Game easily uses 2gb of VRAM, might be why....you are crashing

[vuze4u]

Game's max VRAM is 1426MB recorded in Afterburner and i still get crash at novigrad while running 60fps smooth, is just all sudden CTD, no overheat issue as well, other games runs fine with no crash. How is not hitting 2GB VRAM still cause crash? I might well figure it something else.

I don't know how the devs program W3 game engine, but other smarter render engines like GTA5 and BF4 were able to prevent lack of VRAM and cause CTD. Seriously lack of VRAM CTD is like windows XP era, it shouldn't be happening nowdays with smarter programming capability on hand.

 

[WillyDio]

Download EVGA Precision X 16 from EVGA's site.

Once open and running, look to the right for "k-boost". Go ahead and select it. Your screen will go black for a second then return (it's normal). Can force fans to 100% too for a little extra longevity, and it helps combat the heat created from the extra voltage from 3D state.

K-boost locks the core speed to the cards max 3D speed. With this on, the card won't throttle the clocks down during less intensive scenes, menu, etc. The slight freezes you are experiencing is probably the card switching clock speeds. I LOVE k-boost for the fact it stops this. Setting nvidia settings to "Prefer maximum performance" doesn't cut it. You can close Precision X after making the change. If you shut the PC down and reboot, it'll leave k-boost on, so remember to manually disable it when you are done. It won't hurt anything leaving on constantly, but the card will use more power as it won't throttle back to lower 2D states, etc. It should help that card a bunch.

With my 970, it actually applies a small OC over the max core which on older cards it never did. Boost core is supposed to be 1279 mhz. With k-boost on, it jumps to 1328. If I put a high OC on this card, after a certain voltage amount is increased, the voltage bump alone will actually increase the OC by about the same difference with k-boost on over boost clock. Game is 100% stable with it.Since you have a 900 series, it might do the same thing, so you'll get a tiny bump in performance on top of what k-boost offers by locking in top speed. Definitely worth the time to try it out.

---------- Updated at 10:41 PM ----------
@vuze4u
I had my 1st CTD waiting on

Spoiler

Ciri

after a cut-scene. Game completely shut down w/o even a trace it'd been running or creating a crash report. Reloaded game and it went through the scene w/o an issue. Those types of crashes are game errors. Then you have people with issues due to issues created with the most recent patches.

60fps doesn't mean anything. Just because you have settings to the point the game is running OK doesn't mean a game crash or a patch crash won't rear it's ugly head. I started this thread to point out to people if they are running 2gb cards (or less) and are getting constant crashes, they should be aware of their VRAM usage, and also should be aware of their nvidia settings as forcing 8AA globally with everything ultra or "on" in-game, is going to slow things down. The card might tolerate over-committing VRAM for a bit, but not indefinitely.

Chances are your new patch is the issue.

 

[killerbs007]

i'am the same with a bad overclock. With my stable overclock i don't have this issue.

For me in W8.1 with titanx and 570 i use 4.4 go of vram at 4213x1764 on full ultra.

But i litle tweak user setiing and rendering.

 

[WillyDio]

The game uses less VRAM in open areas like White Orchard. Novigrad can increase by 600-800mb (with my settings) just by entering it.

I tried forcing 4k again while watching usage. It pegged me at 3600mb, but by the way it was slowing the game down, I suspect it was over 4200 and being reported incorrectly. Running GTA V for example, I can set it to where it's just using 3900 and game still plays OK, whereas W3 was stuttering horridly at 3600?