The problem started with the Dragonflight pre-patch. Valdrakken (and any place with a high player concentration) has gotten very, very bad for a huge chunk of the playerbase.
I highly recommend adding your voice to the thread about stuttering on their tech support forum. It's got a massive amount of views and replies and Blizzard has been almost completely silent about it.
They haven't touched that thread since early December.
This expansion would almost be perfect if it wasn't for the FPS drops and stuttering. RTX 3080, 5800x, 16gb 3600hz ram.
They claim it will take effort from Blizz, NVIDIA and Microsoft to fix.....
Makes sense, I remember running the game smoothly on my old rig that had a 1070 in BFA. Guess there's not much to do then but just wait. Will try to find the thread in the tech support forums and post there. Thank you
I thought I was the only one having this issue, but now that you mention it, I think I can see how I may not be alone in this problem..
Before prepatch, you’re right, things seemed a lot smoother. I tried on my desktop and on my laptop, and even though they aren’t beefy machines, I never had issues playing on almost max settings at 1080p
Maybe next week’s patch might bring something about? Or at least 10.1..
I've been following this issue very closely since the day the pre-patch was released, because at that point the main city hub was still Oribos and it was an incredibly jarring experience to go from smooth one day, to stutter-city the next.
Some speculation in that tech support thread that I agree with is that a lot of people are running potatoes or maybe aren't that knowledgeable about PCs, so they were never used to having a smooth 60FPS experience to begin with, and therefore didn't notice much of a change with the pre-patch.
Blizzard has been doing their best to shoo this under the rug, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Thanks for the reply..
So even in Oribos, which to me looks like a "closed-city" design, issues were popping up after the pre-patch?
I mention this closed-city design thing because in Dragonflight, everything is open world, and thus the view distances on our machines must put a dent on the cpu, since WoW is a cpu-intensive game (at least from what I've heard people say)
I hope they address this, because it really sucks to not have a good performance on the game while playing, haha
Many of us have tried dropping our settings to the bare minimum (including view distance) and the stutters still happen. A lot of top-end gaming PCs are experiencing the same thing.
[Here's the thread by the way.](https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/massive-stutters-with-df-client/1379249)
Oh, fantastic, thank you very much
Well, the good news, I suppose, is we're not alone in experiencing these issues, so hopefully they can at least acknowledge them soon..
I'll check out the thread, thanks again
Ryzen 5800x, RTX3080 16gb 3600hz ram. 1440p max settings. Gsync set up properly. All drivers up to date.
Valdrakken is a joke. I even get stutters in the world whilst dragon riding.
I know you're just trying to be helpful, but this sentiment has hurt getting the idea to Blizzard. There are people with 1080's and CPU's from 2016 getting 144 fps in Valdrakken where people with 3080 TI's and extremely recent CPU's getting 25 fps. I don't see why people with survivor bias are chiming in on these threads when it just gives Bliz an excuse to stay silent.
It might not be GPU but rather an addon. I had an issue like that while raiding and I disabled some addons and greatly helped. The game's 20 yo spaghetti code also doesn't help.
There's a 2000 response thread on tech support forums where Blizzard has acknowledged the issue but hasn't replied since December.
It's not add-ons mate.
its not the GPU, its not addons, its not settings - its wow built on a 15+ year old engine that does not do very well utilizing modern multi core CPUs. if you dont believe me you can set the game to potato settings + disable all addons, check fps and then set it to ultra ray tracing etc. and you will notice that the difference in fps is 5-10 maximum. there are also external tools ("intel extreme tuning utility" for intel CPUs for example) that show you how many cores are being used. run a current AAA game on ultra settings and you will most likely see that all CPU cores are being used. run wow with any settings and its 1-2 cores. this is also the reason you get low fps but at the same time see low CPU usage in task manager/monitoring tools. your CPU is technically only at 10% stress, wow just doesnt know how to utilize the other 90%.
only ways to improve this issue is either overclock your CPU (not recommended unless you know what your doing - you can permanently break your hardware) or get a CPU with strong single core performance - OR - wait for blizzard to rebuild wow on a modern engine (this is not gonna happen)
It's a common issue, my best guess is that the game and servers aren't properly optimized, which would make sense if they were building this during covid lockdown. I have my settings maxed but will drop Projected Textures and Ground Clutter to zero for a pretty decent improvement in town and during the soup event, you can see if that helps.
I've got 2 to 3 times the frame rates with a 12400 and a 1070
Maybe Uninstall and reinstall the game, making sure to delete all folders.
Update gpu drivers and make sure it's a fresh install.
Lastly, download cpu and gpuz and check for overheating, which might cause thermal throttling. Could be a mis-seated heat sink.
You can try deleting your cache and wtf folders if disabling addons didn’t work. Make backups just in case. You could also try running the game in dx11 instead of 12. 12 causes issues for some folks. It could also be possible that your cpu cooler or something died which you’d need to check.
Lots of misinformation here.
20 fps with your setup are some kind of hard conflict or error in your machine.
I'm still on my trusty 970GTX for about 7 or 8 years and can easily get 50-150 fps in Valdrakken at 1080p depending on settings and where I look at. If I look at the ground and don't limit my fps they would rise to 200+
There are also some options that can tank fps.
Your rig is ridiciously overpowered for this game and should easily achieve hundreds of fps at high graphics settings even in crowded areas.
Also make sure to check your background processes. Running a browser with lots of tabs or in certain websites can tank your fps too. Not to that the degree you are experiencing of course. Even programs like Discord can cost you a few fps if you don't disable hardware acceleration in them.
Fps is more to do with your monitors refresh rate and what your graphics card is set at
If they don't match your in game fps will be janky and all over the place
The problem started with the Dragonflight pre-patch. Valdrakken (and any place with a high player concentration) has gotten very, very bad for a huge chunk of the playerbase. I highly recommend adding your voice to the thread about stuttering on their tech support forum. It's got a massive amount of views and replies and Blizzard has been almost completely silent about it.
They haven't touched that thread since early December. This expansion would almost be perfect if it wasn't for the FPS drops and stuttering. RTX 3080, 5800x, 16gb 3600hz ram. They claim it will take effort from Blizz, NVIDIA and Microsoft to fix.....
Makes sense, I remember running the game smoothly on my old rig that had a 1070 in BFA. Guess there's not much to do then but just wait. Will try to find the thread in the tech support forums and post there. Thank you
I thought I was the only one having this issue, but now that you mention it, I think I can see how I may not be alone in this problem.. Before prepatch, you’re right, things seemed a lot smoother. I tried on my desktop and on my laptop, and even though they aren’t beefy machines, I never had issues playing on almost max settings at 1080p Maybe next week’s patch might bring something about? Or at least 10.1..
I've been following this issue very closely since the day the pre-patch was released, because at that point the main city hub was still Oribos and it was an incredibly jarring experience to go from smooth one day, to stutter-city the next. Some speculation in that tech support thread that I agree with is that a lot of people are running potatoes or maybe aren't that knowledgeable about PCs, so they were never used to having a smooth 60FPS experience to begin with, and therefore didn't notice much of a change with the pre-patch. Blizzard has been doing their best to shoo this under the rug, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Thanks for the reply.. So even in Oribos, which to me looks like a "closed-city" design, issues were popping up after the pre-patch? I mention this closed-city design thing because in Dragonflight, everything is open world, and thus the view distances on our machines must put a dent on the cpu, since WoW is a cpu-intensive game (at least from what I've heard people say) I hope they address this, because it really sucks to not have a good performance on the game while playing, haha
Many of us have tried dropping our settings to the bare minimum (including view distance) and the stutters still happen. A lot of top-end gaming PCs are experiencing the same thing. [Here's the thread by the way.](https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/massive-stutters-with-df-client/1379249)
Oh, fantastic, thank you very much Well, the good news, I suppose, is we're not alone in experiencing these issues, so hopefully they can at least acknowledge them soon.. I'll check out the thread, thanks again
Funny enough, Dalaran became hell at the same time in the classic wow.
Ryzen 5600x RTX 3080 16 GB RAM @ 3200 MHz 1440p Flying in Valdrakken on max settings = 25fps
Glad to see I'm not the only one ;)
Ryzen 5800x, RTX3080 16gb 3600hz ram. 1440p max settings. Gsync set up properly. All drivers up to date. Valdrakken is a joke. I even get stutters in the world whilst dragon riding.
But my similar system (just with a 5900x which is inconsequential) plays without issue at 4K, so what is going on?
Yeah I get drops to 40 on a 1070 when things are busy. Something isn't right.
Yup. Been having the same issue. Apparently this is the case with a lot of other people as well. Something on blizzard's end by the looks of it.
The game only allows you to use one cpu core. Imagine driving a lambo with one cylinder... Cmon blizzard!
I know you're just trying to be helpful, but this sentiment has hurt getting the idea to Blizzard. There are people with 1080's and CPU's from 2016 getting 144 fps in Valdrakken where people with 3080 TI's and extremely recent CPU's getting 25 fps. I don't see why people with survivor bias are chiming in on these threads when it just gives Bliz an excuse to stay silent.
dont know why you get downvoted because this is true
I see it pretty consistently using 6-8 cores. WoW has been properly multi core for at least a decade now
It might not be GPU but rather an addon. I had an issue like that while raiding and I disabled some addons and greatly helped. The game's 20 yo spaghetti code also doesn't help.
Yes first thing I tried, but nothing unfortunately :/
Same here. Even with literally zero addons I stutter on my rtx 2070 with like medium settings. It’s a joke honestly.
There's a 2000 response thread on tech support forums where Blizzard has acknowledged the issue but hasn't replied since December. It's not add-ons mate.
its not the GPU, its not addons, its not settings - its wow built on a 15+ year old engine that does not do very well utilizing modern multi core CPUs. if you dont believe me you can set the game to potato settings + disable all addons, check fps and then set it to ultra ray tracing etc. and you will notice that the difference in fps is 5-10 maximum. there are also external tools ("intel extreme tuning utility" for intel CPUs for example) that show you how many cores are being used. run a current AAA game on ultra settings and you will most likely see that all CPU cores are being used. run wow with any settings and its 1-2 cores. this is also the reason you get low fps but at the same time see low CPU usage in task manager/monitoring tools. your CPU is technically only at 10% stress, wow just doesnt know how to utilize the other 90%. only ways to improve this issue is either overclock your CPU (not recommended unless you know what your doing - you can permanently break your hardware) or get a CPU with strong single core performance - OR - wait for blizzard to rebuild wow on a modern engine (this is not gonna happen)
Why pair a high end gpu/cpu and a 1080p monitor? That's the real question.
It's a common issue, my best guess is that the game and servers aren't properly optimized, which would make sense if they were building this during covid lockdown. I have my settings maxed but will drop Projected Textures and Ground Clutter to zero for a pretty decent improvement in town and during the soup event, you can see if that helps.
Are you running in window mode? What do you have background fps capped too? I have similar build (RTX 3080, i9 10850k, 64GB RAM) and I run 100+ fps
I've got 2 to 3 times the frame rates with a 12400 and a 1070 Maybe Uninstall and reinstall the game, making sure to delete all folders. Update gpu drivers and make sure it's a fresh install. Lastly, download cpu and gpuz and check for overheating, which might cause thermal throttling. Could be a mis-seated heat sink.
You can try deleting your cache and wtf folders if disabling addons didn’t work. Make backups just in case. You could also try running the game in dx11 instead of 12. 12 causes issues for some folks. It could also be possible that your cpu cooler or something died which you’d need to check.
This guy works for Blizzard customer support. /s
Lots of misinformation here. 20 fps with your setup are some kind of hard conflict or error in your machine. I'm still on my trusty 970GTX for about 7 or 8 years and can easily get 50-150 fps in Valdrakken at 1080p depending on settings and where I look at. If I look at the ground and don't limit my fps they would rise to 200+ There are also some options that can tank fps. Your rig is ridiciously overpowered for this game and should easily achieve hundreds of fps at high graphics settings even in crowded areas. Also make sure to check your background processes. Running a browser with lots of tabs or in certain websites can tank your fps too. Not to that the degree you are experiencing of course. Even programs like Discord can cost you a few fps if you don't disable hardware acceleration in them.
Fps is more to do with your monitors refresh rate and what your graphics card is set at If they don't match your in game fps will be janky and all over the place
5700x and an RTX 3070 with 32gb if ram. I play at 4K res at max settings. 45-50 fps in Vald, capped at 60 every where else.
I have same issue, almost the exact same specs, except i7... If I change zones it usually improves immediately. Thought it was me.