Possible Memory Leak Fix - Worked for me

[Hunaid786110]

Hey all, sorry for my bad english. i got a great fix or you can say the best fix to freezing. I tried underclocking my gpu. I swear man, there was no freezing at all. I played the game for 6 hours non stop. Before it used to freeze in 10 to 15 minutes.

I used riva tuner 2.24, went into driver setting, then overclocking setting, and reduced the core clock, shader clock and the memory clock 10%-15% from its original setting.

For example your core clock is set to 900, so 10% of 900 is 90. So reduce it to 810. Do the Same to all three.

Well it has been tried and tested and works 100%. no performance loss, no loss of frame rates nothing. Instead i had an increase in the frame rate about 20 more.

Plz brothers, try it, it really works. Hope it helps you all.

And one more thing, dont forget to delete all the tweaks, commandline file and anything other before applying this. You can use Memturbo but no tweaks in file or commandline.

Tnx in advance.

Edited March 4, 2009 by Hunaid786110

[truehighroller]

OK, guys, here's the proof of the fekking memory leak. This is a fairly good system and the impact of the mem leak is minor, but it's obvious it exists. And it explains the random stuttering that occurs after an hour or so.

 

The image is a bit long, but it's very descriptive

 

 

 

This log has been created with Everest, with my CPU NOT overclocked and memory running at 1000MHz. All the specs are in the sig, Vista is a clean SP1 32 bit. As you can see, the initial memory footprint of my system is about 600MB. When GTAIV loads it takes up some 1GB and it goes up from there. In about one hour it uses almost 2GB and that would be the limit that one single app can use on a 32 bit OS.

 

When I load a savegame, the game grabs the chance to clear some of the crap it no longer needs, so it goes back to about 1GB and as times passes by it gets back to standard levels - i.e. it takes as much as it can be taken.

 

Note that Everest says I have 4GB of RAM at my disposal, but this is not correct, as this is a 32 bit system. I offer original log files for completeness. The first one is from a few days back, with my CPU overclocked on 3.2GHz. The second on is from yesterday and it matched the image above.

 

PC build my ass.

Ok so, now we know why it isn't as bad on 32bit systems. You are the man for proving this. I think you should make an OP and they should sticky this sh*t until R* fixes it.

[mkey82]

Ok so, now we know why it isn't as bad on 32bit systems. You are the man for proving this. I think you should make an OP and they should sticky this sh*t until R* fixes it.

You know, I have 64bit Windows7 lying around, I'll give it a whirl later on and see what happens.

 

Also, we know crap, because I have loads of memory even though it does start to stutter after one hour. I could remove one stick of RAM and see what happens, but then it wouldn't be DDR so that would tarnish the results.

[truehighroller]

 

Ok so, now we know why it isn't as bad on 32bit systems. You are the man for proving this.    I think you should make an OP and they should sticky this sh*t until R* fixes it.

You know, I have 64bit Windows7 lying around, I'll give it a whirl later on and see what happens.

 

Also, we know crap, because I have loads of memory even though it does start to stutter after one hour. I could remove one stick of RAM and see what happens, but then it wouldn't be DDR so that would tarnish the results.

Yeah you are the man for proving this. I did the whole commandline thing "finally, I had been not wanting to go that far with it TBH" I did the memrestrict command and noticed that everything is fine for a little while and then boom, it hits that memory restriction and it starts getting random pop ins and buildings take longer to generate correctly and I was thinking like wow so, this thing is really that bad.. Then I started looking around and thinking. I noticed other people saying, mine runs fine but I get popins and things take awhile to appear... Put two and two together.

 

 

 

I was like damn this thing is already implemented for them it seems like and they are just seeing the game not going over that hard limit set by the game for them and they have no programming background and just don't know that they are actually seeing the memory leak as well. The difference being that their's has the limit set by the game for some reason "unlike mine". Now you have further proven that the memory leak is there for everyone even, people running 32 bit systems. That is just awesome in my book.

 

 

Edit: I have Windows 7 as well and actually I did run this game on it when I had it installed, and the memory leak was still there for me.

Edited March 4, 2009 by truehighroller

[mkey82]

I haven't been using any restriction removing command lines, those usually made things even worse (i.e. more pop-up and stutter). Anyway, it's obvious that people with less free RAM will experience more problems and a lot sooner.

[truehighroller]

I haven't been using any restriction removing command lines, those usually made things even worse (i.e. more pop-up and stutter). Anyway, it's obvious that people with less free RAM will experience more problems and a lot sooner.

Yes it does make it worse. Mine would actually run longer with less issues with the leak just going ahead and sucking the rest of my memory up. I hope they fix it soon. Tell me what happens with you and Windows 7. I have a funny fealing it will result in the same issues though.

[mkey82]

I haven't been using any restriction removing command lines, those usually made things even worse (i.e. more pop-up and stutter). Anyway, it's obvious that people with less free RAM will experience more problems and a lot sooner.

Yes it does make it worse. Mine would actually run longer with less issues with the leak just going ahead and sucking the rest of my memory up. I hope they fix it soon. Tell me what happens with you and Windows 7. I have a funny fealing it will result in the same issues though.

I'll check it out this weekend. The last time I had some weird sound glitch though. One part of sounds was missing, one part was phased out (like in the distance), one part got delayed and so on. Very strange. And only in GTA IV, otherwise the sound was doing OK.

[Gen0cide_]

On the basis of it being a memory leak (Memory that isn't cleaned up even though it should be), wouldn't it just eat into the rest of the memory that GTA is actually using once it hit the memory limit, because my previous experiences with memory leaks is there is no way to limit them except flush the memory, and that is why they cause BSoDs and CTDs.

[mkey82]

I don't know is it a leak or whatever, but the memory footprint of the game increases steadily over time and causes stuttering when it reaches some 2GB (the 32 bit limit).

 

So it probably isn't totally random, but more like this; the game allocates memory when needed but it doesn't free it up in due time, that is until something "major" happens like loading a savegame.

[Gen0cide_]

I don't know is it a leak or whatever, but the memory footprint of the game increases steadily over time and causes stuttering when it reaches some 2GB (the 32 bit limit).

 

So it probably isn't totally random, but more like this; the game allocates memory when needed but it doesn't free it up in due time, that is until something "major" happens like loading a savegame.

Which is when it flushes memory. (Clears all game info so it can load your savegame on top.)

 

I think its similar to the original Firefox memory leaks. It grows until it cant any more, then it eats into the memory firefox is actually using, forcing firefox to compact itself and lose performance, until you kill and restart FF. (or reload a save on GTA4)

[mkey82]

Maybe alt-tabing helps as well with this process, I'll have to give it a try.

 

All in all, I don't think crashes are (at least in my case) leak related. I had "only" 4 of those up to this point (more were Securom related, at loading, but I got rid of that crap) during some 50 hours of playtime.

[truehighroller]

 

Maybe alt-tabing helps as well with this process, I'll have to give it a try.

 

All in all, I don't think crashes are (at least in my case) leak related. I had "only" 4 of those up to this point (more were Securom related, at loading, but I got rid of that crap) during some 50 hours of playtime.

Alt+Tabbing does the same thing as the memrestrict according to R* Torronto but, I think it is indeed different because when you alt+tab to your desktop it actually frees up some of the memory that the game has soaked up by force, Vista grabs it back like hey I need this biatch.

 

 

With the restrict command it is actually telling the game, this is all you get once you hit it your screwed sorry. You can alt+tab out and get the game to play for probably 7 or 8 hours but, eventually your desktop background will disapear and the game will lock up the system, in other words it still eats into it, it just makes it slow down the process that's all.

 

 

I actually started telling people to alt+tab out to resolve the issue for a little longer when the game first came out on PC. Then I seen R* telling people too.... Hell R* told me too and I was like yeah, I kinda told people that to begin with.. I actually want it fixed...... Of course they didn't respond after that. Hell I sent them an email requesting help and no response yet over 48hrs later. I think they are shunning me.. but, that's ok. I can get a response from them if I really want too.

Edited March 5, 2009 by truehighroller

[levmans]

hi. i've tried to turn off windows paging file and it helps. i have vista ultimate 64 4GB ram and GF8600GTS 256 MB

[mkey82]

Vista grabs it back like hey I need this biatch.

 

Did you PM the R* Toronto guy or you sent an email to the support? Because Toronto guy hasn't posted here for well over a month.

[truehighroller]

 

Vista grabs it back like hey I need this biatch.

 

Did you PM the R* Toronto guy or you sent an email to the support? Because Toronto guy hasn't posted here for well over a month.

I actually haven't heard from him in a long time but, this is what he had said to me in one of my threads that I had started here back when this was released!

 

 

 

The best solution at the moment is using the -memrestrict command line as discussed here:

 

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=384614

 

ALT-TAB can work also, but it can also result in an immediate RESC10 error.

 

 

Here we are several months later still having the same f*cking issue!

[mkey82]

I don't think this will be fixed. Until a new GTA get's released that is.

 

R* Toronto hasn't posted recently, but he does come regularly. Maybe contacts people via PM. Anyway, what can he do? There are a few fixes which can be applied and he can direct people in that direction. Nothing more.

[truehighroller]

I don't think this will be fixed. Until a new GTA get's released that is.

 

R* Toronto hasn't posted recently, but he does come regularly. Maybe contacts people via PM. Anyway, what can he do? There are a few fixes which can be applied and he can direct people in that direction. Nothing more.

The game doesn't work right at all. This reminds me of a tiger woods game from EA it is so bad, hell worse even. tHAT IS PRETTY BAD.

[mkey82]

OK, I tested 64bit Windows7. The video driver was the default one that came bundled with it (8.12 I think). It was a clean install, without Securom and any of that crap. I installed only the run time libraries to get it working *.

 

I must say, that on comparable settings it runs a lot better in Windows7 then it does on Vista. I get 5 to 7 more FPS (fraps, not benchmark) during heated action AND 25% of stutter I get in Vista. Problems occur after one hour because I have only 4GB or RAM

 

Game version 1.0.1.0

Clips - off

textures - medium

rendering - highest

draw d - 30

detail d - 50

cars - 50

shadows - 0

 

* note - even though this was 64bit OS and this game is enhanced for 64 bit, you need to isntall 32 bit version of t runtime libraries to get it to work. At least on my setup.

 

 

Here it goes (click to enlarge)

 

Since one image says more then a thousand words, I'll just stop talking now.

 

Enjoy.

Edited March 9, 2009 by mkey82

[[email protected]]

I love how whenever i buy a game i cant play it till months after because of bugs, truth is i am sick of it!

 

No wonder everyone has gone Console, at least the games are more playable at launch then the PC ports.

 

TTFN PC Gaming, a $6K computer can no longer sustain you, god forbid what can!

[truehighroller]

I fixed mine with out any command lines. I was one of the people bitching the most on these forums I believe. Guess what my issue was, it was my BIOS the whole time causing havoc with my CPU and I guess some how it affects the way this game handles it self memory wise because now I have my CPU stable again and the game is fixed. I recommend using intelburntest like I did and see if your PC is ten passes stable. If not then you know you have to fix your CPUs stability issues. My issues pertains to an option that Asus implemented into their BIOS s called CME short for computer margin enhancement. The thing is with my C1 stepping Q9450 for some reason it never did play well with this option because I could go back to an older version BIOS where they did not have this option in it yet, and be fine. I bitched a fit and they came out with a version 1406 BIOS for my P5Q Deluxe and a few other P45 based motherboards that resolved this issue with the C1 stepping CPUs.

 

 

I figured they would keep this fix, what ever code they wrote to finally stabilize the newer BIOS s through out the rest of their BIOS s as well, well I guess not because when I tried to test my CPU with that intelburtest last night, it instantly failed just like it used to. I went back to the original BIOS that they wrote which resolved the issue I knew for a fact and f*ckING VUA LUA PROBLEM f*ckING SOLVED. The whole time I was bitching and it bit me in the ass. I seriously noticed no issues what so ever with graphics at all during the last 4 hours of game play and using the 9.2 drivers which I thought were unstable because of this issue I had been having that I just described in detail.

 

 

 

I will be the first to admit I was wrong. Hope this info helps a lot of people.

[mkey82]

I'm glad your problem is solved, but how does this relate to he memory leak issue?

[truehighroller]

 

I'm glad your problem is solved, but how does this relate to he memory leak issue?

My guess is that the game uses so much CPU that the algorithms that it uses were getting screwed up by my CPU being unstable. That is my best guess. I know that the CPU will screw up algorithms if it is unstable so put two and two together. I still had to tweak my CPU a little more last night after my post but, I did get it 100% stable by the time I went to sleep. I had it running 20 passes of intelburntest with out a hitch. I had to tweak my voltage settings a little after switching the BIOS.

 

 

I'm not sh*tting you though, it is fixed. My guess is that maybe other MB manies put this option into their BIOS s as well because apparently Intel was the ones to ask manies to implement the option into their BIOS s. Maybe no one knows about this option and what havoc it can cause with their CPU. I had dealt with it before so, I knew right away what my issue was once I failed that burntest.

[mkey82]

I'm not doubting what you're saying, but this doesn't relate to the memory leak. I mean, my system is stable (I had some issues so I benchmarked my PC till the cows came home) and there is still RAM oozing all over the place.

 

And it's quite normal that an unstable (i.e. error prone) CPU will crash the application as it will output erroneous data. You could also run prime with error detection enabled to be sure.

[truehighroller]

 

I'm not doubting what you're saying, but this doesn't relate to the memory leak. I mean, my system is stable (I had some issues so I benchmarked my PC till the cows came home) and there is still RAM oozing all over the place.

 

And it's quite normal that an unstable (i.e. error prone) CPU will crash the application as it will output erroneous data. You could also run prime with error detection enabled to be sure.

The issue was there until, I switched my BIOS to an older version which I knew was a stable version and now the game is stable with no more memory leak so, .. it's fixed. This CME option does weird sh*t man, it was stable on alot of peoples PCs for awhile when the option first popped up in their BIOS s then all of a sudden it just started making the CPUs BSOD and act all funny one day and not a specific one in particular. It would actually let me get to the Windows start screen and then lock up my hard drives and sh*t, it was a weird occurance. I have a couple youtube videos of it occuring which I made for Asus so they would take me more seriously and fix the issue faster, you can watch them here,

 

#1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27uHHbx1Jk0

#2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVDBZWfmz4o

#3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fR5HcbHZTY

#4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXbNI5dwUaI

 

You can see in these videos me flashing through the different BIOS s and see every single one they came out with after 0806 locked my sh*t up. Then they came out with the 1406 not to long fter me making these videos for them and it fixed the issue. Tell me what you think now.

Edited March 11, 2009 by truehighroller

[mkey82]

How do you know memory leak is gone? You had CPU instability that caused data corruption being sent which CPU fed to the engine causeing (I'm assuming) crashes.

 

In my case the game crashes rarely (let's say, once every 20 hours). Memory leak will have less effect on stability with systems that have more RAM (obviously). A lot people have evidenced this and I don't think every one of them have unstable machines.

 

I would recommend using Everest and it's logging feature while running GTA for a few hours. That way you'll know for sure.

[truehighroller]

 

How do you know memory leak is gone? You had CPU instability that caused data corruption being sent which CPU fed to the engine causeing (I'm assuming) crashes.

 

In my case the game crashes rarely (let's say, once every 20 hours). Memory leak will have less effect on stability with systems that have more RAM (obviously). A lot people have evidenced this and I don't think every one of them have unstable machines.

 

I would recommend using Everest and it's logging feature while running GTA for a few hours. That way you'll know for sure.

Ok Ok I will say this maybe the memory leak is still there but, I am not having any more tearing issues or popins or slow to pop up graphics like buildings and what not any more after fixing this issue. I thought all of these issues were tied to the memory leak which made sense at the time thinking logically. Maybe, the memory leak is still there but if it is I sure couldn't notice it at all last night. The game ran better then it has ever ran since I have owned the game. I was all excited like oh my god, I can play the f*ckING GAME .

[mkey82]

I can play the f*ckING GAME .

Aaaah and it only three months.

 

I would say that memory leak is mostly connected with stuttering and crashes.

[truehighroller]

I can play the f*ckING GAME  .

Aaaah and it only three months.

 

I would say that memory leak is mostly connected with stuttering and crashes.

Agreed three months later..

 

I never expierienced any stuttering or crashes either last night. I will invite you to my house, I will have my old lady "shes only 21 " cook you some food and you can witness the game actually working for your own eyes LMAO.

[Alvaerus2008]

I can play the f*ckING GAME  .

Aaaah and it only three months.

 

I would say that memory leak is mostly connected with stuttering and crashes.

Agreed three months later..

 

I never expierienced any stuttering or crashes either last night. I will invite you to my house, I will have my old lady "shes only 21 " cook you some food and you can witness the game actually working for your own eyes LMAO.

a real f*cking jerk...

[truehighroller]

I can play the f*ckING GAME  .

Aaaah and it only three months.

 

I would say that memory leak is mostly connected with stuttering and crashes.

Agreed three months later..

 

I never expierienced any stuttering or crashes either last night. I will invite you to my house, I will have my old lady "shes only 21 " cook you some food and you can witness the game actually working for your own eyes LMAO.

a real f*cking jerk...

Was it something I said or?