For those who tried every solution suggested here and still have crash issue. Try to do a 4gb patch on Benchmark.exe and run it. It works for me I found it by accident.

And how do you do a 4gb patch on Benchmark.exe please?

The same way as Anno.exe, Addon.exe.

Are you trying to help or confuse people more?

I'm trying to help. I applied patch using "4gb_patch.exe" on Anno4.exe, Addon.exe and Benchmark.exe and it's work that's all i'm trying to say.

I guess what he is trying to say is using the patch under the "Essential improvements" section on PC Gaming Wiki.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Anno_1404

You can download it there and patch with it your .exe-files.

@iwanchai00 You meant best, but without sources what are people to do?

I guess this is no longer needed if you download the current version of Anno 1404 on gog but the unofficial patch isn't good with the 4gb patch version anymore as it was made for 32bit executables.
The 4gb patch makes 32bit use more ram but i know that gog already did that with the Large adress aware.

Anno 1404 was free on Ubisoft and had a number of enhancements. I would assume that the patch brings some of those compatibility enhancements to gog.com

I was using the newest gog version, and after 40 hours the crashes started. Every ten minutes or so. I was playing the same map for this whole time, and every island had something on it, 30 trading routes, 40000 citizens, and so on. A big map.

So I applied the 4GB patch to Anno4.exe, it was patched, but the crashes still came.

So I applied the patch also to Addon.exe and Benchmark.exe (because why not), and voila, it actually worked. No more crashes! I played for two hours straight, nothing! I have no idea how and why this works, but I'll take it.

If your version works fine, great, if it does not, this trick might be worth a shot!

I don't know what GoG did, but after installing the latest version i experienced zero crashes and no save game corruptions. Finally, for the first time in years i was able to play this game normally.

As Anno 1404 is a part of GOG Preservation Program, you can read the latest patch notes on the gamecard:

Update (13 November 2024)

- Enabled Large Address Aware (LAA) for improved memory handling
- Validated stability
- Verified compatibility with Windows 10 and 11

Update (11 June 2025)

- Forced disabled Texture and Model memory management in the engine.ini file, which should further improve game stability and running out of memory issue.

What build version of this patch (2025) ?

Ingame versions, base game: 1.03.3645, Venice: 2.01.5010.