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Because you're running out of ram and the game has to start writing memory to your disk. And from what I see here, your disk is a hard drive, not a SSD, so that's very inefficient and taxing on your PC. Buy significantly more ram, and ideally a ssd too.
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The game is very memory intensive. Basically, rather than having to recalculate the same value, say how much a factory should produce, the game saves in on memory and reuses this result as many times as it needs. This saves a lot of CPU cycles but as a tradeoff, the game requires significantly more memory than most software.
In your case, the game requires more memory than what your setup can provide so it uses the swap, a small partition on your hard drive, as extra memory. This isn't generally an issue if what's on it doesn't need to be referenced often but in Victoria 3's cases, it does need these values quite frequently which is an issue since the swap is much much slower than RAM. Using a hard drive as your primary storage makes this even worst since it's the slowest kind of hardware out there.
As it has been said previously, getting more RAM and an SSD should help your situation. I'd prioritize the SSD first since it will improve your overall experience with the computer. If you are tight on cash, you don't need to buy one with a very large storage capacity. A small SSD large enough to put your operating system plus a bit of fluff will make a huge difference. You can even keep your hard drive as a separate storage unit to put your larger files and less-used software on it.
Memory-wise, you want at least 16GB of RAM, preferably 32GB if you can afford it. The 8GB shown as part of the recommended specs is very optimistic.
In your case, the game requires more memory than what your setup can provide so it uses the swap, a small partition on your hard drive, as extra memory. This isn't generally an issue if what's on it doesn't need to be referenced often but in Victoria 3's cases, it does need these values quite frequently which is an issue since the swap is much much slower than RAM. Using a hard drive as your primary storage makes this even worst since it's the slowest kind of hardware out there.
As it has been said previously, getting more RAM and an SSD should help your situation. I'd prioritize the SSD first since it will improve your overall experience with the computer. If you are tight on cash, you don't need to buy one with a very large storage capacity. A small SSD large enough to put your operating system plus a bit of fluff will make a huge difference. You can even keep your hard drive as a separate storage unit to put your larger files and less-used software on it.
Memory-wise, you want at least 16GB of RAM, preferably 32GB if you can afford it. The 8GB shown as part of the recommended specs is very optimistic.
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is there a way to create RAM space then? if im running out of space that must mean i can remove those objects
also, my task manager says the type of disk i have is an SSD i dont actually know what any of this means so thanks for the help
it came with the computer and i cant be bothered to do anything about it
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i think the memory might the issue then, as i said to the other guy just before writing this comment, the task manager says i have an SSD so that doesnt seem to be the issue unless its really shit, but i only have 8GB of memory and/or RAM (idk same thing maybe?) so if the preferable amount is double or quadruple that amount i feel like thats the more pressing issue
Yes. 16gb of RAM is the minimum.
I still believe to this day, that they should have put from the start the recommended as the minimum requirements. It would have saved (and still would I see) so many performance complaints problems. Just because of bad expectations put on the buyer
I still believe to this day, that they should have put from the start the recommended as the minimum requirements. It would have saved (and still would I see) so many performance complaints problems. Just because of bad expectations put on the buyer
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8GB is way too little. You're destroying your drive by playing victoria 3 on it (writes reduce the lifespan of a drive). I would honestly quadruple it. Victoria 3 has an immense requirement of memory, and even with 16gb it's going to be constantly writing to your drive, although to a lesser degree. With 32gb, you'll be 100% good in that regard and it's never going to write to your disk unless you also have a ton of other memory-hungry stuff open.
Also, I didn't notice the first time I took a look at your picture, but in the second one, we can see vic3 taking 69% of your cpu, and yet the task manager reports a 100% cpu usage. This means that something else is taking that 31%. Whatever it is, it's not visible on your pics, but you should look into it, because it's significant. The antimalware process is taking 8%, which is pretty big. It tells me that your cpu must be pretty weak as well, and vic3 is also a cpu-intensive process. Your gpu is probably weak too if everything else is. It sucks to say this, but I suspect that pretty much your entire PC is unsuitable for vic3. Ideally, you should post your full specs here so we can confirm and give you the best info we can.
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I'd probably say 32gb should be the minimun.
I was playing a chinese run and I had to quit close to the endgame because the game was unbearable, noticed task manager was using close to 31gb with just windows & the game, so I upgraded to 64, the game broke through 33gb and now the game's running again.
Of course, one of the best CPUs in the market should also be the bare minimun for this game. I'm using an i9 14900k
ive had the game almost since it came out, its been running "fine" before so its probably because of a DLC
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yeah i dont have the best computer and its also a few years old at this point too, ive been trying to figure out whats eating up so much CPU and memory because there is no other big app thats on, i suspect its just because theres so may smaller stuff, for example theres something called "Usermode Font Driver Host" which i dont know what it does nor have i seen it before making this comment but its taking up 0.1% memory and theres a bunch of those. as for the CPU theres barely any being used right now, only 6-7%
i already knew the game was intense, ive had it for some time but at least then it wouldnt crash. what i assume happened was that a new DLC came out and thats why it suddenly started crashing
Victoria 3 steam specs pretend that minimum RAM is 8gb, while recommended is 16gb.
In my experience, 16gb is the minimum, and 32 is recommended.
I started with 16, and the game was painful to play especially in multiplayer where i was the one lagging.
With 32gb is runs very well.
Why steam specs are not updated to real usage by the game is beyond me.
In my experience, 16gb is the minimum, and 32 is recommended.
I started with 16, and the game was painful to play especially in multiplayer where i was the one lagging.
With 32gb is runs very well.
Why steam specs are not updated to real usage by the game is beyond me.
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playing the game without 32 GB of ram destroys your pc and noone tells you anything???
That's not how RAM works.
RAM is temporary extremely high speed storage used by running programs. Nothing is stored in there permanently that can be freed up. You just need to avoid running other RAM-intensive programs at the same time.
32gb isn't a minimum requirement, but I can guarantee that a PC with only 16gb of ram will have vic3 writing to the disk constantly. That's because windows starts writing to the disk when ram usage is roughly at 80%, which it definitely will get to if you run vic3 on only 16gb. I just loaded my 1904 game, and, without unpausing the game, vic3's process is already at 15gb of memory.
This game is also freezing my computer, over and over again.
I only had freezing issues with V3 of all the games, and I didn't have freezing issues with the Indian updated version, so I reasonably believe that Paradox changed some parameters
I have tried many repair methods, including those seemingly useful mentioned on the forum, and even using cmd to repair the system (sfc /scannow, etc.)
The game occasionally uses all 24 threads on my computer to 100%. Could this be some recurring code error? For example, checking for pops/resources?
I love this game so much that I am willing to keep playing despite crashes again and again. I am happy to see the people in the country I control live and work in peace and contentment.
Computer equipment
AMD R9 5900x
32GB DDR4 3200
512GB 970 evo
RTX3070
I only had freezing issues with V3 of all the games, and I didn't have freezing issues with the Indian updated version, so I reasonably believe that Paradox changed some parameters
I have tried many repair methods, including those seemingly useful mentioned on the forum, and even using cmd to repair the system (sfc /scannow, etc.)
The game occasionally uses all 24 threads on my computer to 100%. Could this be some recurring code error? For example, checking for pops/resources?
I love this game so much that I am willing to keep playing despite crashes again and again. I am happy to see the people in the country I control live and work in peace and contentment.
Computer equipment
AMD R9 5900x
32GB DDR4 3200
512GB 970 evo
RTX3070
After searching through forums and trying different methods on my own, I’ve compiled the methods I’m currently using. The first one completely fixed my crashing /freezing issue.
1. Shader Cache Cleaning and Settings
In File Explorer, enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA, find the NVIDIA shader cache, and delete the files in DXCache (DirectX cache) and GLCache (OpenGL cache) (deleting these will also cause other games to rebuild shaders, e.g., MHWs).
Open the NVIDIA Control Panel → Global Settings → Scroll down to Shader Cache Size → Set it to 5GB or higher (it is not recommended to set it to unlimited).
2. Modify the Registry Editor
Press Win + R → Type regedit → Press Enter. If the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears, click "Yes."
In the folder, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort.
On the right side, right-click an empty area → New → QWORD (64-bit) Value, then right-click and rename it to HmbAllocationPolicy, and set the value to 0 (it doesn’t matter if it's in hexadecimal or decimal format, 0 is always 0).
HmbAllocationPolicy is a setting used to control the Host Memory Buffer (HMB) allocation policy and is related to how certain storage devices (especially NVMe SSDs) manage system memory buffers. On some hardware configurations, this setting can prevent the system from over-allocating or entering an unstable state under specific conditions.
After the Windows 24H2 update, some system functions (system calls) try to write data to additional memory locations. If these writes fail, the system rewrites to the original memory area, which might already be in use by something else (e.g., games or drivers), leading to system instability or even crashes.
3. Avoid Using the Latest Drivers
For example, I downgraded to NVIDIA driver version 566.36. Newer drivers often come with issues that users have shared online.
4. Adjust Virtual Memory
Go to System → Advanced System Settings → Advanced → Performance Settings → Advanced → Virtual Memory Settings.
Do not let it automatically manage the paging file size for all drives. Set virtual memory on the C drive to at least 16384MB (I set it to 32768MB, 32GB). Typically, simulation games will store less performance-heavy data in virtual memory, or if RAM is insufficient, the system will use virtual memory on the hard drive.
5. Run CMD and Enter sfc /scannow
Click Start → Type CMD (Command Prompt) and open as Administrator → Type sfc /scannow.
The system will begin scanning and repairing using Windows' built-in tools. After a while, the process will complete and automatically fix any issues. This likely repairs a DirectX engine file or a Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable DLL file.
1. Shader Cache Cleaning and Settings
In File Explorer, enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA, find the NVIDIA shader cache, and delete the files in DXCache (DirectX cache) and GLCache (OpenGL cache) (deleting these will also cause other games to rebuild shaders, e.g., MHWs).
Open the NVIDIA Control Panel → Global Settings → Scroll down to Shader Cache Size → Set it to 5GB or higher (it is not recommended to set it to unlimited).
2. Modify the Registry Editor
Press Win + R → Type regedit → Press Enter. If the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears, click "Yes."
In the folder, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort.
On the right side, right-click an empty area → New → QWORD (64-bit) Value, then right-click and rename it to HmbAllocationPolicy, and set the value to 0 (it doesn’t matter if it's in hexadecimal or decimal format, 0 is always 0).
HmbAllocationPolicy is a setting used to control the Host Memory Buffer (HMB) allocation policy and is related to how certain storage devices (especially NVMe SSDs) manage system memory buffers. On some hardware configurations, this setting can prevent the system from over-allocating or entering an unstable state under specific conditions.
After the Windows 24H2 update, some system functions (system calls) try to write data to additional memory locations. If these writes fail, the system rewrites to the original memory area, which might already be in use by something else (e.g., games or drivers), leading to system instability or even crashes.
3. Avoid Using the Latest Drivers
For example, I downgraded to NVIDIA driver version 566.36. Newer drivers often come with issues that users have shared online.
4. Adjust Virtual Memory
Go to System → Advanced System Settings → Advanced → Performance Settings → Advanced → Virtual Memory Settings.
Do not let it automatically manage the paging file size for all drives. Set virtual memory on the C drive to at least 16384MB (I set it to 32768MB, 32GB). Typically, simulation games will store less performance-heavy data in virtual memory, or if RAM is insufficient, the system will use virtual memory on the hard drive.
5. Run CMD and Enter sfc /scannow
Click Start → Type CMD (Command Prompt) and open as Administrator → Type sfc /scannow.
The system will begin scanning and repairing using Windows' built-in tools. After a while, the process will complete and automatically fix any issues. This likely repairs a DirectX engine file or a Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable DLL file.