Excessive VRAM Usage

[jvjegs4130]

First post here, and I’m pretty new to steam.

I’m hoping someone will have a suggestion or solution for my son’s computer.

I built a cheap beginner setup for my 5 yr old (he saw me playing games on mine and wanted one. Seemed like a good project together) He really wanted Railway Empire.

Specs are:
AMD Phenom II x6 1045t
Radeon R9 280x 3GB VRAM
Evga 500w bronze
2x2GB DDR3 1333mhz
250GB HDD

The problem we keep having happens after the menu screen. During loading of the terrain, the game freezes and crashes to desktop. Radeon software then gives a driver timeout message. Game requirements say 1GB VRAM, but GPU-Z says it’s using almost 3100MB during loading. I know that the minimum requirements are just guidelines and the game may use more than that, but 3x more seems excessive. I’m running the game on lowest graphics settings. It will also run MX vs ATV in Steam, and Lego: Legacy Heros downloaded from Microsoft store, so I’m thinking it’s not a GPU issue.

Any suggestions?

[nullable]

Well outside of updating the GPU driver, I'd post on the Railway Empire forum as this sounds like a game specific issue.

[Kobs]

You might check task manager and shut down any task related to GPU it might help during loading

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Also prob good idea to raise the RAM to 8 GB, Windows alone will use a hefty chunk of that 4 GB.

[jvjegs4130]

Publicado originalmente por Rumpelcrutchskin:

Also prob good idea to raise the RAM to 8 GB, Windows alone will use a hefty chunk of that 4 GB.

Yeah 2GB is at idle. That will be the first upgrade, and is probably the straw that broke the camels back. There isn’t any RAM left when the GPU demands extra.

[jvjegs4130]

Publicado originalmente por Snakub Plissken:

Well outside of updating the GPU driver, I'd post on the Railway Empire forum as this sounds like a game specific issue.

It’s a clean build with all drivers up to date. I don’t know if it’s game specific, since it was happening to other games too. Default GPU clock is was 500mhz in the Radeon software. A bit of research told me the 280x runs better at 850. Changing it up seemed to get rid of issues in other games, but they didn’t have nearly the VRAM demands of Railway.

[jvjegs4130]

Problem solved. V-sync on and fps limited to 60. I can't believe the GPU demands of this game...

[Mad Scientist]

Publicado originalmente por jvjegs4130:

Problem solved. V-sync on and fps limited to 60. I can't believe the GPU demands of this game...

Try 7 Days to Die, it uses up to 10.4 GBs of VRAM on max settings.

[Magma Dragoon]

GPU-Z just shows how much memory is allocated, knowing how much is actually being used would require a driver or engine profiler.

[Mad Scientist]

Publicado originalmente por Magma Dragoon:

GPU-Z just shows how much memory is allocated, knowing how much is actually being used would require a driver or engine profiler.

GPU-Z shows you how much memory is actively being used at any given moment on the SENSORS tab...

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Most common reason on newer games for that type of crash to desktop is because you have a legacy cpu that's no longer supported by most 64bit games. It lacks SSE 4.x

Anything in an AM3 Athlon or Phenom can only run old ganes for the most part at this time now, as the SSE 4.x requirement for many modern ganes means the minimum cpu needs to be AM3+ based AMD FX, such as FX-6300 or better... from a strictly AMD CPU example of things.

[Porky Pig]

So you can game on a AM3+

[upcoast]

Publicado originalmente por sjohn29:

So you can game on a AM3+

:lunar2019crylaughingpig:

Ya sure, I can play rotr, fcnd and BFV on FX8350/ rx580 or GTX1070 fine.

[Porky Pig]

Publicado originalmente por upcoast:

Publicado originalmente por sjohn29:

So you can game on a AM3+

Ya sure, I can play rotr, fcnd and BFV on FX8350/ rx580 or GTX1070 fine.

I was responding to Bad@Motha, I should have quoted him really.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

I have yet to find a game that can't run properly on my older machine I let my family kids play on; which has the following specs.

ASUS Sabertooth 990FX Rev2 (AM3+) Motherboard
AMD FX-8370 CPU @ 4.8Ghz w/ BeQuiet Dark Pro 4 Cooler (Cool & Quiet + Turbo Disabled)
4x 4GB DDR3-1866 (DOCP profile enabled)
250GB SSD w/ Win10 64bit 20H1 + Apps + Game Clients
2TB SSD w/ Games
EVGA GTX 1080Ti Hybrid
Sound Blaster XFI Fatality PCIE Sound Card
ASUS 27 inch Monitor; 1080p + 144Hz via DisplayPort

Many games I tried out on it just by swapping in a Phenom II 965 BE that I had left over from years back that wasn't worth trying to resell; plenty of the modern games refuse to run on this CPU, and those that do run so poorly they are basically unplayable cause this CPU is SO slow compared to even a stock 8350 or 8370; for Gaming no Phenom really would surpass an FX-4300 in most games.

[Porky Pig]

Yeah I had an old PC with a Phenom II 965 BE, some games wouldn't play due to a missing SSE instruction.