My CPU/GPU usage in this game is low as hell, (30-50% at maximum each) and the RAM usage is about 11GB/16GB. I upgraded from a GTX980 and expected a much bigger improvement than what Ive got… Idk where to start troubleshooting. Avg fps at the moment is like 60-130 with sub 100 in dungeons…
Ive overclocked the 8700k to 4.9Ghz to check if it was a CPU issue but FPS/Usage was the same.
System
Windows 11 (not sure if this matters)
Acer Predator 165Hz 1440p
i7 8700k @4.9Ghz
MSI RTX 3080ti
16GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance 3000Mhz
Samsung 1TB SSD
Seasonic 850w Gold PSU
You are likely looking at all-core usage while this game uses realistically 4 cores - one as “main” with highest load and 3 other cores for draw calls and other similar tasks.
The game isn’t GPU intensive, aside some widefield views in like Ardenweald. In combat you will be limited by single core performance (that “main” CPU core) so if you would want to see a difference in combat you would have to move to some good Alder Lake CPU right now… but then WoW does tend to have regressions, especially during Shadowlands and it may turn out given patch or hotfix will crash the performance anyway
Not really. In mass combat if you will get locked by the CPU you will see close or equal to 100% on one core. If you aren’t hitting 100% then the limit is something else. I have some benchmarks on:
I have my FPS capped at 200. When I have 140 fps in a zone I will not have 100% GPU. If I then change a setting that does NOTHING with the CPU (like enable ray traced shadows), my FPS will drop 125, however my GPU still isn’t maxed.
This is a trend, because I can do this with all graphic settings. My GPU will never get past 80% (3070) while my FPS will drop.
Yeah I can cap it without issues as well in a lot of places, but if I go into the heart of the forest near the mission table, it will drop FPS while not being at my designated target cap nor 100% usage. I can then improve graphic settings more, get lower FPS, and still not get the GPU up to 100%. If the FPS changes on a setting that affects the GPU, I’d expect the GPU usage to go up (or even max as it lower FPS), this does not happen.
Since like 9.0.5 there are some weird places in the game where the game will flood the GPU with pixel shading which lower the FPS but GPU may not appear 100% utilised. Spires are known from that but also some other places, especially with semi-transparent effects.
I noticed that the volumetric setting (whatever it is) also greatly impacts my FPS near the mission table in heart of the forest, while visually there’s no change at all. Between the highest setting and disabled this is like 30 fps… (110~140 range)
Yes, I’m well aware of that. I’m also very aware that there’s no visual benefit in doing so. What I want is to have WoW use my GPU efficiently so I can increase the settings as I see fit to maintain a proper FPS. If I wanted to really max out my GPU, I’d put everything to max and watch the slideshow.
20% cpu-usage of ALL cores. WoW does not use that many cores unlike most modern game-engines.
It is still mostly singlethreaded and the main game logic runs on one cpu thread with all the addons together on the same core…
