfectly stable in every other heavy game, this issue happens exclusively with PoE 2.

Looking at the Windows Reliability Monitor, I found a huge clue: at the exact same second PathOfExile.exe crashes (Exception code e0000001 in KERNELBASE.dll), the Windows Desktop Window Manager (DWM.exe) crashes as well. This clearly indicates a severe GPU driver timeout (TDR) forced by the game engine.

Here is the exact snippet from my Client.txt right before the crash:

[CRIT Client 13152] [D3D12] CommandBufferD3D12::End() cmd_list->Close failed
[CRIT Client 13152] [EXCEPTION] CommandBufferD3D12::End() cmd_list->Close failed
[CRIT Client 13152] [D3D12] Device Removed. Reason: 0x887a0006
[DEBUG Client 13152] [D3D12] Failed to CreateResource (error: 0x887a0005)
[DEBUG Client 13152] [D3D12] Device removed reason: 0x887a0006
Troubleshooting steps I have already tried (without success):

Switched from DirectX 12 to Vulkan (crashes still happen exactly the same).

Clean installed the latest GPU drivers using DDU in Safe Mode.

Disabled Nvidia Reflex and lowered all in-game settings (Shadows, Global Illumination, etc.).

Increased the TdrDelay to 10 in the Windows Registry.

Disabled Windows MPO (Multi-Plane Overlay).

Cleared the PoE 2 Shader Cache.