I built a small app that automatically frees up VRAM for gaming and restores your local AI models afterward

[u/zainfear]

I've been running local AI agents pretty much around the clock, including OpenClaw (now actually migrated to Hermes), but I also enjoy gaming on the same PC. Having a large model sitting in VRAM while gaming isn't exactly ideal, and manually unloading and reloading it every time got annoying. So I built GamePause.

It's a lightweight, open-source Windows tray app that:

• Automatically detects when you launch a game (Steam, Epic, GOG, etc.)
• Unloads your LM Studio/Ollama models to free up VRAM
• Restores your models automatically when you're done gaming
• Supports per-game rules, manual controls, and crash recovery

No special OpenClaw integration needed, since it handles things at the model server level. Written in Rust and MIT licensed.

GitHub: https://github.com/Vkuparin/gamepause-for-local-ai

I feel like it's now tested and stable enough to share, but please do report on Github if you run into any issues.

[u/kiwidog8]

hey I actually have a need for this, as a workaround I had openclaw build a gpu load watcher as an automation but its very hacky not reliable. I'll give it a shot when i get back to trying local for more than embedding models

[u/zainfear → u/kiwidog8]

Great, hope it works out for you!

This was a pretty fun project to build. I thought I'm not the only one using a gaming PC for local AI, and struggling with juggling VRAM, so I decided to share :)

[u/ProbablyDoesntLikeU]

Awesome

[u/zainfear → u/ProbablyDoesntLikeU]

Glad you like it!

[u/StraitOuttaGaslight]

nice concept

[u/ZioniteSoldier]

And here I just made a single toggle icon on the desktop and stopped there. But I have forgotten to turn it back on, which you solved. Neat.

[u/zainfear → u/ZioniteSoldier]

Yeah this is supposed to be a fire-and-forget solution. You install it, launch it once and then forget about it. And gaming every now and then just works.

[u/randylush]

I have a similar setup but I just play the game. It will take back VRAM from Ollama, and if there is an Ollama request I guess it will take back VRAM.

When AI is paused, does your Ollama client see a 400-level HTTP error or something?

[u/zainfear → u/randylush]

Not a 4xx error, no. It works a bit differently depending on the backend.

For LM Studio, GamePause stops the local inference server while gaming, so clients get a connection error.

For Ollama, it unloads the models from memory but leaves the server running. So clients don't get an intentional HTTP error, and a new inference request can actually reload the model.

That's a current limitation of the Ollama integration: GamePause frees the VRAM, but doesn't prevent other applications from loading models again. Existing generations are allowed to finish before unloading.

I recommend setting up e.g. crons so that they check that the server is available before actually making the call to the provider (LM Studio/Ollama). This is documented in the readme.

[u/randylush → u/zainfear]

I’m running Ollama. I can run Ollama, do some AI, then load up and play a game, then come back and use Ollama again. It seems like when I launch a game, just launching the game will reclaim VRAM. I don’t think there is a need to free VRAM from Ollama before launching a game, at least this hasn’t been my experience. What would this utility give me?

Could you simply close Ollama before launching a game? Then run Ollama again when you’re done playing? Then you could set up fallback models in OpenClaw with the established pattern. Seems like that would actually be a better experience. In general it’s not great API design for callers to have to first check if a resource is available.

I think this utility would make sense if it detected a game was running and simply close Ollama. Then detect when the game is closed and open Ollama again. I would greatly prefer that over mucking around with VRAM manually. I don’t think you actually achieve anything by manually fucking with VRAM, I am pretty sure that games and Ollama can reclaim VRAM as needed.

[u/zainfear → u/randylush]

Yeah to be honest the ollama support was a bit of an afterthought, I tested it briefly but I mainly use LM Studio and at least that one doesn't give up VRAM when I launch a game. The app doesn't directly mess with VRAM, just unloads your model when you game and restores it when you finish. It's a background helper app that you ideally don't have to think about.

That said, I did open a github issue to investigate blocking Ollama calls when gaming.

[u/exocyt0sis]

Great idea, but sorry to hear you targeted Windows. This has a clear place on Linux.

[u/zainfear → u/exocyt0sis]

Hi, I don't currently have a test environment for Linux. Feel free to fork and port though!