Are 3 GB VRam insufficient to reliably run RF2?

It's 2019, and since 2012 I always had the same problem : pressing esc from cockpit more often than not cause a CTD. At the beginning my GPU had just 2 GB ram , FPS were fine, but the game was almost unplayable for the constant crashing.
Now in 2019 I have a 3 GB ram GPU , I thought CTD's were a memory from the past, and they often are, but then, out of the blue, CTD returns. In those years I've changed the whole PC, part by part, but the behaviour is still the same : RF2 can't handle to exit the simulation to return to pits.

I really want to keep playing RF2, and even considering to go VR in 2020 , but I don't want to buy a 8GB GPU to discover I'm still prone to CTD every time I pit.

 

I had a 2 gig GPU in 2012, upgraded to a 3 and ran with that until last year. No issues with crashing. I don't know what's causing your crashing, but it's not a lack of VRAM.

 

Refresh the operating system if not, or if you oc cpu or ram, try defaults.

 

At first the good old question: does it happen with all cars and tracks?
And does it happen also when you are alone on the track (no AI)?
Do you get any rfactor or windows error messages?

 

Everything is standard on my system, no OC , nothing, RF2 run fine, with FPS capped at 90, everything else run fine. I'm so saddened I can't enjoy it fully. In 7 years I have not been able to identify the culprit. Outside the PC there are : trackir 5 , G27, microsoft sidewinder usb. Those are the only things that are the same from the old PC.

 

@Comante Have you tried without all those connected?

 

It happen with every track / car combo , in multiplayer it seems to happen very seldom , I will make test without AI, can't reply to this question, but is a good one.

 

Ok seems to be the weekend will be a testing weekend, I will disconnect all the peripherals and try offline without AI. Then I will connect one at a time, until I find what happen.

 

Well if you first try without any of them, and enough times to confirm whether it's fixed or not, then at least you know it's worth testing. Obviously if it still happens with none of them connected then you've eliminated them all as suspects.

 

And to repeat the question: do you get any rfactor or windows error messages?
And to post a trace file from when the game crashes could also be helpful.

 

Sorry, missed that: No, I don't receive any error message. When it happen, the game just freeze for a few seconds, then just disappear and I'm back to desktop, RF2 launcher is still there, as I never noticed any change in closing it at startup.

 

what pc do you use ?, I use vr and it does not happen to me of 5.3 gb Ram, with 15 cars, although it is true that I use the 1070 8 gb in the graph.It is also something strange that happens to you ...

 

Ihave a I5 4460, now with 16GB ram, a R9-280 toxic , a pretty common Gigabite MoBo and RF2 on a SSD. My hardware thank to the FPS cap is never at 100% throttle. I think the machine is powerful enough, I'm not too picky with graphic details.

 

lack of VRAM should not cause crash (at least not when you have this amount). Did you check for virtual memory file? Maybe if it's off it'll cause issues

 

I would say it is a graphics card problem, oh configuration, rfactor consumes 5.3 gigs of Ram or so, the i5 should go well ... you are left over from Ram, that is not the problem

 

@Comante If you make your tests, please test if deactivating the replay recording changes something.

 

There is one thing you could try. By default, RF2 plays last few seconds of replay every time you teleport back to garage, this usually can cause screen freeze.

Just open rFactor 2\UserData\player.JSON with notepad and find following line:
"Monitor Auto Replay":true,
Then change true to false

This will also eliminate a common screen freeze issue when you click RACE button while the monitor is playing a replay, especially during multiplayer.

 

Ok after sever
hours of running RF2, adding one possible culprit at a time, I finally found the RF2 Killer : TRACK IR alone is capable of killing RF2, even with RF2 Plugin.dll turned off, it's enough to have TrackIR application up and running, even if disconnected from RF2.
Running it under RF2 kill it soon or later.
I've even found old messages from 2012 that say that TrackIR RF2 plugin is broken.

 

That sounds weird, because i would expect more people would complain about it, if the default TrackIR_rF2_Plugin.dll would be corrupted.
And the Track IR application is a 3rd party software?

 

I'm puzzled too because the few information about trackir+rf2 are of happy people or some user that report a choppy/stuttery interaction. I've never seen a report of RF2 CTD due track IR. But my yesterday test point in that direction: I've experience CTD loading a track or pressing ESC ONLY when Track IR was running.

Track IR app is the official app of the device, and the plugin I think is default installed into RF2.