Windows Severe Memory Leak Across Multiple Activities

[coodaphi]

I'm experiencing a severe memory leak on my system that occurs during normal gameplay activities. The leak is not tied to a specific action — it can occur while watering crops, fishing, walking outdoors, or even standing still indoors with the inventory open. RAM usage spikes rapidly until the game becomes unstable and crashes. This behavior persists across sessions and after extensive troubleshooting.

System Specs
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090
- CPU: Intel i9‑14900K
- RAM: 32GB DDR5
- Resolution: 2560×1440
- OS: Windows 11
- Game Version: Stardew Valley 1.6.15 (current Steam build)
- No mods installed (clean vanilla install)

Description of the Issue-
The game rapidly consumes system memory during normal gameplay. Opening and closing the inventory stops the leak and brings RAM back down to normal usage. It happens repeatedly not just once, sometimes lasting 30+ min. between leaks, other times only lasting 5-10 min. between leaks. The leak can trigger in multiple unrelated scenarios:

- Watering crops
- Fishing at any water source (river, lake, ocean)
- Walking around outdoors
- Standing still indoors with the inventory open
- Performing no actions at all (sitting AFK)

The leak is not tied to:
- specific items
- specific tools
- specific locations
- GPU switching
- overlays
- background applications

It appears to be related to the game’s rendering/UI systems rather than gameplay logic.

---------------‐--------------------------------------------

Troubleshooting Already Performed-
I have done extensive testing to isolate the issue. Steps taken:

Graphics & System-
- Verified GPU usage (game is correctly running on my RTX 4090) instead of an integrated graphics system.
- Disabled Steam overlay
- Disabled Windows fullscreen optimizations
- Forced exclusive fullscreen
- Capped FPS to 60
- Confirmed no background apps interfering
- Verified game files
- Clean reinstall

Launch Options Tested-
I tested multiple combinations of the following flags:

--fps 60
--disable-threaded-ui
--gamepad-ui off
--disable-lighting
--disable-ambient-tiles
--disable-animated-tiles
--disablesteamoverlay

I've spent almost as much time trying to solve this leak as I've spent playing the game (I'm a new player)

Any guidance, patches, or additional debugging steps would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[coodaphi]

A few more details I didn't include above: the full version/build number is v1.6.15 build 24356, it happens in both single and multiplayer (with me as the host), I'm on keyboard and mouse, my in-game language is English, it generates no error logs when it crashes, the forum "attach files" wont recognize my save files when I navigate to them in the file explorer that opens, but this issue persists across my solo and multiplayer save as well as multiple other saves I made just for testing things trying to fix this memory leak.

 

[Stuperairdog]

Made an account just to share that I was experiencing the same issue and was looking for a while for a solution. Though I have played before and never had an issue like this. Anyway, through many different attempts, I found someone on reddit with the same issue that shared that the issue was discord detecting the game. If you go into Discord settings, scroll down to registered games, and toggle detection of Stardew off, it should hopefully fix the problem. Just make sure to launch stardew after doing the discord fix, I found the memory leak would still happen if the game was already running. I hope this solves your problem, so you can experience the game. If you've already fixed it, I hope you're enjoying the game! If this doesn't work, I hope you can find another solution. I saw one person got a Stardew Stabilizer mod and that worked for them, so maybe that?

 

[JuliettKiloFoxtrot]

I am also seeing a severe memory leak, but it appears to be of the VRAM variety for me. In Task Manager on the GPU tab, I can watch Dedicated GPU Memory usage rise to max usage and spill over into Shared GPU Memory. When Shared GPU Memory maxes out, Stardew Valley will get super choppy and laggy, then the whole game crashes. In Event Viewer, I get two event logs, one for the game crashing, and one from Nvidia's driver noting the game asked for too much memory. I have noticed that any time I open the Esc menu, GPU Memory is released and the cycle starts over, usually with Dedicated GPU Memory filling up again shortly after. This release happens reliably, and can be used to mitigate the crash. When I notice the choppiness start, I can hit Esc quickly and release memory. If I don't catch it in time, the game will crash within 10-15 seconds.

System Specs and Event logs below. Attached is a screenshot of Task Manager's GPU tab right after the crash. Also attaching a screenshot of GPU memory showing a release occurring from entering the Esc menu.

System Specs:
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB (595.71 driver version)
CPU: Intel i7-8700
RAM: 32 GB DDR4
OS: Windows 11 25H2
Game Version: 1.6.15 (build 24356) via Steam

Application Event log
Faulting application name: Stardew Valley.exe, version: 1.6.15.24356, time stamp: 0x666c0000
Faulting module name: nvoglv64.dll, version: 32.0.15.9571, time stamp: 0x69a1c7fa
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x00000000010c3ddd
Faulting process id: 0x1BF8
Faulting application start time: 0x1DCAC2BD03B734F
Faulting application path: D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Stardew Valley\Stardew Valley.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvmdi.inf_amd64_1551c2629382d9e1\nvoglv64.dll
Report Id: dde654ab-24eb-409a-8e2a-17e23bf652b8
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Driver Event log
An application has requested more GPU memory than is
available in the system.
The application will now be closed.


Error code: 6
(pid=7160 tid=5632 stardew valley.exe 64bit)

Visit http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3553 for more information.

 

[shadowhunt]

Hey guys, I found a solution, if you happen to be running Logitech G Hub, close it entirely, then see if you're still having the issue. Apparently something about G Hub completely breaks Open GL games right now.

 

[JuliettKiloFoxtrot]

I'm not using G Hub, so that isn't my issue. Thanks for the suggestion.