Bad Performance & Crashing: Check Here for Potential Fixes First!

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Too many threads are being made regarding performance issues and crashing.
I've read through a couple dozen of them already and there is no need for more.

Frankly, instead of just creating more threads and bloating the Discussions,
we should summarize it all and make some inferences on what works and what doesn't.

Just making more threads isn't going to make Avalanche patch the game any quicker.
We should help them, not aggravate them by spamming them with reports.

If anyone wishes to contribute to this list, please post and I will update.

Patch 1.02

This patch has introduced more crashing and actually created issues for people who didn't have issues before, so at this time it's best to just wait for more patches.

Diagnosis

It has been "confirmed" that the biggest perpetrator for all of the issues people are experiencing in JC3 is due to its memory leaking. The best "fix" you can possibly make is to upgrade to 16GB or more of system RAM.

You can also increase your system OS's pagefile size in order to have more virtual RAM. This works better if your OS is installed on an SSD.

You could also restart your computer or game every once in a while to allow the RAM to clear out before playing again.

This is by no means a fix, but it is the only known cure at the time if you're unwilling to wait for the game to patch. If you're experiencing difficulty trying to play the game, it may be due to the memory leak, and you can track the game's RAM usage through your Task Manager or through other third-party programs.

Windows 8/8.1/10 Users

Keep in mind that if you're using Windows 8/8.1/10, the OS likes to "cache" data to the RAM but never really offload it, in an effort to allow faster fetching. This means that Windows will keep storing data into your RAM the longer you leave your computer on, which reduces the available RAM that other programs can use. Full details available here.[lifehacker.com]
Disabling Fetching and NDU can help reduce W10's RAM consumption over time.

How to Disable Fetching[www.tekrevue.com]- How to Disable NDU[www.eightforums.com]

Note: Since these change your system's settings, use these guides at your own risk.

Possible Fix - Poor Performance or Stuttering

Apart from having more system RAM, running the game in borderless windowed mode seems to work for some people. It's worth a shot.

Simply go to your Steam Library, right-click and view the game's properties, and then edit the launch options.

Enter the following: /borderless /windowed

Borderless might not be needed, so feel free to test without it enabled if you'd like.

Possible Fix - Crashing or Unable to Load Game

If your game is crashing or not loading up, disabling Windows' Data Execution Prevention (DEP) may help avoid this issue.

Run Command Prompt (cmd) as Administrator, and then type the following line:
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff

Afterwards, restart your computer, and the game will crash less or not at all/start working again.
(If you ever wish to revert this change, simply change "AlwaysOff" to "AlwaysOn".)

Note: If you are not the Administrator of your computer, you will not be able to change this setting. Also, since this changes your system's settings, use the command at your own risk.

Observations

Below are other noted information that may help you out.

Hardware

• Having 16GB or more of system RAM greatly helps in reducing issues.
  
• There are numerous reports of memory leaks.
  
• A possible cause for the memory overusage is the DRM which runs through your RAM.
  
  
• Anyone with a GTX 980 Ti will be able to play fine (although stuttering and FPS volatility might occur in some cases).
  
• Anyone with any other nVidia GPU will probably have problems playing it.
  
• Crashing seems to happen more for AMD users, though it may occur for nVidia users as well.
  
• GTX 970 may be prone to crashing for some users, or not at all for others.
  
• The amount of GPU VRAM doesn't seem to matter.
  
  
• Latest Crimson drivers may help AMD users. Latest Catalyst drivers may help others.
  
• The recently released nVidia drivers may help improve performance.
  Older drivers are available here.[www.techspot.com]
  
  
• The CPU, HDD/SSD, and operating system (OS) you're using doesn't matter.
  
  

  Software

• Tweaking most graphics settings doesn't seem to help much.
  
• DIsabling certain extras in the graphics settings may help.
  
• Disabling Vertical Sync may help.
  
• Running without Steam Overlay may help.
  
• Running in windowed mode may help. Enabling borderless may help too.
  
• Playing in Offline Mode or preventing the game from calling home (setting firewall blocks) may help.
  
• Startup crashes may be fixed by enabling Screen Space Reflections.
  
• Disabling SLI or CFX may help for multiple GPU users.
  
• Underclocking the GPU may help.
  
• Running the game in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode (or other OS's) may help.
  
  

  Issues

• For those without immediate stuttering issues, they may occur after prolonged play.
  
• Exiting the game normally may freeze or stall users for a long period of time.
  
• FPS drops can occur at any time, even during cutscenes.

[StarBound]

The game use to run flawlessly but now I cannot get past the loading screen before it crashs. I really want to get back to playing this game. It's been on my list of things to do but I had other games that needed some love. Now that I have free time I would like to invest some only to find its not working.

Difference between then and now is a fresh install of windows 10 and skylake vs devils canyon.

[Potato Child]

Great, Been able to play the game perfect before. Update DLC.
Crash, Crash, Crash. Thanks

[izwan_safire]

still have frame rate drop from 40-0fps. all setting set low and low resolution it still unplayable. other game run fine. this game so bad.
A10-7700k
16gb RAM
R9 380

[V3ntilator]

I have played it for hours now, and the hickups is now gone after the new patch.
I use newest NVIDIA driver + Win 10.

The game uses up to 5.GB RAM.
For comparison AC Unity uses maximum of 2.8GB RAM.
16.GB RAM is recommended for this game.

I have hardware monitor on my Logitech G19 keyboard, so i can see which core is used most, GPU usage, RAM usage and many other things.

[76561198264133450]

It start to work fine, but after while stutter comeback, frame drop.... this game have menstrual circles.

[Magna Garda]

What a joke. Playtest your own content before you release it. The fact that you suggest upgrading our PCs to counter YOUR team's unsatisfactory "patch" release is abysmal. Shame on you Avalanche

[Zvitatzki]

i noticed this game draw vehicles extrem far away

which it self is a good thing but not neccessary

if look all the other games like grand theft auto V the vehicles dissapear at a not too far distance

and if we are too high in air as example get replaced to fake traffic to reduce fps slow down

is not noticeable at all unless u really look carefully u will see this

is just a hint / suggestion maybe this draw vehicle distance can be scalled down in JC3 like all the other games to increase general perfomance

sorry bad english

[Iceflame]

When the game came out I was probably one of the luckier ones who didn't have much toruble running the game. Sure it had a bit of stuttering sometimes and somewhat long loading times but for the most part I was able to play without any major problems performance wise. I've 100% the game that time. Now that I got access to the DLC it keep stuttering all the time during gameplay. Quite the downgrade.......=(

[Hulio]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von GeorgeDtW:

It start to work fine, but after while stutter comeback, frame drop.... this game have menstrual circles.

Same for me.I started the game after the last patch and for a few minutes I was like "hey,this game sure needs some more optimisation,but now it seems to run well" and after 30 mins,here comes the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ random fps drops.They do not even happen when a lot of explosions or action are been showed on the screen,I can be just using the parachute in the middle of nowhere and the fps go up and down without no reason.

Oh and now I have another issue.Whenever I turn the camera around while being on foot,the frame rate go doooown,but this does not happen when I´m on a vehicle.I can turn as fast as I want while flying a chopper and no fps drops,weird :S

Oh and for those saying that maybe is my PC not being powerful enough to play this game,turning up or down the graphics settings does not make any difference.The game runs like crap with or without full screen,V-Sync,AO and with any texture quality.

[V3ntilator]

This is a lucked based random game.

The game ran bad before the newest patch, but the hickups were as good totally gone. The loading times were alot faster. After i flipped screen to Windows and back. The stuttering was back.
Note that i only use windows defender and Malwarebytes. These other famous heavy virus programs have caused problems for many, so i don't use them.

My RAM were as low as only 400.MB left yesterday ingame. I have realtime hardware monitor on my G19 keyboard.
I'm sure if i added 8.GB more RAM, it would probably remove alot of the stuttering.

Can anyone with around GTX960 / i7 4760 3.6 Ghz specs with 16.GB RAM tell me how the game runs?

[StarBound]

I want to play this game badly but with the memory leak I'll give it another 3 months then hit up a steam refund. I played it for the first 3 days and then sometime before rise of the tomb raider. I even managed to load it after rise of the tomb raider. But now, I might as well watch paint dry.

[Skomekker]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von =GSG=StarBound:

I want to play this game badly but with the memory leak I'll give it another 3 months then hit up a steam refund. I played it for the first 3 days and then sometime before rise of the tomb raider. I even managed to load it after rise of the tomb raider. But now, I might as well watch paint dry.

You can't refund a game that is more than 2 weeks old from when you bought it or if you played it for for more than 2 hours.

[dannyhefc69]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von The Ventilator:

Can anyone with around GTX960 / i7 4760 3.6 Ghz specs with 16.GB RAM tell me how the game runs?

R9 290x / i7 4790 4.0 Ghz / 16gb ram / win 10

Runs butter smooths with max setting @ 1080 60fps with vsync on

[V3ntilator]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von dannyhefc69:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von The Ventilator:

Can anyone with around GTX960 / i7 4760 3.6 Ghz specs with 16.GB RAM tell me how the game runs?

R9 290x / i7 4790 4.0 Ghz / 16gb ram / win 10

Runs butter smooths with max setting @ 1080 60fps with vsync on

Thank you. I'm ordering another 8.GB RAM now for this game. We know that more games will require more than 8.GB soon, so better be ready now. :)

Yesterday the game ran butter smoth for 6 hours in a row with only 8.GB RAM.
I also know that it uses all RAM you have after awhile ingame, so it obvious that 8.GB is too little to make the game run smooth every time you start it.

Here is a GTX960/FX 6300 video of the game running smooth on only 8.GB Ram.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvKVMuHNxMg

[dannyhefc69]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von The Ventilator:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von dannyhefc69:

R9 290x / i7 4790 4.0 Ghz / 16gb ram / win 10

Runs butter smooths with max setting @ 1080 60fps with vsync on

Thank you. I'm ordering another 8.GB RAM now for this game. We know that more games will require more than 8.GB soon, so better be ready now. :)

Yesterday the game ran butter smoth for 6 hours in a row with only 8.GB RAM.
I also know that it uses all RAM you have after awhile ingame, so it obvious that 8.GB is too little to make the game run smooth every time you start it.

Here is a GTX960/FX 6300 video of the game running smooth on only 8.GB Ram.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvKVMuHNxMg

Thats it, may aswel get 16 in your system now and never have to worry about these problems again, well for atleast 5+ years lol