The First Descendant Out of Video Memory Error – (Fix For Steam)

Nikolay Petrov
- Updated:
July 6, 2024

We know that The First Descendant out of video memory error could be frustrating, but worry not.

In this guide, we’ll explore a bunch of effective solutions that you can attempt right now.

This article focuses in Windows 10/11, so if you’re playing on PlayStation or Xbox, these methods will not apply.

METHODS:

End Any GPU-Demanding Tasks
Adjust Windows Paging File Size
Disable the Heavy Video Settings
Limit The First Descendant FPS
Repair The First Descendant Files
Clean-Install The First Descendant
Play The First Descendant via Cloud

To resolve The First Descendant out-of-video memory crashes, end all the GPU-demanding tasks, adjust the Windows pagefile size, and disable “heavy” graphics settings. If this doesn’t resolve the error, limit your FPS to 60/40 or 30, repair the game files, or perform a clean game reinstallation.

Let’s jump straight into the solutions!

The First Descendant Out of Video Memory - 7 Fixes!

Note: Have you tried rebooting your PC?

1. End Any GPU-Demanding Tasks

Method 1/7

When The First Descendant is crashing due to low video memory, the first and most-important method is to manually end all GPU demanding tasks through the Task Manager. This will verify that your video card’s resources are all dedicated to only The First Descendant, hence, you must no longer encounter the error.

To identify whether there are any processes that are actively utilizing your GPU, besides The First Descendant, open the Task Manager, go to “Performance” and click on the “GPU” tab.

If you see that your GPU is being utilized by other tasks, go to “Processes”, locate these tasks and right-click any of them to select “End Task”, which will forcefully end them. When you’re not playing games the utilization of your video card must be no more than 4-5%, so anything above this, shows that something is quietly running in the background.

Note: A GPU-demanding task could be anything from video editing software, to running YouTube videos or Twitch streams etc…

2. Adjust Windows Paging File Size

Method 2/7

One of the best and proven-to-work solutions against “Out of Memory” errors is increasing the Windows PageFile size. Typically, you don’t need to change this setting, but some games, such as The First Descendant, require a lot of RAM. The way this is related to your GPU is that your video card occasionally “borrows” RAM to use it as video memory, especially when playing demanding games.

Hence, increasing the Windows’s PageFile, will allocate more virtual memory, and prevent the out-of-memory error from appearing while playing.

Here’s exactly what to do in a step-by-step tutorial:

From the Start Menu, go to “Advanced System Settings.”
Then, head to the “Advanced” tab and select “Settings.”

Then you need to go to the “Advanced” section again.
Next, click the “Change” button under “Virtual memory.”
Then, untick the “Automatically manage paging file size.”

Enable the “Custom Size” for Initial and Maximum Size.
Then, select the drive you play The First Descendant in.
Toggle on the “Custom Size” and adjust as per the RAM:
Way #1: If you have 16 GB or RAM set to 8096 or 16192.
Way #2:If you have 32 GB or RAM set to 4096 or 8096.
When ready, don’t forget to click on “Set” and then “OK”.

The general thing to note here is that the less RAM you’ve got the more PageFile you’ll need, so adjust accordingly, click on “Set” and then “OK” to save the changes. When ready, exit the tab and open The First Descendant, to check whether you’ll face the out-of-video memory error again.

Note: Changing the virtual memory PageFile is safe and should not have any effect on your system operations as long as you don’t meet the extremes (too low or too high).

3. Disable the Heavy Video Settings

Method 3/7

If you see the out of video memory error The First Descendant, this generally means that your GPU is not capable of handling the game’s graphics. However, you can tremendously help the video card by relieving its utilization, which is quick and easy by lowering some of the “heavy” graphic settings.

So, launch The First Descendant, go to “Settings → Graphics”, and follow the instructions below:

Ray Tracing – OFF
Vsync – OFF

Anti-aliasing – Low
Shadows – Low
Reflections – Low
Effects – Low
Shader Quality – Low

Those are the so-called “FPS drainers”, hence the settings that are torturing your video card the most. So, disabling them will boost your FPS, and relieve the GPU’s utilization. However, this will make The First Descendant’s graphics a lot more smudgy, so just test this preset to see whether the error will appear.

If not, you can start improving the graphics one by one, to discover the sweet spot, in which the graphics look good, but the “out of video memory” error won’t appear. However, if the error keeps appearing, try setting ALL settings to “LOW” or “OFF”.

Note: The “Ray Tracing”, “Shadows” and “Shader Quality” are the biggest enemies of your GPU!

4. Limit The First Descendant FPS

Method 4/7

If you keep facing The First Descendant out of video memory crashing problems, one guaranteed way to fix the problem is by limiting your FPS. Put simply, the more FPS you run the game with, the more your video card is working, hence the more memory is needed.

If you don’t have a 144Hz refresh rate monitor, there is absolutely no reason to have more than 60 FPS since your eye won’t make a difference. If you go below 60 FPS, this will make the game more jittery, but surely will relieve your GPU’s utilization and memory usage, probably solving the error.

So, there are two things you can do:

Cap the FPS to 60 and test whether the error will appear.
If yes, cap the FPS to 45, test → cap to 30, and test again.

There are several ways to cap FPS in The First Descendant!

4.1 Limit FPS via Vertical Sync:

The first way of limiting your FPS to never go beyond 60 is by enabling the “Vertical Sync” option in Settings → Graphics. This is the recommended way of doing so when you don’t have a monitor above 60 Hz.

4.2 Limit FPS via Maximum Frame Rate:

Another way to hard-cap your FPS in The First Descendant is by going to Settings → Graphics and adjusting the “Maximum Frame Rate” option. Here you can select any maximum frame rate and the game won’t produce more than your adjustment.

4.3 Limit FPS via Your GPU Settings:

The third way of capping your in-game FPS, which works with any game, is through your GPU driver!

NVidia – Open the Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings → Program Settings → The First Descendant → Max Frame Rate → Select 60, 40 or 30.

AMD – Open the AMD Adrenalin Software → Gaming → The First Descendant → Enable “Radeon Chill” and set “Max FPS” to 60, 40, or 30.

That’s it. The First Descendant will now run on lower FPS, hence your GPU (Video Card) will be relieved of not having to “draw” too many frames, hence the out-of-video memory error should no longer appear.

Important: If you still face an out-of-memory error, we recommend updating your GPU drivers!

5. Repair The First Descendant Files

Method 5/7

If you keep experiencing The Final Descendant out-of-video memory error, it’s time to repair the game files as the problem could be originating from missing textures. You can easily repair game files from the Steam launcher, without losing any of your data, but this might revert all graphic settings to defaults.

Follow these instructions to repair The First Descendant from Steam:

Open the Steam launcher and go to the Library.
Right-click The First Descendant → Properties.
Then, verify that you’re viewing “Installed Files.”
Then click on “Verify Integrity of Game Files.”
Wait for Steam to scan and repair your game.
When ready, restart Steam and test the game.

This process will rebuild the entire game database, and can also fix potential connection issues!

Quick Tip: When you’re ready, run the Steam launcher as an administrator!

6. Clean-Install The First Descendant

Method 6/7

Whenever The First Descendant keeps crashing because of an out-of-memory error, the clean installation solves the problem 99% of the time. However, simply reinstalling the game from the Steam launcher is not enough. The clean installation also involves removing the leftover folders.

We’re going to guide you through the entire process!

6.1 Uninstall the Game From Steam:

First, locate the game in your Steam Library.
Right-click the game and hover over “Manage.”
Then click “Uninstall” and confirm the removal.

6.2 Manually Delete Leftover Folders:

Click on the Start Menu and type “%appdata%”.
Open the “Roaming” folder to find the app’s data.
Then, you must find and open the “Local” folder.
Open the M1 folder and copy the “Saved” folder.
Paste this folder somewhere safe to preserve it.
Then, go back and delete the entire “M1” folder.

Pro Tip: If you cannot see this folder, then it’s hidden. To unhide it, click on “View” while you’re in the “Roaming” folder and then check “Hidden items”.

When you’ve cleared all the files that The First Descendant left on your machine, it’s time to reinstall the game from the Steam library by clicking the big “INSTALL” button. Then, go back into the Roaming → M1 folder, put back the “Saved” folder to get your progress back and test if the memory error will still appear.

Note: If there is already a “Saved” folder in Roaming → M1 replace it with your backed-up one!

7. Play The First Descendant via Cloud

Method 7/7

If you’re unable to play The First Descendant on your PC because of the “out of video memory” error, well, your machine could be too weak to handle the game. Worry not!

If you didn’t know, The First Descendant is supported by NVidia GeForce Now, which is a cloud service that allows you to play games solely by using your internet connection. Yes, that’s correct, your hardware will not be involved, hence there is no way of receiving the “out of video memory.”

We recommend checking how to play games on NVidia GeForce Now and bypass the annoying video memory error once and for all. You can also do this with many other games, which your computer can’t handle.

Pro Tip: You can use Can You Run It?, to check whether your hardware configuration is powerful enough to run The First Descendant.

Conclusion: The First Descendant Out of Video Memory?

The First Descendant out-of-video-memory error can be solved by disabling demanding in-game graphic settings, adjusting the Windows’s pagefile size, and limiting your FPS. If nothing helps, repairing the game files or performing a clean game reinstalling is almost guaranteed to resolve the issue quickly.

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