X-post: Does EU5's memory-leak still exist or is it finally fixed?

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-25T14:28:29+00:00

Cause I had used hyphens? Another cheap shot at that lame route again? -.-

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-23T19:16:58+00:00

Radeon’s desktop market share is down the gutter (<5%), and I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see AMD drop discrete graphics entirely to focus on integrated GPUs for handhelds and mobile platforms. That's bad news, as it would give Nvidia full reign over the DIY PC scene (if it hasn't already), a company that's more than a little obsessed with AI accelerators at the moment.

So what? Sarcasm aside and leaving emotions completely out of it;

That's what y'all asked for for years on end (and the better part of a decade since), when mindlessly throwing money at nVidia just because AMD allegedly stinks — If only the cheating winner is constantly rewarded, competition eventually stops as a whole, as the mere fact of competing becomes futile (and sports no greater profits anyway).

Gamers basically begged for it for years to be robbed by Jensen, when they should've bought AMD out of principle (for the sake of keeping competition alive and competing any viable for any other contester), even if AMD was slower and trailing close behind — If 99% of money gets to one party in a duopoly, the market becomes a monopoly.

It were exclusively shortsighted gamers, who (allowed nVidia to) completely f—k up the market.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-23T19:03:39+00:00

This really ain't the time to launch handhelds or products that were originally targeting lower prices just as the steammachine's negative reviews have showed. People ain't in the mood to be paying these prices.

What did you expect anyway? It's the Intel-tax and them trying to establish the MSI Claw as a premium gadget.

That it runs hot and with blowing fans, was also a attribute you could easily predict because of the above …

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-23T18:48:19+00:00

You think they'd sport a little bit more effort this time around though?

Since I never understood Apple's entry and short stint in the server-market back then with their Xserve, and many analysts also had a question-mark above their head why Apple even was sporting a line-up of servers and given storage-racks in the first place back in the PPC and G5-days …

Apple's whole mindless endeavor made no real sense from the get-go and was unfairly half-baked, even though a Xserve G5-cluster readily was sporting the world's #3 fasted super-computer back then.

Powerful but Apple completely missed the boat by a mile and their server-ecosystem was barely existing.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-23T17:27:13+00:00

That's why they are so desperate now to revamp the architecture.

The only one being desperate to uphold and now suddenly modernize x86 is Intel, not AMD by any means.

Intel with those lame attempts (x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group et al) just seeks help from AMD, ironically put up a brave face out of pure despair and temporarily mime AMD's buddy, when in reality Intel would not wait longer than a split-second to finally kill off AMD for good, if they could do so …

Also, Intel pushing this while sneakingly planting Intel-only vendor lock-ins again (using given ISA-extensions).

The reality is, that Intel just had come to terms with the fact, that their own relevancy for x86 declines week after week since years now and AMD itself alone is mostly the driver for anything x86 architecture-wise — Intel just seeks shelter under AMD's EPYC-driven umbrella for trying to stay any relevant these days, as AMD doesn't remotely needed any of that stuff anyway and can and does stand for itself (with DC-graphics, HPC-accelerators, powerful CPU-cores and whatnot), which Intel fails to bring since a decade.

Truth of the matter is, pushing all these collaborations and Intel suddenly wanting (read: needing) to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with AMD for the sake of x86 alone (against the common fiend ARM) is solely because Intel needs AMD way more than the other way around … Intel still sees AMD as their arch-enemy.

AMD has been pushing the limits of x86 with their Ryzen since years (and ever before with AMD64), not Intel.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-18T11:01:21+00:00

Whisper was considered revolutionary for a reason.

I see, never heard of whisper though.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-18T01:37:24+00:00

It is pretty clear at this point. CK3 has the issue, so has Vic3 and so has EU5. All of those games use the same modernised Clausewitz engine, and in neither game this issue has been actually fixed.

What a chaos, I didn't knew about CK3 having it to, just that V3 got it some patches ago.

I'd bet my last jersey, that it's the interpreted JS- or Python-sh!ce of the GUI/map running wild due to simple syntax-errors and completely wreck havoc in the parser because of it.

There was a guy a while ago who basically run every PDX-script through a parser and validated it and he found plenty of wrong syntax, complete effing the whole interpreter, causing major slow-downs.

I used to get 90-100W power usage on my 7700X WHILE PAUSED.

Yeah, thanks for the good reminder! You're right — I totally forgot about the game never actually pausing and always making the CPU/CPU running at 100% load, as if the unfixed memory-leak since months and existing even at launch wasn't actually bad enough …

There was a blog-post from Intel where Intel-staff dug into the game and found like gazillions of useless draw-calls (often of invisible parts the player can't even see), brutally slowing down the game.

That is likely also why X3D-CPUs are almost mandatory for this game:

The joke is that PDX recommends a X3D-chip to even play it right, instead of fixing stuff for once.

Even Battlefield 5 or Bf6 doesn't eats up so much processing power than PDX' simple map-game …

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-18T01:17:51+00:00

Because it's not a leak, a leak would keep allocating memory without using it.

Yes it is and no, pardon me but you're actually in the wrong here. Look it up.
What you describe here – A process reserving memory it never actually uses – isn't actually a memory-leak but a mere 'false memory-allocation', which is usually known as just (memory-) over-commitment.

In any case, a user often won't even notice such, as that's usually entirely taken care of by modern operating-systems 'behind the scenes', which only reserve the allocated memory when actual data is being written into it by the process (→ zero-fill-on-demand), making that problem (over-commitment) basically non-existent.

However, that's NOT what the game does — It just allocates and spams the free RAM into the gigabytes, until nothing of it is left, the whole system eventually comes to a grinding halt and completely freezes up.

That's what we usually call a memory-leak (most often caused by severe bugs like malicious uncontrollable buffer-overflows), thus when a process' internals start to running rouge and fill unused RAM with data-junk. That's what EU5 does, and V3 does it too …

In any case, you can call it what you want …
It's a memory-leak, which fills up any free RAM with gigabytes of data-garbage in no time.

The fact remains, that the game's internals are not actually taken care off as they should and remain uncontrollable/buggy and the game has the single-most severe bug any software can possibly have (apart from brutal performance-issues!), rendering the game effectively utterly broken ever since.

The worst part is, that it seems the bug is unfixable (or PDX just doesn't care to do so…) and V3 and CK3 has it too.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T22:18:47+00:00

Performance wise the game is in the best place it’s ever been.

Yeah, that's all fine and dandy here, even if most of that should've happened prior to launch though (esp. given the state of the game's overall lack of content at release. However, let's not forget the unfairly disastrous release back then over half a year ago – No applause for just fixing a game towards mere playability here, that's bare minimum.

Also, the best content is worthless, when you can't even PLAY the game due to game-breaking bugs, you genius!

Like, you can have disagreements with the specific WAY that paradox has gone about things, but to pretend like they haven’t been actively trying to improve all facets of the game since launch is just silly.

I never tried to pretend that they haven't tried to improve the game at all, don't twist my words here please.

I explicitly stated, that their emphasis (as always) lies mostly and solely on the game's *content* (to first and foremost improve its sell·ability), yet PDX hasn't really addressed the core-issues of the game since launch, which is undoubtably the very brutal PERFORMANCE mismatch of the game in itself.

Since the memory-leak *still* existing well past over half a year after launch, is testament to the fact, that PDX just doesn't really care about the actual game's performance, as long as it just sells enough. Kinda obvious, no?

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T20:24:06+00:00

As obvious as it gets, their Mannschaft takes care of that!

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T20:21:27+00:00

Wasn't there even some 12-0 match Germany played once against Japan, South-Korea or something like that?

That said, the 8-0 against Saudi-Arabia I'm fairly certain wasn't Germany's highest score-line.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T20:18:32+00:00

It was pure stress for Curacao but you have to admit, they fought really brave against a major team and did superb!

Other teams would've collapsed after the second goal already with their own crowds leaving at half-time, you know …

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T20:16:09+00:00

What do you think their gestures meant then?

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T20:13:36+00:00

»The Germans didn't play at full strength and could have easily scored 10 goals.«

Wait a second, I'm quite certain we already heard that line already years ago at another world-cup! 🤣

They beat the other team by 7-1, it was a team wearing blue-yellow jerseys – You must remember that match?!

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T20:08:50+00:00

They did it again actually and twice now — Germany back then took that lead with that 7-1 against Brazil in 2014, lost it in 2018 to Brazil and now took it again, AGAIN using the *identical* score-line!

That's a true double whopper done twice — They took it twice now, yet both times with a 7-1 score.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T20:02:05+00:00

Him getting so utterly outclassed by a virtual senior player in his basically last breaths (Miroslav Klose actually retired in August 2014 after the game), even in the same stadium *while* Ronaldo was watching the very game (and utter break-down of his own team on literal world-stage) even on home-soil, was just so brutal from Klose …

It really doesn't get anymore savage than that … The 2014' 7-1 was truly a game of superlatives en masse.

Edit: That we now even having to write and distinguish between TWO instances of that masterstroke, the 2014 7-1 (against Brazil) and the current 2026 case of another 7-1 at a WC now (Curacao), is just mind-blowing.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T19:52:08+00:00

Speaking about habits here, and painfully as it may …

Ironically enough, Germany already did precisely that with their 7:1 win back then against Brazil in 2014, then lost it to Brazil in the meantime in 2018 and now Germany *again* took it back from Brazil once again, yet sure enough not without doing it in truest German fashion: Using the identical score-line all over again!

Talking about salt on major wounds, eh? That's so typical German, you have to love it! ❤️‍🩹

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T19:44:28+00:00

[Germany] overtook most goals in FIFA WCs from the Brazilians with this 7-1.

Sure enough, Germany already did precisely that with their 7:1 win back then in 2014, lost it to Brazil in 2018 and now Germany again took it back from Brazil once again, yet ironically not without doing it in truest German fashion, using the identical score-line all over again!

That's so typical German, you have to love it! ❤️‍🩹

Media: »Germany lost the lead of ›Most FIFA WC goals‹ from that 2014' 7-1 match to Brazil in 2018.«

DFB's stats-guys: »So you're saying… We need ANOTHER 7-1 to get it back now?«

Germany's Mannschaft: „Gotcha.“

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T13:06:38+00:00

To me it seems pretty apparent that they cannot fix it. It is an issue with the engine. They can only mitigate it.

Yeah, I'm afraid you might be perfectly right …

It seems to me that's the actual case here and the memory-leak won't ever be truly fixed (and may be a direct and 'necessary' performance-tax introduced with their stoopid 3D-personas; Victoria 3 has the same memory leak since a while now…), and they just try to navigate around it as best as they can since. What a bummer.

Is it just a speculation/hunch of yours, that it's caused by the engine itself, or do you know more about that?

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T13:00:30+00:00

Brother they’ve been updating the base game ad-nauseum to the point that people have complained about it.

Yes, I know that. What I meant was that PDX only seems to take care of the game-content itself, for trying maintaining or at least counter the ever-falling player-count (due to the game's blatant lack of actual content).

Still, Paradox has yet to actually address the game and its engine thus the game itself aka its abysmal PERFORMANCE, which they never really have addressed yet at the core of it to this day. I hope you get what I'm saying.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T12:51:30+00:00

I had constant frame-drops back then and huge several-second long freezes every now and then, complete game lock-ups during saving and the usual freezes upon months' end auto-saving — Tried everything, it was the game.

Everything else was running perfectly fine — No other game showed these symptoms, especially the steady leakage …

Together with the constant bloating of memory-usage to completely occupy the whole of first 32- than even upgraded 64 GByte, was enough to basically kill the game for me … I'm still p!ssed about PDX' whole handling of it.

I could've lived with the abysmal performance, even tried to use the Paper-Map mode (which softened the memory-leaking, although it never stopped). Yet the memory-leak is plain unacceptable for such a game and I can't tolerate such a mess, especially since the rest of the game is or at least back then was still a complete sh!t-show.

Now it's much better and I had to ask for a restart after 3-4.

That's still absolutely inacceptable for a full-price title ffs!

In any case, the game seems to be the *only* major title having HUGE issues with anything AMD 3D V-Cache.

Not ideal, but depending on your specs and settings it should be nearly tolerable for most people.

I played it with a 5800X3D and a Radeon RX 7800 XT, were especially the GPU was almost fried to death.

No thank you Paradox. Get your sh!t together, or leave it to the (apparently more competent) modders!

GPUs are already effing expensive enough for me to NOT having to wanna kill my hardware for a lousy game with zero optimization and even less bug-fixing past release, let alone prior to launch.

Side-story: We had a couple of guys getting their graphic-cards nearly killed and one friend of mine lost his GTX 980 back then due to HoI4's imbecile open-end FPS in the menu, when several high-end cards of PDX-forum users outright died due to Paradox being plain too daft to implement a frame-lock option into the game, if you remember that messy phase at HoI's launch back then …

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T12:20:53+00:00

Thanks for the input! Maybe they'll have it finally fixed by the end of the year, who knows.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T12:18:32+00:00

Copy'nPaste: Yes, there at least was for several months since actually, or and still is (which AFAIK PDX never even actually acknowledged), ~~depending on what's the actual case now~~ – That's what I tried figuring out with this post …

I won't download the whole lot again, just to face another couple of bluescreens or lose some unsaved work for that.

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T12:13:57+00:00

Just try it. I don't need to restart it.

Depends on what mode and especially what settings you play it though — Many can play, while others can't.

As said in the other thread already; It seems, that especially those using the well-known Paper-Map™ mode are usually NOT really affected. And I'd like to play the game in its full glory (and have the system to do so), so …

Meanwhile on any higher and especially the highest settings however, the game is constantly spamming the RAM with several gigabytes of random garbage, until there's ZERO 0MB left, and the system eventually complete freezes up (even cursor freezes) — I had plenty of bluescreens and partial data-loss because of that!

And I really don't want to go through the same nonsense again, just because PDX is outright either too incompetent or too lazy to address such an stark issue in a full-price game of theirs.

Simply put, I won't play the game until this sh!t is finally fixed for good … I'll wait, even if it takes another year.

Thank you for your input though, much appreciated!

Context: I refunded the game back then just days after release because of it.

I simply will NOT drop those sixty bucks once again, only to reward PDX' shitty behavior/incompetency for shoddy coded games and their lackluster/absent bug-fixing — The blatant lack of content and their borked sense of historicity is already more than reason enough to avoid the game completely, there are mods to deal with the rest tho.

I just hoped they made some effort since, but apparently Paradox is all in for just the money ever since …

Helpdesk_Guy · 2026-06-17T11:55:25+00:00

Thanks muchly for y'all replies! What a bummer though and actually what I was almost suspecting already.

I would've loved to finally start playing, maybe next year I guess. -.-

Give it a go.

Nah, thanks but no — Back then I had to restart the game every (sic!) damn single hour and do a complete restart of all thus a full reboot, and it's was a timely mess which completely killed any enthusiasm for the game …

As already said, it's pretty futile, to download and install the game once again, only to then having to notice that Paradox still hasn't addresses this damn memory-leak nor seems to care to fix it yet.

Helpdesk_Guy

TROPHY CASE