Not enough video memory - can it go away ?

[GregD]

Contrary to the red banner always on my screen, the sim runs great !  Can I make this warning go away ? 
It's like driving with a check engine light !    Thanks !  (do not have $2000 for a new video card)

[Justicier10-7]

Right now we're unfortunately stuck with it (for now), but I am hoping with the next patch the VRAM issue and big red message in the corner will be squashed. Out of curiosity, what video card are you running? I'm stuck with an RTX3070 😞

 

Edited August 28 by Justicier10-7
clarity

[AEthelraedUnraed]

8 hours ago, GregD said:

Can I make this warning go away ? 

Yes, very easily. Lower your graphics settings. Especially those that eat up ram, like 4k textures.

8 hours ago, GregD said:

the sim runs great

No, it doesn't. The message tells you that something is not running as it should. 

The fact that IL2 seems to deal with it pretty well and that you don't notice any issues, doesn't mean that there aren't any. Eventually they will turn up and might range from small graphics glitches like LOD issues, to missing textures or effects, all the way to CTD issues. The message is there to tell you beforehand why this happens, and that the game is not to blame.

[AndreiTomescu]

To be noted that vram usage is stacking up. Like if you restart the same mission, the vram will be higher the next time. And then higher. The increase is about 1.5 gb with each restart of a mission.

Restarting the game resets the vram consumption.

Maybe it might help.

[Juri_JS]

18 minutes ago, AndreiTomescu said:

To be noted that vram usage is stacking up. Like if you restart the same mission, the vram will be higher the next time. And then higher. The increase is about 1.5 gb with each restart of a mission.

Restarting the game resets the vram consumption.

Maybe it might help.

That's what I noticed too. The message usually only appears after flying several missions. No idea what the technical reasons are, maybe @AEthelraedUnraed can explain it?

[LuftManu]

VRAM keeps adding load after every flight. Seems like something to report to the team.

 

 

[MajorMagee]

Sounds like it would fall in the programming category of a memory leak.

[Husar]

For sure  that the game load increases after each sortie in multiplayer servers. 

[Panzerkatze]

 GPU driver memory management refers to how operating systems and graphics drivers allocate and handle Video RAM (VRAM) and Shared GPU Memory from system RAM to support graphical workloads. Try this:

In Windows 10/11 the fastest way to reset the GPU driver and clear its memory is pressing Win + Ctrl + Shift + B, which restarts the graphics driver in about two seconds. Black screen while that is normal. If you have lots of background applications running and taking GPU VRAM, you can close them via Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and sort by the GPU Memory column to end tasks consuming resources. 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

4 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

That's what I noticed too. The message usually only appears after flying several missions. No idea what the technical reasons are, maybe @AEthelraedUnraed can explain it?

It's been years since I last dabbled in GPU stuff in a non-AI related context, so I must admit I'm not as up-to-date as I could be.

That said, as I'm sure Aapje already noted in another thread, the warning appearing after several missions might be cached memory, with the game's memory counter failing to realise it can be freed again. Or it might be a memory leak.

I don't think that's the issue here though, since the OP explicitly says the error always appears; not only after a while. That makes it very unlikely it's related to either caching or a memory leak.

In any case, if the game actually doesn't have enough VRAM, it will lead to issues. It might be something as minor as 4k textures being swapped for lower-resolution ones, and that's likely so in 99% of all cases. But if you're unlucky and something essential cannot be written into VRAM, you may run into some various very unpredictable issues, including crashes. And that's the reason that hiding the message isn't a good idea.

Edited August 29 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Captain_Trips]

1 hour ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

And that's the reason that hiding the message isn't a good idea.

Perhaps, but being able to dismiss it after being notified would be nice.

I've played quite a bit with that showing without problems.

[ShamrockOneFive]

I'm 100% in favour of removing the message. Yes, I see it after a couple of flights, no I don't really want to see it in the top right corner. Useful for debugging and the like so it should be an option but I'd be happy to not see it. Hopefully VRAM management can be improved so it comes up less.

[GregD]

On 8/28/2026 at 4:53 PM, Justicier10-7 said:

Right now we're unfortunately stuck with it (for now), but I am hoping with the next patch the VRAM issue and big red message in the corner will be squashed. Out of curiosity, what video card are you running? I'm stuck with an RTX3070 😞

 

same..RTx3070 - looked for upgrades recently and damn near choked!

Aside from pixelation on trees at low level based on my choices, it's perfectly fine. The only video bugs I ever saw was descending under an invisible parachute (me, shot down? never!) once....  and on night missions not seeing any "fire" from jet engines when looking from the rear in outside view, who cares... That may not even be a bug..  I appreciate the perspective from AEthelraedUnraed that something's low/wrong but honestly I'm not complaining about any crashes so I'd like the option to dismiss the message, it's distracting. And I misspoke, it's indeed after the first couple missions, not right away.  

Edited August 31 by GregD