Hello,
I wonder why X4 gots sometimes "PANIC" critical error crashing game. Firstly, my PC has 32GB RAM, 20GB VRAM (yeah, bulky one). In background i have Chrome (i know, slightly bad idea), however mostly i have less than 18GB of RAM used, what means still a lot of free memory available. And yet game is crashing for "f*ck you, no fun for you* reason. And im wondering why... Any idea hgow to force game to allow to allocate more RAM as it needs up to lets say 25GB?
Thanks for spared time
Version and language: No idea, steam doesnt show; latest runnable with all already relased DLCs; PL text with english voiceover
Modded
Game start being played: Playing as Selaia Tarren
Exact nature of the problem, where and when it occurs and what you were doing at the time: desc above
Any possibly relevant changes you have made to your game, system, or software before the issue occurred: No
Screens: https://imgur.com/a/Dlln2Ax
Your system specifications in the form of a DxDiag report and vulkaninfo: DxDiag: https://pastebin.com/8qANAGqq vulkaninfo: https://pastebin.com/T2pHfjpx
Game has problem with memory
Moderator: Moderators for English X Forum
Game has problem with memory
Last edited by xxx514 on Fri, 3. May 24, 22:07, edited 2 times in total.
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Alan Phipps
- Moderator (English)
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- Joined: Fri, 16. Apr 04, 19:21
Re: Game has problem with memory
With no information provided, I doubt that you will get much more than speculation. Links to Dump files and a DxDiag showing related Error Reports would all help.
A dog has a master; a cat has domestic staff.
Re: Game has problem with memory
Missing things added, thanks for pointing this and apologise for any inconvenience
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Imperial Good
- Moderator (English)
- Posts: 4782
- Joined: Fri, 21. Dec 18, 18:23
Re: Game has problem with memory
At least 1 person reported recently that FireFox in the background can cause this. Try closing as many many background browser applications as possible. This includes software like discord and the like which use integrated chrome browsers.
Make sure your virtual memory page file is set to automatic size. Disabling virtual memory page file or setting it too small can cause issues even if there is a lot of free memory available. If you want to manually cap it (not let windows decide) then choose a value of between 8 and 16 GB.
It says you have "available" memory but at the same time also says you have hit your systems committed limit so Windows is correctly reporting that you are out of memory, as the X4 errors reflect. Try checking the process tab, enabling the commit size header and sorting by that. Is X4, or some other application, using an excessive commit size?
The reason the committed memory does not reflect available is because committed factors in allocated but unused virtual memory pages while available does not. An application could request 8 GB of virtual memory pages which then get added to committed, but not use any of them in which case all 8 GB are still marked as "available". To work around this setting a large virtual memory page file might help, since that would increase your potential committed size, potentially allowing more of your "available" memory to be used. Until the system is out of available memory, the page file should not see significant use no matter its size.
Make sure your virtual memory page file is set to automatic size. Disabling virtual memory page file or setting it too small can cause issues even if there is a lot of free memory available. If you want to manually cap it (not let windows decide) then choose a value of between 8 and 16 GB.
It says you have "available" memory but at the same time also says you have hit your systems committed limit so Windows is correctly reporting that you are out of memory, as the X4 errors reflect. Try checking the process tab, enabling the commit size header and sorting by that. Is X4, or some other application, using an excessive commit size?
The reason the committed memory does not reflect available is because committed factors in allocated but unused virtual memory pages while available does not. An application could request 8 GB of virtual memory pages which then get added to committed, but not use any of them in which case all 8 GB are still marked as "available". To work around this setting a large virtual memory page file might help, since that would increase your potential committed size, potentially allowing more of your "available" memory to be used. Until the system is out of available memory, the page file should not see significant use no matter its size.
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Alan Phipps
- Moderator (English)
- Posts: 30511
- Joined: Fri, 16. Apr 04, 19:21
Re: Game has problem with memory
Not necessarily involved here but you can update your WHQL Nvidia graphics driver from 31.0.15.4633 dated 6 Dec 2023 to 31.0.15.5222 dated 11 Apr 2024.
It may also be that your SoundBlaster sound driver from 2019 can be updated.
Unfortunately your DxDiag does not give Windows Error Reports that may have assisted in identifying the issues as reporting has not been enabled.
It may also be that your SoundBlaster sound driver from 2019 can be updated.
Unfortunately your DxDiag does not give Windows Error Reports that may have assisted in identifying the issues as reporting has not been enabled.
A dog has a master; a cat has domestic staff.
Re: Game has problem with memory
Thanks a lot of clues, that reminded me something I forgot, but firsty about drivers: many times in most of guides and troubleshooting i see "update drivers". If im wrong, correct me please - but im trying to not update things if they are working correctly and are mildly involved to other problems. Firstly - i have no idea how sound drivers may influence missing memory problems. Secondly 'A" - nVidia has messed up with latest drivers adding GeForce Expirience, which mostly im not using, but it remains in memory - imho unnnecesary bloatware. Secondly "B" - i think (yes, it sometimes happens) that nVidia is now focusing at RTX 4000 in their drivers only, putting less focus on older GPUs like mine. Those are reasons Im against any driver reinstaling things. But again - if I am wrong, correct me please.
However more important thing I earlier forgot - previously i had "only" 16GiB of RAM, later Ive added another 16. Therefore physically i have 32Gib, but logically seems that i stil got 16, beacouse I forgot to update setting of page file - which was 8192 - 15 900 MiB. That is altered currently, old file stil sits where Ive put it, but added additional partition on other HDD i had unused with 64GiB of space just for another page file space. Now i should have about 80GiB at those two drives and hope it wil now work correctly.
About 3rd programs in background - Ive had another game or two which were crashing when having firefox opened in background. I had it opened, beacouse I often listening music from YouTube, and Firefox was only one Ive managed to configure to not show any ads. Unfrotunately in last turmoils on YT, Chrome started to block them better, so I started to use that one instead FF for listening music in background.
If i can ask, may you analyze those additional movements Ive done under your guidance to make conclusions if anything should be done additionally?
Thanks for spared time
However more important thing I earlier forgot - previously i had "only" 16GiB of RAM, later Ive added another 16. Therefore physically i have 32Gib, but logically seems that i stil got 16, beacouse I forgot to update setting of page file - which was 8192 - 15 900 MiB. That is altered currently, old file stil sits where Ive put it, but added additional partition on other HDD i had unused with 64GiB of space just for another page file space. Now i should have about 80GiB at those two drives and hope it wil now work correctly.
About 3rd programs in background - Ive had another game or two which were crashing when having firefox opened in background. I had it opened, beacouse I often listening music from YouTube, and Firefox was only one Ive managed to configure to not show any ads. Unfrotunately in last turmoils on YT, Chrome started to block them better, so I started to use that one instead FF for listening music in background.
If i can ask, may you analyze those additional movements Ive done under your guidance to make conclusions if anything should be done additionally?
Thanks for spared time
Re: Game has problem with memory
Some game engines need a 16gb+ pagefile to work properly, but the only one I 100% know of that's like that is Frostbite... even if it's never actually used AT ALL. But maybe X4's game engine expects a large pagefile as well? Who knows.
Also try running the game as administrator. Sometimes that solves funky problems -- primarily with file/folder permissions for save/autosave, but it's worth it to just do that anyways.
Memory errors could indicate an unstable system in general -- bad cooling (case airflow or fans or heatsinks), bad cpu/memory chip/slot, unstable overclock, too much vdroop under load, etc. I recommend prime95 for stability testing (you can disable avx since games don't really use avx). Cinebench is cool, but it's not good for stability testing. Prime95 catches most stability issues real quick, it's not like you need to run it for 24 hours or something.
Also, there's a new-ish feature for nvidia cards that's on by default -- it'll use system ram instead of vram under certain conditions. You never want to do that for gaming. Disable that feature in NVCP.
Also, if you're going to run a browser in the background while gaming (not recommended), definitely disable hardware acceleration for it in it's settings... and probably symlink it's cache folder to a small ramdisk. I would instead use something like foobar2000 and use it to play download music tracks instead -- and set foobar's executable to the lowest possible processor priority, and probably pin it to the 1 least used CPU core.
Also try running the game as administrator. Sometimes that solves funky problems -- primarily with file/folder permissions for save/autosave, but it's worth it to just do that anyways.
Memory errors could indicate an unstable system in general -- bad cooling (case airflow or fans or heatsinks), bad cpu/memory chip/slot, unstable overclock, too much vdroop under load, etc. I recommend prime95 for stability testing (you can disable avx since games don't really use avx). Cinebench is cool, but it's not good for stability testing. Prime95 catches most stability issues real quick, it's not like you need to run it for 24 hours or something.
Also, there's a new-ish feature for nvidia cards that's on by default -- it'll use system ram instead of vram under certain conditions. You never want to do that for gaming. Disable that feature in NVCP.
Also, if you're going to run a browser in the background while gaming (not recommended), definitely disable hardware acceleration for it in it's settings... and probably symlink it's cache folder to a small ramdisk. I would instead use something like foobar2000 and use it to play download music tracks instead -- and set foobar's executable to the lowest possible processor priority, and probably pin it to the 1 least used CPU core.