Marathon players on PC with an AMD Radeon card: since FSR Frame Generation was switched on, does your game crash or hang on a black screen at launch? Bungie said on November 10, 2026 that it is investigating, and several of you have found ways around it. Let’s compare what actually works on which setup.
Video: "Ordnance Heist Overview | Marathon", official Marathon channel (Bungie), published August 18, 2026 (5:00 PM Paris time). It presents the Ordnance Heist event, which is back from November 10 to November 24 with Update 1.1.9.7; it does not show the black screen bug or a fix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbpkkV-4ck0
What is known (official replies and the Help forum thread):
- Bungie Support (November 10, 10:39 PM Paris time): aware of players reporting the issue with FSR on AMD hardware, investigating; players report that rolling back the AMD driver to 26.9.2 helps for the time being.
- Player-found fix, not official: close the game, back up %APPDATA%\Bungie\Marathon\prefs\cvars.xml, then change frame_generation_mode from 2 to 0.
- Reports so far mention Adrenalin 26.10.1 and Radeon RX 7600 XT, RX 7800 XT, RX 9060 XT and RX 9070 XT cards. Bungie has not published a list of affected GPUs or drivers.
- No fix date yet. Update 1.1.9.7 (November 10) does not mention frame generation.
Questions for players:
- Which fix worked for you: the 26.9.2 rollback, the cvars.xml edit, or deleting the prefs folder? Did any of them fail?
- Your setup: GPU, Adrenalin version (26.10.1 or 26.10.2?), Windows version, and the PC store you play on.
- Has anyone on NVIDIA or Intel seen the same black screen with DLSS or XeSS Frame Generation?
- Once it works again, will you keep frame generation on in Marathon, given the oversized rain droplets Bungie lists and the scope artifacts some players mention? What frame rate do you get with and without it?
Tip: if you post your cvars.xml, only copy the frame_generation_mode line, nothing else from your PC.
Sources: Bungie Support, Marathon Help, November 10, 2026: https://help.marathonthegame.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/55520332032404-Bug-Report-for-AMD-Frame-Generation-and-likely-other-Frame-Generation-types-Crashing-game-on-setting-change-and-launch ; player thread with the cvars.xml fix (October 25 to November 4, 2026): https://help.marathonthegame.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/54953934822420--PC-AMD-FSR-Frame-Generation-causes-persistent-black-screen-on-subsequent-launches-reproducible-via-cvars-xml ; AMD Adrenalin 26.9.2 release notes (September 29, 2026): https://www.amd.com/en/resources/support-articles/release-notes/RN-RAD-WIN-26-9-2.html ; Marathon Update 1.1.9.7 (November 10, 2026): https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/marathon_update_1_1_9_7
Image: official Marathon screenshot from the game’s Steam store page, © Bungie
Full explanation, step-by-step workarounds and their limits: https://tricknfix.com/articles/marathon-amd-fsr-frame-generation-black-screen-crash-on-launch-rollback-26-9-2-cvars-fix/
Version française : https://tricknfix.com/fr/sujet/marathon-en-ecran-noir-avec-fsr-frame-generation-sur-amd-le-retour-au-pilote-26-9-2-ou-l-astuce-cvars-xml-a-t-il-marche-chez-vous-carte-et-p-b665942697/