Out of video memory: your PC ran short of memory mid-game

Error: Out of video memory trying to allocate a texture! Make sure your video card has the minimum required memory, try lowering the resolution and/or closing other applications that are running. Exiting...

What the message means

The wording blames your video card, and it tells you to check the card's memory, drop the resolution and close other apps. Riot's own article on out of memory (OOM) errors, updated August 25, 2026, takes a wider view. It covers every Riot game and says the PC as a whole couldn't hand over enough memory: either other programs had taken too much, or Windows ran out of virtual memory.

That's why Riot's list reaches into Windows settings and doesn't stop at the graphics card. None of it involves buying hardware.

Riot's fix, in Riot's order

Riot wants a fresh launch between steps, so you know which one fixed it.

1. Restart your PC

   A full restart, not a sign-out. Vanguard's driver loads when Windows boots, so a restart is the only thing that gives it a clean start.

2. Update every driver, not just graphics

   Update graphics, chipset and storage drivers from your PC or motherboard maker's own support page or tool rather than a driver-updater app.

   Riot's guide: Update every driver, not just graphics

3. Do a clean boot

   This switches off every non-Microsoft service for one boot, so you can tell whether something in the background is the problem.

   1. Press Win+R, type msconfig and press Enter.
   2. On the Services tab, tick Hide all Microsoft services first (skip it and you'll switch off parts of Windows).
   3. Click Disable all, then tick vgc again so Vanguard still starts.
   4. Apply, OK, restart, and test.

   Some programs ignore a clean boot anyway, third-party antivirus and networking tools most of all. If the error goes away, turn services back on a few at a time until it returns, and you've found it.

   Riot's guide: Do a clean boot

Give Windows more virtual memory

Windows falls back on virtual memory, a file on your drive called the paging file, when physical RAM runs low. Riot's fourth step makes that file bigger.

1. Right-click This PC and pick Properties, then Advanced system settings.
2. Under Performance, click Settings, open the Advanced tab, and click Change under Virtual memory.
3. Untick the box that lets Windows manage the paging file size automatically.
4. Pick the drive Windows is on and choose Custom size. Riot's rule of thumb puts both the initial and maximum size somewhere from 1.5x to 2x the RAM you have. With 16 GB of RAM, that's 24,576 to 32,768 MB (the boxes take megabytes).
5. Click Set, then OK, and restart before you launch.

Turn the graphics down

Riot's last step is lowering your video settings, which cuts how much memory the game asks for. Set everything to the lowest option, then raise settings one at a time until you find where performance and looks balance out. If the error keeps coming back even so, Riot wants a ticket with logs attached.

Related errors

• Unknown DirectX error
• Critical error
• d3dx9_43.dll missing

Source: Riot Games Player Support, Error Out of Memory (OOM), updated August 25, 2026. Riot's steps are paraphrased here, not copied; checked September 25, 2026.