Minecraft Forums

I am gonna need some vital information, my boi: Does the game launch and crash after the Mojang screen or does the launcher crash when started?

What are your JVM arguments? From reading up on the error the most likely causes are either running out of physical RAM in your computer or exceeding the 32 bit process limit, which is easy to exceed if you allocate more than the default amount of memory (in fact, I've even gotten a "Minecraft has run out of memory" error (a non-fatal in-game error message) with the default 1 GB allocated, as I have 32 bit Java/OS and versions up to 1.6.4 even warn me about it if I try using Far render distance. With 768 MB allocated I've never had any issues, and there is still plenty of memory for the game itself).

For the most part, Minecraft only needs 1 GB of RAM allocated, and will run with even less on default settings; trying to change the JVM arguments often causes more trouble than it solves, particularly due to misunderstandings over what "-Xmn128M" means.

In particular, note the solutions given for the error you are getting:

Possible reasons:
The system is out of physical RAM or swap space
In 32 bit mode, the process size limit was hit

Possible solutions:
Reduce memory load on the system
Increase physical memory or swap space
Check if swap backing store is full
Use 64 bit Java on a 64 bit OS
Decrease Java heap size (-Xmx/-Xms)
Decrease number of Java threads
Decrease Java thread stack sizes (-Xss)
Set larger code cache with -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=

http://bugs.java.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=7042582

If you have a 64 bit OS you should also only be running 64 bit Java since otherwise the OS has to emulate a 32 bit environment, which comes with performance penalties and stability issues, which should be the case if you are using the latest launcher, which comes with its own Java. Otherwise, you have too many things running in the background; when idle my computer only uses 600-700 MB of RAM, 2 GB when playing Minecraft (the Java process uses a lot more memory than what is allocated due to memory used by native libraries, OpenGL, and the JVM itself, which is something that needs to be considered when allocating memory).

Quote from TheMasterCaver»

What are your JVM arguments? From reading up on the error the most likely causes are either running out of physical RAM in your computer or exceeding the 32 bit process limit, which is easy to exceed if you allocate more than the default amount of memory (in fact, I've even gotten a "Minecraft has run out of memory" error (a non-fatal in-game error message) with the default 1 GB allocated, as I have 32 bit Java/OS and versions up to 1.6.4 even warn me about it if I try using Far render distance. With 768 MB allocated I've never had any issues, and there is still plenty of memory for the game itself).

For the most part, Minecraft only needs 1 GB of RAM allocated, and will run with even less on default settings; trying to change the JVM arguments often causes more trouble than it solves, particularly due to misunderstandings over what "-Xmn128M" means.

In particular, note the solutions given for the error you are getting:

If you have a 64 bit OS you should also only be running 64 bit Java since otherwise the OS has to emulate a 32 bit environment, which comes with performance penalties and stability issues, which should be the case if you are using the latest launcher, which comes with its own Java. Otherwise, you have too many things running in the background; when idle my computer only uses 600-700 MB of RAM, 2 GB when playing Minecraft (the Java process uses a lot more memory than what is allocated due to memory used by native libraries, OpenGL, and the JVM itself, which is something that needs to be considered when allocating memory).

I was having tons of problems a while back with Java and the minecraft launcher, so I downloaded the launcher used on linux machines, as well as installed 32 bit Java (I have a 64 bit computer. Aren't all modern computers 64-bit?). My FPS increased, but now when I play the memory is getting used up way too fast. When I start a world, the percentage part in the upper right corner of the debug screen will start at around 20% and go up rather quickly to 70%, and then goes back down to 20%. If I play with forge, it's even worse as it uses up memory insanely fast. The worst part is for some reason when I log in and out of worlds, the memory will start to rise again when I enter a world. For example, when I first log into a save after opening the game, the memory will go from 20% to 70%. If I log out and log into some other saves a few times, and then log back into any save, the memory will then start to go from 20% to 99%, and that's when I'll get a lag spike, and the memory will go back to 20%.

I have allocated 512M in the JVM arguments, but as you have said I may not understand what that actually means. I always assumed it meant 512MB of RAM. I have also noticed that even when I change the default number of 128M in the JVM arguments, when I look at the debug screen it will still say 768MB or 972MB allocated to minecraft in the top right corner. Do you have any idea what may be causing any of this?

Quote from Fyqcraft»

I have allocated 512M in the JVM arguments, but as you have said I may not understand what that actually means. I always assumed it meant 512MB of RAM. I have also noticed that even when I change the default number of 128M in the JVM arguments, when I look at the debug screen it will still say 768MB or 972MB allocated to minecraft in the top right corner. Do you have any idea what may be causing any of this?

The 128 MB number you refer to tells the garbage collector to allocate that much memory for frequently used objects which have a short lifetime and need to be garbage collected efficiently, which is very important in 1.8-1.9 due to poor coding decisions Mojang made*; this is also why Mojang added the extra JVM arguments when 1.8 was in the works (before then they only had -Xmx1G). I myself find that the incremental garage collection reduces performance; true, it is supposed to prevent full garbage collections, which will freeze the game, from occurring, but those only happen once or twice an hour when I'm playing (largely dependent on how much I move; a minecart ride will trigger one after a few minutes) and only last a second, and with only 2 CPU cores, one running the rendering thread and the other the server thread, I don't have any threads to spare to concurrent garbage collection (full garbage collections will also occur if the incremental collector can't keep up; more memory can help absorb spikes in activity but ultimately it is a matter of how quickly memory is allocated).

A common mistake people make when changing the JVM arguments is to increase -Xmn, which in turn causes all sort of issues with lag spikes and unusual memory behavior; it is best to leave it alone, or even delete all of the arguments except for -Xmx(whatever); I myself use -Xmx768M -Xms768M -Xss1024K (the last increases the amount of stack space, which has otherwise given me stack overflow crashes. This is not needed for 64 bit Java unless you use certain mods since the default allocation is 1024K. Also, it is not a good idea to set Xms very high if Xmx is also high unless you are sure that the game will use the memory; after a few hours of playing without it around 600 MB had been allocated; it does reduce the frequency of garbage collections early on until the JVM resizes the heap to the optimum size). In any case the optimal JVM arguments to use are different from computer to computer.

*Optifine's creator posted a good rant about the issues with 1.8

Note that in any case it is normal to see memory usage rise and fall in a regular cycle because that is how Java's garbage collector works - it is much more efficient to let garbage accumulate until memory needs to be freed than it is to garbage collect in real-time. Here is an example of how memory usage varies (chart in upper-right); with the settings that I use it rises to 99% before a full garbage collection occurs.:

Try increasing the number in "-Xmx1G" to 2Gb less than what you have in your computer. 1Gb really doesn't allow anything to run.

No definitely not. 1G is more than enough for most.

Insufficient memory error is NOT an OutOfMemoryException which is what you would expect if the Java heap were too small. Instead this error implies that it's the non-heap memory that is running out. Maybe this computer has a pitiful amount of RAM to begin with.

But of course we can't tell because OP cherry picked a few lines to give us and withheld all the rest of the useful information.

If your computer only has 2G of RAM then you should shrink the Java heap so as to leave more memory left over for other things.

Change Xmx from "-Xmx1G" to "-Xmx756M" and make sure your render distance is less than 12.

Do not attempt to use a high resolution resource pack.

Quote from superman011»

My computer holds 2GB of RAM. As faar as im concerned, my computer has little space... The temporary files i try to clean are taking up 2 GB of space which caused storage space to reach its limit. I got 28.5 total storage space and i used up 27.7 space. And idk how to create or view a swap file because im on windows 10. I might try to figure that out later and i tried using Xmx2G too. To launch minecraft.

Disk space is not the issue here; it doesn't matter how full your hard drive is, it is RAM that matters (insufficient disk space will cause other issues though, especially if you run out while playing, which will cause all sorts of chunk corruption since the game just ignores write errors instead of crashing). Windows also creates a swap file by default, but that is not the solution to low RAM since if it does use it the whole computer will grind to a halt since disk is MUCH slower than RAM. The best way to free up RAM is to close any unnecessary programs, including background apps; I'm not sure what a normal idle usage is but my computer uses 600-700 MB when nothing is running (Windows 7 32 bit, which is not only a different OS but 32 bit tends to need less memory; Microsoft recommends a minimum of 1 GB for 32 bit and 2 GB for 64 bit; if you upgrade a computer with less than 4 GB of RAM and a 32 bit OS I'd suggest keeping it at 32 bit when upgrading). The best solution is to add more RAM if you can; some computers may not allow you to add more (for example, mine supports 4 GB max) and if it is old it may be hard to find memory for it.