Blender freezes when selecting Render Preview on Optix REGARDLESS of blender version

Seemingly this happens for no reason. If Im on optix, and I switch to Render View, it says “loading render kernels” and freezes.

If Im already in render view in Cuda, and switch to Optix, it works fine… its only when i switch from viewport shading to render preview, then it freezes again.

Its sincerely the strangest thing. My version doesnt matter either, I tried some older versions and even the latest 4.0.2 version.

And again, Optix works, I can use it on the render preview ONLY if Im already in the render preview on Cuda and switch to Optix. The second I go out of render view and back into it, it breaks.

Did you try 2.93? After 2.93, they changed a bunch of things regarding rendering. So I often have to resort to going back to 2.93 if I start getting crashes. But if you’re on a post 10 series NVidia card, I would think the issue is much different than mine.