Windows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallCrashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minute“Not enough video memory” does not automatically mean your graphics card needs replacing. The game may be exceeding its practical VRAM budget, using the wrong GPU, conflicting with an overlay or shader cache, running on unstable overclocked hardware, or encountering a driver, game, or hardware fault.
Start by rebooting, returning GPU and RAM settings to stock, lowering textures and ray tracing, disabling overlays, verifying the game files, and checking which GPU the game is using. Then use the symptoms below to decide whether you are dealing with a settings problem, a software failure, or failing hardware.
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Try these fixes first
- Close the game and reboot Windows.
- Close browsers, launchers, recording software, and other GPU-accelerated applications.
- Disable Steam, Discord, Xbox Game Bar, NVIDIA or AMD overlays, and MSI Afterburner/RivaTuner’s on-screen display.
- Return GPU overclocks, undervolts, VRAM tuning, CPU tuning, custom memory timings, and—if instability is suspected—XMP or EXPO to default.
- Launch the game at its lowest preset or safe mode.
- Lower texture quality first, then disable ray tracing, reduce shadows and reflections, and lower anti-aliasing or resolution.
- Verify or repair the game files through its launcher.
- Reset the game’s shader cache using the game or GPU-driver option where available.
- Check that the game is using the intended discrete GPU.
- Update the graphics driver if it is old, or test the previous known-good driver if the crashes began immediately after an update.
Test after each meaningful change. If one fix works, restore settings one at a time rather than returning everything to the previous configuration at once.
What the error actually means
The wording is not standardized. A game may show “Not enough video memory,” “Out of video memory,” “Failed to allocate video memory,” or “Out of memory.” Related failures can include DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED, DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG, VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE, and VIDEO_MEMORY_MANAGEMENT_INTERNAL.
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In practical terms, the game failed to obtain a sufficiently large or usable graphics-memory allocation at that moment. That can happen before a monitoring tool shows 100% usage: the game may reserve headroom, need a particular type or location of allocation, encounter fragmentation, or calculate a lower budget than the card’s advertised physical capacity.
Windows distinguishes dedicated GPU memory from shared GPU memory. Dedicated memory normally corresponds to physical VRAM on a discrete graphics card. Shared memory is ordinary system RAM that Windows can make available to the GPU. Shared memory is not an upgrade from 6 GB of physical VRAM to 12 GB of equivalent VRAM, and it is generally slower. Microsoft explains these categories in its GPU memory documentation.
Use the symptom to find the likely cause
| Symptom | Most likely direction |
|---|---|
| Only one game crashes | Game settings, corrupted files, shaders, mods, overlays, or a game-specific bug |
| Several demanding games crash at high settings | Limited VRAM headroom, unstable tuning, driver trouble, heat, or power delivery |
| Every 3D game crashes, including at low settings | Driver stack, power, thermal, system-memory, or graphics-hardware problem |
| The screen flickers or goes black, then recovers | Possible Windows graphics-driver timeout, driver failure, power, heat, or hardware fault |
| Colored blocks, sparkles, or missing textures appear | Strong evidence of a possible GPU or VRAM hardware problem |
| The crash occurs only after a long session | Memory leak, thermal saturation, background allocation, shader-streaming failure, or a driver reset |
A single-game failure is not a strong reason to buy a graphics card. Conversely, repeated crashes across multiple games at stock settings should not be treated as a graphics-settings problem indefinitely.
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Change settings in this order:
- Texture quality and texture streaming: Move Ultra to High or Medium. Textures often provide the biggest VRAM saving while allowing you to keep resolution and frame rate.
- Ray tracing: Disable it temporarily. Ray-traced effects can substantially increase practical memory requirements.
- Shadows and reflections: Reduce shadow resolution, shadow quality, and high-resolution reflections.
- Anti-aliasing: Reduce MSAA or use a less memory-intensive mode.
- Resolution or render scale: Reduce these if the earlier changes are insufficient.
- Texture packs, virtual textures, and extended-distance settings: Disable optional high-resolution assets and reduce geometry or draw-distance settings.
NVIDIA identifies resolution, textures, shadows, and MSAA as important video-memory consumers in its graphics-setting guidance, and warns that exceeding available VRAM can cause pauses, missing textures, stutter, and crashes. AMD’s VRAM guidance likewise shows why resolution and ray tracing affect practical memory requirements.
After a major change, restart the game. Leave a buffer below the level that causes a crash rather than trying to run exactly at the reported limit.
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Check which GPU and how much memory the game is using
Choose the high-performance GPU
- Open Settings.
- Go to System → Display → Graphics.
- Add the game executable if it is not listed.
- Select the game and choose Options.
- Choose High performance, then save.
- Restart the game.
Labels can vary by Windows build and laptop manufacturer. While the game is running, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager. On Performance, inspect each GPU. On Processes, add the GPU and GPU-engine columns if they are not visible.
Interpret Task Manager carefully
Use the Performance view to inspect overall dedicated and shared-memory use. Do not treat one number from the Details or Processes view as definitive. Microsoft has documented incorrect dedicated-GPU-memory process counters on some Windows 10 systems; see its GPU memory-counter documentation.
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The game’s estimator, Task Manager, and a monitoring utility may measure different things. A game may also reserve headroom or use a budget below the card’s full physical capacity. High reported usage is therefore evidence to investigate, not proof that the card is defective.
Repair the game, shaders, and overlays
Verify files and remove modifications
Use the launcher’s Verify, Repair, or Verify integrity of game files command. Temporarily disable mods, injectors, custom texture packs, and performance tools. If the game has a configuration-reset option or safe mode, use that before manually deleting files.
Do not delete arbitrary files from the installation directory. Rename or remove custom configuration files only when the game’s documentation or support instructions identify them.
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Reset the shader cache
Clear the shader cache through the game or graphics-driver option where available, then allow shaders to rebuild completely. AMD documents a Reset Shader Cache option in Adrenalin and explains its purpose in its shader-cache support article.
A reset can help after a driver, game, or graphics-API change, but it is not guaranteed to fix an allocation failure. The first launch may take longer and stutter while shaders are compiled again.
Re-enable overlays one at a time if disabling them helped. An overlay or capture tool can inject into the game or consume additional GPU memory.
Update or roll back the graphics driver
Install the current driver from NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel if the driver is old and the game recently changed its engine, API, or shader technology. If the problem began immediately after an update, test the previous known-good driver instead. Record the working version and check later release notes before updating again.
If repeated normal installations fail, perform a clean installation according to the GPU manufacturer’s instructions. Do not begin with registry edits, multiple third-party driver cleaners, or “driver updater” subscriptions.
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If the display flickers, turns black, or recovers after the game closes, you may be seeing a Windows Timeout Detection and Recovery event rather than simple VRAM exhaustion. Microsoft says TDR resets the graphics stack when the GPU takes too long to complete work; the default end-user timeout is approximately two seconds. The Windows+Ctrl+Shift+B shortcut can reset the graphics driver in some display-driver situations, but it is a recovery step, not a permanent repair. See Microsoft’s TDR documentation and screen-flicker guidance.
Return all tuning to stock
Disable GPU core overclocks, GPU undervolts, VRAM overclocks, custom memory timings, CPU overclocks, and custom power or voltage settings. If instability is suspected, also test with XMP or EXPO disabled.
VRAM can be unstable even when desktop use and a favorite benchmark appear normal. AMD documents manual VRAM frequency and memory-timing controls in Adrenalin. A factory-overclocked card can also fail in a particular game. If stock settings stop the crashes, the correct conclusion is that the previous tuning was unstable—not that the game suddenly required more VRAM.
Check temperature, power, and physical connections
Monitor GPU temperature, hotspot temperature where available, clock speed, power draw, and VRAM use. Note whether the crash occurs only after the card heats up or after a predictable amount of play.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsOn a desktop:
- Reseat the graphics card if you are comfortable doing so.
- Check that its power connectors are fully inserted.
- Confirm that the power supply meets the GPU manufacturer’s requirements.
- Use an open side panel only as a temporary diagnostic test, not as a permanent cooling solution.
Test another demanding game or a reputable GPU/VRAM stress test. Artifacts, colored blocks, display dropouts, or repeatable failures at particular memory loads are reasons to suspect defective VRAM or a failing graphics card. They are evidence, not proof, until another test or system confirms the fault. An isolated community report cannot establish a universal VRAM-failure threshold.
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Check system RAM and the page file
Windows’ shared-GPU-memory system is tied to overall system commit capacity, including physical RAM and the page file. A disabled or unusually small page file can contribute to allocation failures in some workloads, although it cannot add physical VRAM or make an underpowered GPU meet a game’s requirements.
Unless you have a documented reason to manage it manually, set the page file to System managed size and ensure the system drive has free space. More system RAM can reduce overall memory pressure and may help integrated graphics, but it does not substitute fully for dedicated VRAM.
Collect evidence before escalating
Use DxDiag
Press Win+R, enter dxdiag, and press Enter. Select Save All Information. The report records the display adapter, driver, DirectX information, and related system details.
Check Event Viewer
Press Win+R, enter eventvwr.msc, and press Enter. Check Windows Logs → System and Application around the crash time. Look for display-driver resets, application errors, or device-related events. Event Viewer is evidence, not a diagnosis by itself.
Record these details for support:
- GPU make and exact model, including dedicated VRAM capacity
- Whether the system has integrated and discrete graphics
- Windows edition and build
- GPU driver version and installation date
- Game version and graphics API, such as DirectX 11, DirectX 12, or Vulkan
- Resolution, texture setting, ray-tracing state, and optional texture packs
- Whether one game or several games fail
- Whether lowering textures fixes the issue
- Whether the display driver recovers, the PC reboots, or the screen remains black
- GPU and hotspot temperatures
- Whether the GPU, CPU, or RAM is overclocked
- Relevant Event Viewer entries and the DxDiag report
When the graphics card may actually be the problem
Hardware becomes more likely when several games fail at stock settings, low graphics settings do not help, crashes follow a repeatable memory or temperature load, or artifacts and display dropouts appear. At that point:
- Complete a clean driver installation.
- Confirm stock hardware settings.
- Check temperatures, power, and connectors.
- Test system RAM if crashes are not limited to graphics applications.
- Test the GPU in another system, or test another known-good GPU in the affected system, when practical.
- Use the manufacturer’s warranty or repair channel if the fault follows the graphics card.
For integrated graphics, the reported “VRAM” may be reserved or dynamically shared system memory. Some firmware allows a reserved-memory change, but the option and its effect depend on the motherboard or laptop. Increasing it is not guaranteed to improve performance.
Do not use these supposed VRAM fixes
- Do not use registry “VRAM unlock” hacks. Software cannot turn a 6 GB card into a stable 12 GB card.
- Do not increase a game’s video-memory scale beyond the card’s physical capacity. Such values change a game’s budget or behavior; they do not create memory.
- Do not use a generic launch flag such as
-availablevidmemunless the specific game’s official documentation recommends it. Such commands are title-specific and can make a game ignore the real limit. - Do not make random BIOS changes.
- Do not delete arbitrary game folders.
- Do not assume shared memory equals dedicated VRAM.
- Do not buy a new GPU solely because Task Manager shows high memory usage.
A GPU upgrade is appropriate when the card consistently cannot run the desired games at acceptable settings, the game’s requirements exceed its practical capacity, or hardware testing confirms a fault. If only one game needs lower textures or ray tracing disabled, those changes are usually the least destructive solution.
Quick Recap
Final checklist
- Reboot Windows and close background GPU applications.
- Disable overlays and mods.
- Return GPU, VRAM, CPU, and RAM tuning to stock.
- Confirm the game is using the intended GPU.
- Lower textures first, then ray tracing, shadows, reflections, anti-aliasing, and resolution.
- Verify game files and rebuild the shader cache where appropriate.
- Update the driver or test a previous known-good version.
- Check temperatures, power, connectors, and system memory.
- Use
dxdiagand Event Viewer to document the failure. - Escalate to hardware testing or warranty support when multiple games fail at stock settings or artifacts appear.
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