Before diving into the world of data center workloads, I decided to warm up by testing the performance of the PNY NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition GPU with a variety of games. I played a handful of titles, and before long, viewers on my YouTube channel started suggesting more games to benchmark with the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell. Naturally, the iconic question came up: “But can it run Crysis?”
That phrase alone carries a lot of history in the gaming community. It started back in 2007 with the original Crysis. A game that was so graphically advanced at the time that most PCs simply couldn’t handle it. Only a small fraction of machines could run it at high settings with decent frame rates. Because of that, “Can it run Crysis?” became the ultimate test of any new hardware’s power.
So I decided to go with it. I played a bit of Crysis 1, then tried Crysis 3 for the first time in my life. I was genuinely impressed by the graphics and the immersive surround sound. At first, I thought I was playing the remastered version, but later realized it was the original. After that, I moved on to Crysis 2 Remastered, which I had never played before. That’s when things started to get interesting.
I set the graphics settings to their highest levels. At first, everything seemed fine. The game was playable, and the visuals looked impressive compared to what I had seen of the original Crysis 2. I was surprised at how much better the graphics appeared in the remastered version.
But after playing for a short time, I noticed that VRAM usage was steadily increasing. It kept climbing with no sign of stopping. Eventually, it used up all 96 GB of VRAM available on my PNY NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition GPU. Once the VRAM was full, system RAM usage also started to rise slowly. I tried to keep playing to see how far it would go, but the game became difficult to play. The RAM usage reached around 40 to 45 GB before I gave up. It was clear the game was leaking memory.
If you watch my recording, you can clearly see the moment when the VRAM maxes out. The frame rate starts to drop, and the gameplay becomes very unstable. It wasn’t completely frozen, but it was difficult to continue.
For this test, I used my AI/ML and vGPU server. Here are the system specifications I used:
CPU: Intel Xeon Platinum 8490H, 60 cores and 120 threads
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S DX-4677
Motherboard: GIGABYTE MS33-AR0
RAM: 4 x Samsung RDIMM 64GB DDR5 4800MHz (M321R8GA0BB0)
Storage: Crucial T705 4TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD
Power Supply: Corsair HX1200
GPU: PNY NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition, 96 GB
Operating System: Windows 11
To capture the footage, I opened OBS twice and recorded two videos at the same time using different settings. One was in 8K resolution (7680 × 2160) with a 32:9 aspect ratio, and the other was in 4K (4096 × 2160) with a 16:9 ratio. Both recordings used the same GPU. I found it impressive that the card was able to handle both tasks simultaneously.
Toward the end of the session, when VRAM was completely used up, OBS started struggling. The recorded video became choppy, even though the live gameplay was still somewhat smoother. This clearly showed how the memory leak affected not only the game but also the recording process.
Crysis 2 Remastered Breaks Gaming Memory Leak World Record (4K) Link: https://youtu.be/VOwobw9QnVI or https://youtu.be/gpe5U0_bgds
Crysis 2 Remastered Breaks Gaming Memory Leak World Record (8K) Link: https://youtu.be/uslhNZPNjbc or https://youtu.be/bKiRdVBwomo
What Is a Memory Leak and How It Happens in Games and Applications
A memory leak is a common and often frustrating issue in software development, particularly noticeable in modern games and high-performance applications. It occurs when a program allocates memory for temporary use but fails to release it after the task is completed. As a result, the memory remains occupied unnecessarily, even though it is no longer needed by the application. Over time, this can lead to reduced performance, system slowdowns, application crashes, or in some cases, the system running out of usable memory entirely.
To understand memory leaks, it’s important to first understand how memory is used in computing. Applications rely on RAM (random-access memory) to store data they need to access quickly. Games, for example, use RAM to hold things like textures, 3D models, sounds, and physics calculations. Modern games also make heavy use of VRAM, or video memory, which is located on the graphics card and is responsible for storing and processing visual data such as high-resolution textures, lighting effects, and real-time rendering information. These memory resources are essential for smooth performance and immersive visuals.
When a game or application is running, it frequently requests memory from the system to perform various tasks. Once the task is finished, the program is supposed to release that memory so it can be reused. A memory leak happens when the program forgets or fails to do that. The memory remains allocated and unavailable to other parts of the program or other applications, even though it is no longer serving any purpose. As memory usage continues to climb, system resources become strained, and performance begins to degrade.
There are several reasons why memory leaks occur. In some programming languages, developers must manually allocate and free memory. If a programmer forgets to release memory that was allocated earlier, it stays in use until the program is closed or the system is rebooted. In languages with automatic memory management, such as Java or C#, memory leaks can still occur if objects are kept alive unintentionally through lingering references in the code. Another common cause is unbounded caching, where data is continually stored in memory without limits or proper cleanup routines. Over time, this can lead to the application consuming more memory than it should.
Games are particularly vulnerable to memory leaks because of how frequently they load and unload assets. As players move through levels or open-world environments, the game must dynamically handle textures, models, sounds, and other resources. If the game engine fails to properly release old assets after loading new ones, the memory usage will continue to increase. Long play sessions can lead to significant performance issues, such as stuttering, slowdowns, or crashes.
One real-world example is my gameplay session with Crysis 2 Remastered, which showed signs of an extreme memory leak and likely breaks the world record for memory leakage in gaming. The game consumes over 90 gigabytes of VRAM, and once the VRAM is fully used, it begins to slowly increase system RAM usage beyond 40 to 45 gigabytes. If I had continued playing longer, the RAM usage would have likely gone even higher. This behavior suggests that the game is allocating memory for assets or operations without releasing it afterward. As memory consumption continues to grow without control, the system becomes less stable, and users are often forced to shut down the game manually to free up their resources.
I also tested the game with different graphics settings including low, medium, and high, but nothing made a difference. The VRAM usage kept increasing no matter what settings I used.
Memory leaks are not exclusive to gaming. They can occur in any software application, including web browsers, video editing software, and office tools. For example, leaving a browser with many open tabs running for an extended period might result in sluggish system performance if one of the tabs or extensions contains a memory leak. Video editors working with large projects might also experience increasing RAM usage over time due to inefficient memory handling.
For developers, preventing memory leaks requires attention to detail and proper programming practices. This includes releasing memory manually when necessary, breaking references to unused objects, and setting appropriate limits on caches and resource pools. Many development environments include profiling tools that help identify memory leaks during testing, allowing issues to be fixed before they affect end users. Game developers must be especially careful with asset management, ensuring that textures, sounds, and other data are released when no longer needed.
Users, on the other hand, cannot fix memory leaks directly but can take steps to minimize their impact. Restarting the application or the system can help clear out leaked memory. Keeping software and drivers up to date ensures that any known leaks are patched. Users can also monitor memory usage through task managers or third-party tools and report unusual behavior to developers.
Memory leaks are often invisible at first but can become serious over time. They slowly erode system performance and can turn a smooth experience into a frustrating one. In games and other demanding applications, even a small leak can lead to major problems during extended use. Understanding what causes memory leaks and recognizing their symptoms helps users make better decisions and provides developers with the information they need to improve software performance and stability.
And finally, long story short — can the PNY NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition with 96 GB of VRAM run Crysis? The answer: only for a short time.
And a big thanks to YouTube user Druid Sage, who commented on my video and gave me the idea to write this article, as well as to all the other viewers who left comments, made requests, and shared helpful ideas.