FPS drops issue since 8.1.5

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First of all, I have a pretty old PC, I’m not gonna assume that I run with super good hardware. My specs are in short: 4gb ram, gtx 650 1gb ram, amd fx 4350 quad 3,9 ghz, 1 tb HDD (if it matters).

So, some of you might think, of course you have FPS drops since your hardware is so old. I would say the same thing, if not for the fact that I know how the game used to run prior to 8.1.5 and how it runs now during 8.1.5.

I play with everything on low (1), which isn’t a big deal for me. Before 8.1.5, I would be able to walk in Boralus just fine, with almost no small freezes, I was able to play epic BGs while participating in big fights (say 40 v 40) without freezing at all, I could do arenas with 60+ FPS every single time, raids fine too, etc, only open world loading took a bit more in certain areas.

Ok, so after 8.1.5, I still run with the same settings, but:

While in Boralus, I get a lot of freezes waiting for things to load up. Even in ARENAS, where the space is really small with just 4 or 6 players (2v2 or 3v3) I get freezes. Today I was in an arena, 3 fire mages in enemy team opened on us in the same time, I was frozen (not by the mage’s skill) for 2-3 seconds, this is ridiculous. Even if my hardware specs are bad, I never had an issue with FPS, especially in arenas where it always ran smoothly. Even when going in Stormwind things load harder. Or when going in front of Stormwind to pvp, people load harder than usual and the FPS is lower, while before 8.1.5 I didn’t have this issue.

So 8.1.5 changed something for the worse performance wise and I got no idea what. It’s like the system req. have been taken up a bit without any announcement.

I’ve seen some other people say that they have similar FPS issues since the new patch, so I can’t be the only person with this, but still I see no dedicated thread to this.

I disabled all of my addons, I updated my video card drivers, yet the issue persists.

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I’m having the exact same problem… my game was fine pre 8.1.5, Now my fps drops all the time no matter what i’m doing, and when i say drops i mean down to like 0 - 5 fps. It’s incredibly frustrating knowing that I was fine last week, bar ridiculous loading screens, which was gotten 10x worse. I’m legit sometimes waiting 10 minutes to load into the game from character select screen.

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Before this patch my computer worked just fine after the patch wow constantly crashes and i cant run anything behind it not even mediaplayer anymore for listening the music if i do that the game stutters and eventually whole computer just dies.

Tried upgrading drivers won’t help downgraded the drivers whole computer won’t die anymore its just wow that been pain in the butt.

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Its not your cpu or your gpu because mine is stuttering & freezing as though its going to crash…its better now since i turned off everything…so I think its the aa or vsynch or msaa causing it because now i turned them all off I dont stutter - Ive got gtx 970 I5 drivers

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I’ve read on the forums more and it seems they added a new direct X option in 8.1.5 to optimize for people with better PCs. That option was automatically set for everyone with the addition of 8.1.5. The option is called “DirectX 11”, while the older setting that we ran with prior to 8.1.5 si now called “DirectX 11 Legacy”. Supposedly, the legacy option seems to be intended to be more optimized for older machines, for single thread performance, while the DirectX 11 option is for multithreaded. Even though you have multithreads on your CPU, I suggest trying to use the Legacy option to see if it changes anything.

I changed it last night, but couldn’t play properly cause it was late, so I just had the time to run a bit around Boralus and it seemed like the freezes weren’t so frequent anymore. I’ll play with the option today and see if this fixes it, hopefully it does.

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Having the exact same problem. Ever since the patch, my FPS are around 150, but suddenly they drop to like… 60, or even lower. The game stutters badly, and I can’t run anything other than WoW. It says it uses 80-100% CPU power when WoW is running. I’ve tried all Direct X options. All settings. Nothing works, and it sounds like my computer is dying, even though it is only 1 year old. Came directly after patch. FFS BLIZZARD.

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Make sure your RAM is not the problem, because with introduction of 8.1.5 RAM usage changed heavily. Try changing graphic api to Direct 11 Legacy and look if it gets better.

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THANK YOU for this tip!

It drops my CPU utilization by about 10% and my CPU temp by about 8 degrees compared to earlier this morning.

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It seems like my RAM is all used up, but I’m not sure why the RAM usage changed so heavily after the patch. It makes no sense, it’s exactly the same content with the same things. Besides, it’s absurd to get max ram usage in an arena with lowest settings possible and no other applications running, etc.

I noticed a slight improvement with the Direct X 11 Legacy option on, but I still have the FPS drops, which are as you said, probably due to the ram being all used up.

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More RAM usage is caused by optimization in multi-threading, cores need more memory to connect each other and synchronize. I red it somewhere…

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My laptop has always played with a low frame rate, usually around 20-30 fps. My son previously owned it and could happily raid on it. Now, since BFA started the game has become progressively more unplayable. The fps never gets above 10. In BFA zones and busy cities it is seldom more than 5 and often I am unmoveable at 1 or 2. Since the last patch I am getting frequent intermittent freezes usually when using chat. It seems to me that all this has been happening since we lost full-screen mode and an article I read backs up this theory. Why remove something that worked and force us to use something that makes the game impossible to play. On my main server it is so bad that I can’t play at the busiest times of day, when my friends are playing. I want to know what Blizzard are doing to remedy all these problems that so many people are getting. I want to play, sitting in Stormwind watching my friends do all the things I can’t while I get left ever further behind is not my idea of fun.

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I’m afraid it’s not just Blizzard; the whole computer industry runs on the principle of making us buy new hardware just to do the things we’ve always done. And all those art and animation pixel-pushers need their masterpieces admired. But Blizzard is better than most at not excluding people who don’t want to dedicate a tithe to their gaming machines.

If you have to live with it, you can:

  • Put your graphics settings to 1
  • Enter the commands in this thread Graphics macros for better fps (Updating for new forums)
    (but then set your Projected Textures back on - you need them to see the fire you’re standing in)
  • Reduce your Resolution Scale. It will make your details blurrier but do wonders for your FPS. Strike the balance most comfortable for you.
  • Cut your addons to the minimum.
  • Reseting your UI is a nuisance, but can clear out stuff and improve performance, especially after updates https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/7549

I suspect, btw, that OmniCC, of all things, crashes my WOW since 8.1.5. 15 minutes playing using only OmniCC, with no other addons, and I crash. Put on a dozen addons without OmniCC, no crash. Yes, I know that OmniCC is not the problem - it must be calling something in WoW that is the problem, so that’s the actual bug. But addons can have more effects than you might think. EDIT: I have since had a crash when I think I had disabled OmniCC on a character (not quite sure) so don’t take that as gospel. Still investigating. Further Edit: Disabling OmniCC doesn’t solve the poblem, but does seem to lessen it. I wonder whether some timing function is involved …

Specifically, this time around, if you are on the setting DirectX 11, try the setting DirectX 11 Legacy. That sets you back, apparently, to the graphics handling before the patch.

Good luck!

1 Like
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It’s not just on old machines. I’m using Razen 1600 clocked to 3.9GHz (all 12 threads!), 16GBs of 3200MHz RAM and GTX1080 (using DX12 and options slider set to 7) and I’m observing the following:

  • while in the open world, regardless of how populated and cluttered I’m having more FPS than before 8.1.5, so to some extend their optimization has effect. Prior to 8.1.5 I was having around 70-90 fps in the world and around 40-60 in very crowded areas, like Dazr’alor. After 8.1.5 I’m having 120+ fps in open areas and around 60-70 fps in Dazar’alor;
  • while in instances though, it’s quite the opposite. I’m having massive fps drops on every Reaping wave in M+, while prior to 8.1.5 the game didn’t flinch with solid 70+ fps in M+. In large raids is even worse on the trash packs, massive fps drops there as well.

There’s prolly something that doesn’t work right.

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I have similar spec as you but my fps went down drastically after patch came live, my fan is working twice as hard, noisy and i don’t like it, cpu temps went higher for about 25 Celsius degree, 6GB ram used when i have only WoW.exe as app, startup apps all turned off, services turned off, i had to turn off AA because my cpu temps went way too high and i was caring about my laptop cuz it’s brand new… Changing to older direct api like DX11 or DX11 Legacy results with even more fps loss, i have no idea how it’s done, but it’s bad. High end specs are struggling with 15 year old game.

Good example with bad optimalization is Gothic 3, Blizzard don’t take it as a determinant.

If my FPS went higher due to more resources usage i would be ok, but more resources usage and less performance means something is wrong.

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Well, not sure if it gonna help but have you tried clicking on your graphic card and apply on graphic card option? Because it is always laggy till I do it, even if it is already chosen.

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That’s interesting, so you suggest to chose my dedicated video card and apply change even tho this card is already chosen? Will try that when i get home.

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Grainne, thanks for your advice. I already run on the lowest settings and I checked Direct x to find it only has the option for legacy. I’ve tried playing without addons and it makes no significant difference to my frame rate. It is still stupidly low. I think I have to be resigned to only having limited gameplay as I can’t afford a new laptop, much as I’d like to.

1 Like
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Same here. I have an old PC with only 4GB so any extra is pretty heavy.

Since the 20th of March, my memory went up quite substantially (1,4 to 2+GB).

Tried to switch between Direct X 12 / 11 / 11 compatibility but didn’t seem to change anything. Same with reseting UI.

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This is my issue as well… How the hell can a patch destroy a fairly good rig in content I was able to have great FPS on before the patch. Now I’m getting 17 fps on reaping waves. But some times when I RS/reload UI it works fine for a while. And then suddenly back to 17 FPS on reaping and huge trash pulls in raid.

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This is most likely to do with a re-jig of population in game that your PC.

In high population areas - lots of folk running around the same spot on the same server - you processor has to work much harder to send the info to your GPU to display.

This can create lag on your system and significantly reduce your fps.

It is most common on World Bosses rather than in instances because it is the shear number of players locally rather than a restricted number in the Dungeon Raid - and the fact that often they are sharing cross server in common zones.

So don’t be so quick to blame your PC, but to be honest if you were running at graphic quality 1 it was already on the ragged edge.

My Mac’s only at 3 but that’s because I have not purchased an external GPU - which would put it up above 8

I think your GPU is sub-par in this scenario