Red Dead Redemption 2 — How to Fix "ERR_GFX_STATE"

The game loads to the main menu, then closes with an "ERR_GFX_STATE" error the moment you continue into story mode. Some players only hit it after reaching a specific point in the story; others get it on every launch.

A Vulkan pipeline-cache fault. The error is tied to the Vulkan renderer specifically — players already running DirectX 12 generally do not see it.

The cache files become corrupt and the game fails to rebuild them cleanly, which is why deleting them works but the error often returns on the next launch until you also change the API.

A third-party startup item interfering with the renderer at initialisation, which is why disabling startup apps fixes it for a subset of players.

In Settings > Graphics > Advanced, change Graphics API from Vulkan to DirectX 12 and restart. This is the simplest fix and the one Rockstar’s own support path points at. You can switch back to Vulkan later by loading a save on DX12 first.

Go to Documents\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2\Settings and delete every file beginning with sga_ (for example sga_vulkan_final_init.vkPipelineCacheWindows). Launch, load your save, move the character to a different area and make a new save.

In Steam: right-click the game > Properties > Launch Options. On Epic: Settings > the game > Additional Command Line Arguments. Rockstar documented this argument for exactly this error.

In Documents\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2\Settings, open system.xml and change kSettingAPI_Vulkan to kSettingAPI_DX12. This is the recovery path when the game crashes before you can reach Settings.

Disable third-party startup items and services via Task Manager and msconfig, then test. If the error began right after a driver update, roll the driver back rather than forward.

Load the exact save that was failing, ride for ten minutes through a demanding area, then quit and relaunch once more — the error frequently returns on the second launch if only the cache was deleted and the API was never changed.

Steam refunds within 14 days of purchase and under 2 hours of playtime, and documented technical faults are sometimes accepted past that. Microsoft Store and Epic follow similar rules with store-specific exception paths.

Attach crash logs, a DxDiag and the steps you already tried. A denied refund can sometimes be overturned when you can show the game is genuinely unplayable rather than simply disliked.

If the failure follows an anti-cheat ban or a modified online client, no store will refund it. That is a separate category from a game that will not run.