High CPU usage randomly

Support Technical Support
1

So, since prepatch event I’ve been having these random CPU usage spikes for no reason. Sometimes they last 15 secs, sometimes 45 secs. I don’t have any fps issues when it happens.

It doesn’t matter what I’m doing in-game at the time, questing or raiding. And it even happens when I’m just idling at char selection screen.

Normally my WoW CPU usage is at 6-15%, temp 45c and fan 900 rpm.
When spikes happen, CPU goes up to 30%, temps 60-70c and fan 2k+ rpm

**THIS HAPPENS ONLY WITH RETAIL/CLASSIC, EVERY OTHER GAME WORKS FINE

I’ve tried different things to solve this, for example:

  • Fresh install without addons

  • Different graphics settings (dx11, legacy etc)

  • Older nvidia drivers

  • Clean windows boot

  • Latencymon looks fine when this issue happens

  • Crystalmark shows SSD is fine

Conclusion:

So, imo it’s either WoW.exe conflicting with some other process OR it’s server side issue, as I’ve noticed it doesn’t really happen when I’m playing on low pop realm. Servers can’t handle the traffic this event causes?

My specs:

Summary

8700k
GTX 1070
16 GB ram
SSD
100 MB fiber connection

PS.
Some yanks having the same issue:

2 Likes
2

It’s definitely not on your end, WoW right now has…not so optimal servers and your pc specs seem more than enough.

1 Like
3

Run latencymon, run the game, when the CPU goes up check latencymon if it indicates problems and what is causing it (like Nvidia driver conflict). Sometimes Nvidia drivers conflict with audio drivers and you have to remove them with DDU, update audio and reinstall Nvidia drivers. Check also task manager as sometimes Windows stuff like… wallpaper switcher can conflict while a game is running.

4

Like I said, already did that and there was nothing weird going on.

Didn’t help either.

Everything else is under 0.5% CPU usage.

I even removed Behringer UCA202 from my machine, uninstalled drivers and it’s still happening.

Oh well. :tired_face:

5

Can confirm happening since last weeks pre patch event stuff.

Seems to be on blizzards side though, as you said thread on us forums too…

6

After today’s server restarts, seems like everything is working great finally.

EDIT. Screw that, problems returned later when more people(?) started logging in.

7

Maybe its related to peak time?more players to render more cpu usage?

8

Try closing the Battle.net launcher while playing. i.e. don’t let it run in the background.

9

Is there any solution?

10

Without debugging the problem no. And your case may be different.

11

same issue
normal CPU usage: ~12%
randomly spikes up to anywhere between 16% - 30%
doesnt affect framerate
doesnt matter what I do in-game, this happens even when im afk in Elysian Hold

Specs:
7900X @4.7GHz (20T)
64GB RAM
Titan X (Pascal) Driver: 456.71 WHQL - r456_61-6
Win10 2004 OS Build 19041.508

2 Likes
12

Can confirm it’s still happening. Every once in a while my CPU fans start spinning up so had to check what it was, seems WoW just randomly decides to increase CPU usage from 10-12% to 20-30% for a few seconds then back down to normal usage.

2 Likes
13

Seems to be server issue, as I’m not having any issues when playing my alt on “low” server.

14

Problems disappeared at xmas = 1 month after SL launch.

People didn’t renew their subs and servers work better with low traffic? :thinking:

15

I’m having this exact same issue on TBC Classic, Mirage Raceway EU for the past few days. My CPU temps will jump up 12-15 degrees for about 5-10 seconds and then settle down again, completely at random.

16

I have the same issue, CPU goes up a LOT. So much, my PC sometimes reboots because of the temps. Trying to figure out what causes this, but nothing so far

17

I had the same issue . what fixed my problem was to uninstall Avast Antivirus.

i had cpu problems aswell like going up to 30% staying there for 30sec sometimes 10sec sometimes longer.

if u guys have avast installed , uninstall and the problem is solved

18

Do not necro old threads.