God of War is among the more highly rated RPGs for Windows, but the out-of-video memory error is spoiling that game for some players. GoW players have reported this error occurring when trying to start God of War or randomly when playing it. This error message says, “GoW: Out of Memory Not enough available memory.” Players can’t play GoW when that issue occurs when trying to start the game. These are some ways you can fix the God of War out-of-memory issue on a Windows PC.
Read also: 8 Ways to Fix God of War Not Launching on a Windows PC
Set a High-Performance Dedicated NVIDIA Graphics Card for GoW
First, try setting God of War to run with the higher-performance graphics setting. If your PC has two graphics cards, this will also set the game to run with the dedicated GPU (graphical processor unit) with VRAM. These are the steps for selecting the High-Performance option.
- Activate the utility for finding files by clicking the magnifying glass or Search box within the taskbar.
- Enter graphics settings and select the matching result in the search tool.
- Click Browse to select God of War’s EXE file in the GodofWar installation folder.
- Select the Add option.
- Click God of War and Options.
Graphics Settings in the Settings app
- Select High performance and click Save.
The High performance option
Disable Your PC’s Integrated Graphics Card
Some God of War players confirm disabling integrated graphics cards can resolve the out-of-memory error. Note this potential solution is for players with PCs that have dedicated and integrated GPS. This is how you can disable the integrated graphics driver via Device Manager.
- Click Start with the right button on the mouse to select Device Manager.
- Double-click Display adapters to view the graphics card devices.
- Right-click the integrated (usually Intel) GPU and select a Disable device option for it.
The Disable device option
- Select Yes when prompted to confirm.
Set More Virtual Memory
The God of War out of memory error can sometimes arise because of insufficient virtual memory. Some players confirm setting more virtual memory has fixed that issue on their PCs. So, try setting more virtual memory like this.
- Press the search tool’s Windows logo + S keyboard key combination.
- Input a View advanced system settings keyword to select that search result.
- Click Settings for the performance options on the Advanced tab.
- Next, click on the Change button within the Advanced tab on the Performance Options window.
The Change button
- Uncheck Automatically manage paging file to deselect that checkbox.
- Click Custom size to activate two value boxes.
- If your PC has 16 GB RAM, input 16000 in the Initial size box and 18000 in the Maximum size box. Or input 8000 in the Initial size and 10000 in the Maximum box if your PC has eight GB RAM.
The Set button
- Click on Set > OK to save the virtual memory settings.
Install a New Graphics Driver
Outdated or faulty graphics drivers can also potentially cause memory leaks like the out-of-memory error to arise. If your PC’s graphics driver is outdated, install a new one. You can manually download and install drivers for NVIDIA/AMD GPUs like this.
- Activate Run using the Windows button + R hotkey, input dxdiag into that accessory’s Open box, and click OK. Check your PC’s graphics card details on the Display tab.
- Start the Edge browser and go to the NVIDIA or AMD driver download page.
- Next, select your OS and graphics card model and click on the Search or Submit option.
The NVIDIA graphics driver download page
- Click on the Download option for your PC’s graphics driver.
The Download option for a NVIDIA driver page
- Use Edge’s Ctrl + J hotkey and double-click the file for the downloaded graphics driver.
- Select the install option within the NVIDIA or AMD driver setup window. If installing an NVIDIA driver, select the Perform a clean installation option by clicking Custom and Next.
- Restart Windows 11 or 10 after updating your driver.
Close Background Apps Before Running God of War
The error message says there’s not enough available memory, which is a hint for fixing this issue. Try freeing up more RAM for God of War by disabling unneeded background apps and services via Task Manager before starting the game. This is how you can close background processes with the Task Manager.
- Press the Ctrl + Shift + Esc key combination to access the Task Manager window.
- Click Processes in the tab bar.
- Select processes for unneeded third-party programs and click End Task.
The End task button
- Also, right-click icons for third-party program icons within the system tray area of the taskbar and select to close them from there.
If this works, try disabling some startup items as well. Doing so will prevent programs from automatically starting with Windows. You can stop apps starting with Windows by selecting them on the Startup tab in Task Manager and clicking Disable.
Repair System Files
Although not widely confirmed to work, I recommend running a System File Checker (SFC) scan if other potential resolutions for the out-of-memory issue fail. Running that tool might repair corrupted system files, which is a potential cause of memory leak issues. You can run a System File Checker scan by executing a command, as instructed within this Microsoft SFC guide page.
The potential solutions above are the more likely ways to fix the God of War out-of-memory error on Windows PCs. Increasing virtual memory allocation or disabling the integrated GPU often does the trick, as confirmed by users who’ve needed to fix this issue. However, some GoW players might need to apply alternative resolutions in this guide.
