The Last of Us is a highly acclaimed video game that follows the story of Joel, a weary survivor who is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a military quarantine zone.
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with infected and dangerous survivors and takes players on a brutal cross-country journey.
The PC version of the game includes the complete single-player story, as well as the celebrated prequel chapter Left Behind.
It’s optimized for PC with PC-centric quality-of-life enhancements, true 4K resolutions, ultra-wide monitor support, and 3D audio support for a fully immersive experience.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to fix “You don’t have enough system and video memory to start the game” in The Last of Us part 1 or 2.
Why does The Last of Us say that I don’t have enough system and video memory?
The Last of Us says that you don’t have enough system and video memory because your PC’s RAM is not high enough.
The game requires a minimum of 16 GB of RAM (memory) to start.
In addition, you need to have at least an AMD Radeon RX 470 (4 GB), AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT (4 GB), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4 GB), or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4 GB) graphics card.
If your PC does not hit the minimum requirements, the game will either not launch, freeze, or crash.
How to fix “You don’t have enough system and video memory to start the game” in The Last of Us
To fix “You don’t have enough system and video memory to start the game” in The Last of Us, you need to close all of your existing tabs and unused processes.
By doing so, you’ll free up RAM on your PC so the game can be launched.
You can also try updating your graphics card to the latest version or increasing the virtual memory.
If all else fails, you need to upgrade your PC’s RAM and graphics card to play the game.
Method 1: Close all of your existing tabs and unused processes
- Press “CTRL” + “ALT” + “DEL” on your keyboard.
- Select “Task Manager” to open the Task Manager.
- End the task for all browsers (e.g. Google Chrome).
- End the task for unused processes (e.g. Discord).
- Launch The Last of Us.
Note: If your PC does not have at least 16 GB of RAM, you won’t be able to launch the game.
Method 2: Update your graphics card
- For Nvidia: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/download/.
- For AMD: https://www.amd.com/en/support.
Method 3: Increase the Virtual Memory
- Search for “View advanced system settings” using Windows Search.
- Advanced > Performance > Settings.
- Advanced > Change.
- Untick “Automatically manage paging file size for all devices”.
- Select the drive that you installed the game in.
- Select “Custom Size”.
- Set the “Initial Size” to 1.5x total RAM.
- Set the “Maximum Size” to 3x total RAM.
- Select “Set” followed by “Ok”.
- Launch The Last of Us.
Further reading
How to Fix Fatal D3D Error in Resident Evil 4
How to Fix “Internet browser will be closed due to internal error” on Sony Bravia TV
