Recently tried jumping into WoW Classic on my MacBook Pro. I understand my machine isn’t one for gaming, but I’ve a friend who runs this on the same machine with no faults. However, I do appear to having a problem! Settings are all on low for context.
Day 1 of playing this wasn’t a problem… but on my 2nd day, I log into my character and around 5 minutes or so in, the game will freeze for second or two, it unfreezes and I’m met with a strange blurry, stuttery effect that cuts in and out. I could be stood still, the effect goes away… but when I start to move it comes back.
Temps are sitting around 70-75, fans are working but not at full speed. It’s really strange considering on my first day of playing it wasn’t a problem. I wondered if anybody has encountered anything like this and perhaps there’s a fix I can do?
Things I’ve Tried
Resetting MacBook
Checking for OS updates
Scan & Repair the game files
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all
we have same problem. After playing 10. minutes whole screen freeze and sometimes whole laptop crashes. And it’s even worst when you go the to Kul Tiras where it freeze immediately. it was working absolutely fine on Thursday but since Friday we are not able able to play at all. I say we cause my wife has her own mac laptop and has the same problem. I’ve already contacted blizzard but got no response
Yeah, I’m using Sonoma 14.1.1. Glad (I guess?) that it’s a common issue for Intel Macs and isn’t mine specifically. It’s only got 8GB RAM and my graphics are set to the lowest possible. I thought I could attach a screenshot but unfortunately I don’t seem to be able to.
Low-Latency is disabled
V-Sync is enabled (I was told this was useful for MacBooks)
Antialiasing is disabled
Triple Buffering = On
Texture Filtering = and 16x
Ray Tracing = Off
Ambient Occlusion = ASSAO
Resample Quality = Fidelity FC Super
VRS Mode = Disabled
Graphics = Metal
FPS Foreground Toggle = Off
FPS Background = 30fps
Target FPS = 60fps
Yeah it’s quite baffling, it totally should run. Sat here thinking do I need to buy an eGPU for Classic? Surely not. But I’m comforted by you saying it’s probably a MacOS issue.
I found this reply from Blizzard on a different Mac issue. Though the issue is a little different from ours, I’d put money on them being related. The installation/update issue the OG poster describes is one I had before encountering my own graphical problem.
Fingers crossed this is something Blizzard will address and patch for Mac users.
There’s a fair bit of relevant discussion on the US Blizzard Mac WoW Tech Support forum, (although you can’t post there with an EU account). I’m afraid the only thing to do is to wait for Blizzard to fix Sonoma compatibility.
As you’re using an Intel system, a possible workaround would be to play in BootCamp or on a Windows VM. CrossOver might be an option too, but you’d need to check compatibility.
I just found somebody advising to change the graphics setting “Metal” to “Metal Legacy”. I’ve not been able to test it for a lengthly period but I was able to play 10 minutes with no crashing. This is a considerable upgrade from playing for 1 minute before a problem shows up.
Just tried logging in after work and within the first minute. Wheel of doom, freeze and them weird weird graphical artefacts all over. But no drop in frame rate, just visual madness.
I have the same issue! I’ve been scouring the web for some info and the issue came with the latest MacOS update to Sonoma for me!
What you describe as “strange blurry, stuttery effect that cuts in and out” is exactly what I am getting.
If I cmd+tab out of the window, e.g. into Finder then I am able to see that all of the stuttery goes away. But as I get back in, it picks up again. I have been able to change the GPU settings, and when I swap it from Metal to Metal Legacy and vice versa it “resets” the bug until it happens again.
Also, doing the volume up and down, which then visualises the Mac graphic on top of the window makes the stutter go away. A sure fire way to get the visual bugs and to make the game freeze.
Either way, I have done probably everything i.e. to change graphical options, remove all addons, scan and repair, re-install. But I do believe in the end that it is a WoW → Metal → Sonoma issue at the core. Probably related to “Game Mode” because on my laptop, there is no old “Fullscreen” option any more, but only “Windowed (Fullscreen)” which is the same as running “Game mode”.
