Game creating a temp file while playing each time bigger, 10gb now

[blackspiral]

Hello.
I have been playing 2077 since day 1 release.
Never had an issue, or crash.

I came back from not playing since a couple of months.
For two days it was constant CTDs with different types of errors. I tried everything, .NET repair, update drivers, file integrity, etc.

Went for installing an older NVIDIA update and problem fixed, game is running ok.

But now, everytime the game is running, somewhere, a temp file (I think) is being created and it stops when I exit the game.

For example, my C drive (my game is installed in a SSD drive, not the C) has 20g of free space, and when I alt tab from the game says 10. The session before that was 6.

Anyone has any idea whats going on ? How can I solve this ?

 

[SigilFey]

0.) Are you using mods, or have you ever used any in the past?

That would be my first guess, as having extra data in the save state may very well result in bloat, especially if there's an issue with mod synergy or mods that have not been updated specifically for the current game version. Anything from scripts that won't terminate properly to a texture, model, or sound file that keeps getting called for but doesn't exist. (And many more!)

1.) If not, then how long have you been playing your current character? Might be possible after a certain number of hours that the game is just swamped in items or logs that have built up over time.

2.) Is the space coming back? Most games do create log files that record certain data so a save file can quickly be restored to the point the player left off on. They're not normally multiple GIGS of space though. Something is definitely up.

3.) 20 GB free on a drive sounds extremely low. In general, try to keep 20% of any given drive free, allowing Windows to efficiently use the swap file on that drive. At around 10% free, you'll probably notice a menagerie of issues begin to appear here and there: longer loading times, in-game hitches and stutters, some irregular stability issues, etc. This should not affect the size of a log file...but I never say never when it comes to computers, games, and modern tech.

 

[blackspiral]

Thank you SigilFey for your response.

1 - Never used mods, always played 2077 vanilla. While I have other games in the past heavily modded, like Fallout New Vegas or Fallout 4, this is not the case with 2077.
Now, yes about my current character. I do have another characters created but I have been on this one this quite some time. So yes, it has many, many hours of play, tons of items, weapons, craft components etc.

2 - Yes, the space is coming back right after I exit the game. I spent 2 days trying different solutions depending of the error logs (which were very different each time it crashed), from memory related problems to .NET updates. Im in no way a tech savvy so I tried everything I have at hand without compromising my PC.

The only action that made my game playable again was roling back on an old NVIDIA driver. Im right now using 566.36. At the time I came back to the game, my currect NVIDIA was 576.02. And now this is causing me other problems because while I dont usually play a lot of different games, some recent ones had their performance hit (I believe so) because not using current drivers.

Sorry, about the space. At first, when I recover paying the game, the ¨temp¨ file was like 10g.
Keep in mind my game is not installed on C, its on another SSD called H.
Right now I have 50g free of 250 on C, and 85 out of 500 on H (were 2077 is installed).

Currently, the game is running ok, no crashes. I have a 3070. 16 RAM, and i7-9700F.

My fear now is that if I update Nvidia it will all begin again, I understand I can always roll back but that doesnt seem like the best solution.

Sorry for the long post Sigil but I tried to be as thorought as possible.

 

[SigilFey]

Yup! Thorough is good.

From the sounds of it, I would say it's likely just the play time involved -- especially if inventories are very full. How long is "quite some time"? I would imagine something like this could occur after several hundred hours of collecting stuff.

I seriously doubt the GPU drivers have anything to do with it. Can't rule that out, completely (...like I said, computers are weird...), but a file that big is almost certainly dealing with in-game stuff, not graphics. I'd leave drivers alone from this point out (unless you're having a graphical issue of some sort.)

85 GB out of 500 could be contributing to the issue. See if you can get the free space of that drive to 120+ GB and see if the issue continues. (100 GB is actually the cut-off that should matter, but I'm intentionally trying to overdo it.) If the game you're running really requires around 10 GB to create the log, I don't think that will change, but you may notice that it completes the process of freeing up the space again more quickly. Larger swap.

 

[blackspiral]

You could be right, I dont know if the game is ¨prepared¨ to keep playing constantly on a single character. And yes, we are talking in the hundreds of hours. I have +700hs total, and 3 characters.

Do you mean I should update NVIDIA or stay away for now ? I have the driver Im using so Im guessing I can always roll back, Im just scared it wil ruin the game again.

I will try to rach 120g free on the installed drive.

Post automatically merged: Jun 18, 2025

Update:

So I downloaded latest NVIDIA driver, 576.80- game still works fine. But from the last test before the install, the temp file was 2gb now is again at around 8-9gb.
Im almost sure there are somewhere temp files of various origins that I cant trace or are not being clean properly.

 

[SigilFey]

I have +700hs total, and 3 characters.

What would matter is a single character that has been played for well over 300+ hours. If the player collects a lot of loot and carries it around constantly, that can load the save file and world state down with scripts, itemIDs, and such that will add up over time. Your "total" play time won't matter -- just the number of saves and reloads that have stacked up on one character.

Do you mean I should update NVIDIA or stay away for now ? I have the driver Im using so Im guessing I can always roll back, Im just scared it wil ruin the game again.

You can just leave the drivers alone. I would bet both my farm and the neighbor's farm (...need to get some farms...) that your issue has absolutely nothing to do with the GPU.

In general, updating GPU drivers just because there's an update is not necessary. When new drivers release, they'll be tailored to the more popular and active games on the charts presently. While this normally offers minor improvements to newer titles, they can also introduce issues on older titles, especially when paired with older cards. My rule of thumb is simple -- if everything is working, don't touch it. If something is problematic, try to change as little as possible to fix it or work around it. If I have a graphical issue in a game, only then will I update. (Normally I update once, maybe twice per year. Drivers tend to work for long periods before issues arise. Stability is the most important thing for smooth gaming.)

So I downloaded latest NVIDIA driver, 576.80- game still works fine. But from the last test before the install, the temp file was 2gb now is again at around 8-9gb.
Im almost sure there are somewhere temp files of various origins that I cant trace or are not being clean properly.

I think it's working as intended, actually. It's not uncommon for games now to have significant boot and shutdown times. What I believe it to be is the RAM cache being copied, then a background process ensuring that the save file has the correct info. Once that's done, the file is auto-deleted. To me, it seems as if that is a LOT of data for such a process, though. It's curious.

Totally off-the-wall, but try disabling the Cloud save. See if it happens when you're just saving locally. (Don't worry, you can re-enable the Cloud saving and it will sync everything.)

How long does it take between exiting the game and the temp file disappearing? Ballpark.

This is actually becoming a fun one.

 

[blackspiral]

First, thank you again for your continuous support SigilFey !

1 - Ok, lets start. Im ashamed to admit Im a ¨save hoarder¨. Right now, looking at Saved Games\Cd Projeckt Red\Cyberpunk 2077, Im sitting at 338 folders. Yes... and just to test, I just made a hard save, and the SAV dat file is around 7 megas. Folder is 2 Gb big.
Now, thats on me, of course. I dont know if this is generating problems, but at the same time the game generates 19 (!) Autosaves and 9 quicksaves.
I never found if this is how its supposed to work or can (and should) be changed.

2 - Agree on the drivers. While this started at the same time I updated NVIDIA, this was for me the only culprit on sight because I didnt change anything else.

3 - As I said, I have very little knowledge about these things but your comment makes sense to me.
I will try disabling cloud save.

Ok, so, my free space on C before launching the game sits at 46 gb, when running goes down to 43 (I could swear yesterday was way more, need to test today). As soon as I leave the game it goes back to 46.

Just for bonus, I will put 2 images, one seconds away from entering a save game, and one during gameplay, to show you my temps (If we can trust Afterburner, I have other programs too)

 

[SigilFey]

Ok, so, my free space on C before launching the game sits at 46 gb, when running goes down to 43 (I could swear yesterday was way more, need to test today). As soon as I leave the game it goes back to 46.

What you're seeing here is the swap file/virtual memory. This is completely normal for any game's function. Larger, more complex games will logically use more space to load more assets at once. Having drive space allocated for this purpose is normal Windows function when running any program. No need to worry about this!

1 - Ok, lets start. Im ashamed to admit Im a ¨save hoarder¨. Right now, looking at Saved Games\Cd Projeckt Red\Cyberpunk 2077, Im sitting at 338 folders. Yes... and just to test, I just made a hard save, and the SAV dat file is around 7 megas. Folder is 2 Gb big.
Now, thats on me, of course. I dont know if this is generating problems, but at the same time the game generates 19 (!) Autosaves and 9 quicksaves.
I never found if this is how its supposed to work or can (and should) be changed.

Installation size, number of folders in the installation directory, number of saves, the size of each save, etc. is not directly related to the giant temp file. All of that sounds normal.

Just for bonus, I will put 2 images, one seconds away from entering a save game, and one during gameplay, to show you my temps (If we can trust Afterburner, I have other programs too)

This also looks goody. Everything on the graphics end seems fine.

Ok, so, my free space on C before launching the game sits at 46 gb, when running goes down to 43 (I could swear yesterday was way more, need to test today). As soon as I leave the game it goes back to 46.

That's low. Modern SSDs can function when they're full up -- there's a sort of cache reserved to ensure the drive won't corrupt. However, if under 20% free space, you'll notice slower reaction time on the PC (program load times will be longer, folders will take longer to open, you may see some stuttering or hitching in games, etc.) If below 10%, the effects will be more pronounced.

That's probably what's keeping the temp file from deleting more quickly.

As for its size, I guess it happens. I was able to find posts from people that had 40+GB temp files. It may be a result of audio/visual things, like textures and music, that are being cached for whatever reason. Either way, that file is safe to delete while the game is not running.

So, it looks like there isn't really any "problem". Just data coming out the wazoo, since it's such a huge game.