RTX 3050 4GB: Severe VRAM Leak & 40W Power Drop
I am writing this detailed report because EA SPORTS FC 26 is completely unplayable on my system due to severe optimization issues, specifically regarding VRAM management.
System Specifications:
- Model: HP Victus Laptop
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU (4GB VRAM)
- RAM: 16GB Physical Memory
- OS: Windows 11 (Freshly Clean Installed)
The Core Technical Problem:
When I enter a match, my GPU initially runs at 70-75W with excellent FPS. However, within minutes, the game's VRAM usage maxes out completely at 3962MB / 4000MB (100 percent usage).
The moment the 4GB VRAM buffer is full, my GPU power is heavily throttled down to 40W.
This causes massive, unplayable frame drops, bringing the game down to 10 to 13 FPS. The GPU is starving because the game is failing to stream or manage textures properly for 4GB cards.
Exhaustive Troubleshooting Steps Taken (None of which solved the issue):
- Total System Wipe: I performed a complete, clean reinstallation of Windows 11 to ensure absolutely no background conflicts or bloatware.
- Driver Stripping and Clean Install: I blocked Windows Update from replacing drivers automatically. I then used NVCleanstall to install ONLY the essential NVIDIA Display Driver. I completely removed GeForce Experience, disabled Telemetry, disabled Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO), and disabled Ansel.
- Maximum Power Settings: I set Windows Power Mode to "Best Performance". I set my OMEN Gaming Hub to "Performance Mode" with Max Fans. I also set the NVIDIA Control Panel Power Management Mode to "Prefer maximum performance".
- Virtual Memory Allocation: To prevent standard RAM overflow, I created a massive 32GB Virtual Memory Paging File entirely on my fast NVMe SSD (Drive D).
- In-Game Sacrifices: I lowered absolutely every graphical setting to the lowest possible option (Texture Quality Low, Crowd Low, Grass Low). I also locked the FPS to 60.
The Result after all these steps:
My system is incredibly clean and fully optimized, yet EA FC 26 still instantly maxes out the 4GB VRAM, triggers the 40W power drop, and causes 13 FPS stuttering.
This is clearly not a hardware failure or a user-end software issue. This is a severe memory leak and VRAM optimization failure within the game code itself for 4GB GPUs.
Please escalate this detailed report to the development team. Users with 4GB VRAM desperately need a stability patch for texture streaming and memory management.
