The problem:
Recently picked up the game again about 2 weeks ago and since then I’ve had a small, but frustrating, problem that has run me out of ideas trying to solve.
My game runs absolutely perfectly (100+ fps on high/ultra settings) except for the fact that once I’ve been in game a while, usually 60-90 minutes, I will start experiencing very short stutters. The game will freeze for less than a second, and will do this every minute or so. If I restart my game client when this starts happening, I will be back to normal for another 60-90 minutes game time.
I have this problem everywhere in game. Dungeons, open world questing, cities, everywhere. In combat, out of combat. It doesn’t seem to be confined to or triggered by any particular scenario.
My Specs
Intel(R) Core™ i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz 4.00 GHz
GTX 2080
16GB RAM
Using DX12 in game
What I’ve tried, to no solution
Disabling all addons. It’s not an addon.
Updated my graphics driver.
Ran the repair tool on the bnet client.
Moved the game on to a different SSD.
Updated my Windows.
Ran the Windows RAM diagnostic.
Closed background programs. Disabled hardware acceleration on firefox, discord etc.
What else I think it might be
It feels like it might be a RAM issue. I’m only getting the problem when playing a while and it fixes if I restart. But I run 16GB RAM and I check Task Manager when the stuttering starts up and I’m only using around 12GB of my ram.
So at this point, I’m lost. I could spend 60 pounds getting two brand new 8GB sticks but I’m hoping someone has a clever idea before I try that.
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Can you test it again, this time monitoring the temps of the CPU and GPU? having it onscreen while youre playing.
gpu peaking 80ish degrees, CPU 60-65 degrees on each core, that’s during a m+ I did with the stutter active
Could you try something for me, see if it will solve the problem.
First, go onto your GPU controller app e.g. MSI Afterburner and choose Temp over Power setting. And secondly, go onto WoW Advance Graphic Settings and put set the max FPS to 60 all three.
What’s your storage and if it’s SSD how much free space does it have?
Also you can do a test using userbenchmark:
- Run it before running the game
- Run it again while the game is running and having problems
Post both result URLs here. It can show if one of the components is misbehaving (like storage, ram or other).
choose Temp over Power setting.
Is that the one where it says Prioritize, allows prioritizing temperature or power for dynamic clock adjustment. ?
exactly, im trying to eliminate that this is caused by overheating.
Ok got it turned on now i’ll play until the stutter happens. I cant link the userbenchmark but its /UserRun/54036504
Also, remember to go on System / Advanced and make sure you dont have uncapped FPS. Cap it to 60 max for everything and run the game as usual, see if it stutters.
- The RAM seems to be XMP OFF state running at 2133MT/s. Enable XMP profile in the BIOS
- SSDs look fine, bit low percentile on the HDDs
- CPU is fine, although it’s a quad core and WoW already pushes quad cores close to the limits. In the test it indicates 70% CPU load.
You can post links via preformatted text option:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/54036504
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/54049122
Played for a few hours this morning after turning XMP on. Definitely felt like there was some improvement but the stutter happened still. Turned the temp over power on afterburner and capped fps to 60 and it did not further improve the stuttering. The benchmark was from whe I was the target dummy in org with the stutter active and my fps capped.
- The RAM is with XMP now, but it still gets a low percentile - is it installed in the correct slots? (usually 2 and 4 counting from CPU, can vary between motherboards)
- The GPU gets hit hard - not sure if it’s the game or FPS cap affecting the app
but if thermals are ok on the GPU then it should be fine.
- On which SSD/HDD do you have Windows and WoW?
- Do you have more than 1 display connected?
One thing that also can be done is removing Nvidia drivers with DDU and then installing them fresh. Sometimes they can conflict with another driver like onboard audio and cause problems similar to this.
Just checked, RAM is in slot 2+4
I have two Samsung 840 evo 1TB SSDs. I had WoW on the C drive before and I moved it over to the D drive as part of the initial tests and there was no change in the problem.
I have two displays, one is 1440p that I play on and the other is a 1080p that has my browser or discord open.
Try with only your main display connected. Windows sometimes can’t handle it properly… If the problem will go awya then it will confirm it.
How old is your PSU? I had this problem on my previous system exactly as you describe and it turned out to be my PSU. May not be what is causing the issue for you but if all other suggestions fail to fix it, might be worth looking at.
Took the weekend to chill and try some different stuff. Opened up my PC and blew out all the dust, re-seated the RAM, saw one of my case fans wasn’t working so replaced it. My GPU is now a lot cooler, peaking about 76 degrees in a raid. Stutter still there.
The issue seems to be a bit more managed now, to the point where sometimes I’ll even think the last thing I tried has fixed it, but no it always starts stuttering eventually. The time it takes for it to start stuttering and the gaps between stutters is much longer now though. So in the end, I think I’ve tried all I can i’m just gonna live with it. Restarting my game every 2 hours is w/e i guess. Thanks to everyone that contributed to helping me, really appreciate it.
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