Out of memory error when loading projects

Hello all,

I recently downloaded and installed Unreal Engine 4 on my laptop. My intention with the Engine was to create a few games in order to build my portfolio. Unfortunately, when I attempt to load a project, I receive an error that states: Out of video memory trying to allocate a rendering resource. I have read other posts that are similar to this on the UE4 Answerhub and have received mixed messages on what I can do to alleviate the problem. On the FAQ, the recommended system requirements are stated to be: a desktop PC with Windows 7 64-bit or a Mac with Mac OS X 10.9.2 or later, 8 GB RAM and a quad-core Intel or AMD processor, and a DX11 compatible video card. The FAQ goes on to state that UE4 will run on desktops and laptops below these recommendations, but performance may be limited. Given this information, I believe that my laptop should hypothetically run UE4. According to DxDiag, it has four Intel(R) Core™ i5-2430M CPUs, 8 GB of RAM, and a DX11 compatible video card. I believe that the source of my difficulties is my graphics card, whose drivers I believe are up to date. It is an integrated graphics card (Intel(R) HD Graphics Family) which only has 1696 MB of display memory. I was wondering if there is any way to work around this. I really do want to get experience using the Unreal Engine, so any help would be greatly appreciated! To aid in diagnosing a solution to this problem, I have provided what I believe is the relevant information that the DxDiag log generated.


System Information

Time of this report: 3/6/2015, 13:56:45
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.150113-1808)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC
BIOS: InsydeH2O Version 03.60.48F.1B
Processor: Intel(R) Core™ i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8140MB RAM
Page File: 7653MB used, 8624MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode


Display Devices

      Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
   Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
      Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
       DAC type: Internal
     Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0116&SUBSYS_165B103C&REV_09
 Display Memory: 1696 MB

Dedicated Memory: 64 MB
Shared Memory: 1632 MB
Current Mode: 1600 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: unknown
Monitor Id: AUO139E
Native Mode: 1600 x 900(p) (60.123Hz)
Output Type: Internal
Driver Name: igdumd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igdumdx32,igd10umd32,igd10umd32
Driver File Version: 8.15.0010.2372 (English)
Driver Version: 8.15.10.2372
DDI Version: 10.1
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 4/15/2011 18:07:52, 8244224 bytes
WHQL Logo’d: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B78E66-4256-11CF-58ED-5836A0C2C535}
Vendor ID: 0x8086
Device ID: 0x0116
SubSys ID: 0x165B103C
Revision ID: 0x0009

Hi there, and thanks for the inquiry. The Intel i5-2430M uses the HD 3000; a Sandy Bridge integrated card. This is actually a DX10 card. Dxdiag is a little confusing in that it reports DirectX 11 since you have that installed with Win7. But the DDI version should be 10.1.

Yes, there have been mixed results with this card because of the memory. It doesn’t actually have a dedicated 2GB of video memory. The Sandy Bridge system we have can load the UE4 samples (even the Elemental demo!), but the performance is too low to suggest it, and of course on your system you have the bigger problem of being unable to load (some?) projects.

Are there any projects that you can load using your laptop? It would be great to discover why certain Sandy Bridge machines work, but others don’t; if not for high-end games at least for the less graphically intensive ones or learning features. Can you successfully create a new empty project, or load our Tappy Chicken sample game? (TC is available in the Learn section of the Unreal Engine launcher, if you haven’t downloaded it before.)

Best,

Hello Mr. ,

Thank you so much for your swift response! Unfortunately, I am unable to load Tappy Chicken or even a new empty project. Is there any way to get around the limitations of the Sandy Bridge system? Is there, for example, an external device that will allow me to increase my available video memory? Or, is it possible for me to upgrade the video card in my laptop (if that is even really a thing). I really want to use the Unreal Engine, and I hope this will not require me to purchase a completely new machine. Please let me know what you think, and if you come up with any other ideas to resolve this problem.

If you attach your full dxdiag and let me know the make and model of your laptop, I’ll take a look and see if there are any other obvious tests we haven’t run, but that might not be enough to go off of. You can make sure you close as many background applications as possible before running UE4 using the task manager.

You can also see if Intel’s Update Utility detects a new driver for your system: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect?iid=dc_iduu. And see if this resolves the crash. But the HD 3000 is below recommended spec and it’s not going to have good performance.

Edit: A screenshot of the error might help, too. When Tappy Chicken fails to load, do you get a TappyChicken.log in your My Documents\Unreal Projects\Tappy Chicken\Saved\Logs folder?

Hello Mr. ,

Thank you again for your help. I am happy to inform you that the Unreal Engine is now working on my laptop! I am able to load blank projects, projects with basic C++ code, and Tappy Chicken without any difficulty! You were right on the money about updating my video driver. Allow me to explain what I did as it was a little bit different than what you had suggested.

First off, I would like to state that I used Intel’s Update Utility before making my initial post to the UE4 Answerhub. Upon running the utility, it suggested that the only driver that needed to be updated was one unrelated to the video driver. As a matter of fact, the utility could not even successfully install this one update, making me very wary about its reliability. Since this utility made no mention that my video driver needed an update, I was given the false impression that the most recent version had been installed. After many failed attempts to locate the video driver’s version using the utility, I gave up hope of using it and manually looked it up using the Device Manager. I then Googled my video driver to determine if Intel’s website had a more recent version (navigating Intel’s website is a nightmare, by the way). Specifically, I entered “intel(r) hd graphics 3000 driver” into the search query. This led me to a download page on Intel’s website with a more recent version of the driver: Intel® Download Center. Specifically, I downloaded and installed this driver: Intel® HD Graphics Driver for Windows* 7/8/8.1 64-bit. Everything started working properly after that.

I hope that this helps future users that are experiencing this same problem.