9.2 - Opening Map Causes Game Stuttering

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1

This topic has been brought up before, however the thread appears to have been abandoned by Blizzard despite the problem persisting (for me and at least one dude in late 2021 who last updated the 9.1 thread) and we are now into 9.2.

Original Topic With Blue Posts

After reaching level 60, my game will start stuttering when I open my map, open the flight path map, or pick up/turn in quests. At first it’s almost unnoticeable, a little hitch every few steps, however the more you open your map or do dailies, the worse it gets and eventually your FPS is majorly impacted. I leveled from 1-59 on high settings and the game ran smooth; this seems to be an issue specific to level cap?

To test, I sat there and opened and closed my map for a bit. I went from 70 FPS to 25 FPS. It only takes about 3-5 quests or opening of my map before the issue is noticeable enough that I have to use /reload to reset this obnoxious stutter and major FPS drop.

According to the previous topic, the issue is with the way the map cache works. A fix was initially rolled out, but was retracted. Another fix went out but seemed to not stick.

Things I’ve Tried:

  • Fresh World of Warcraft install
  • Resetting my UI
  • Removing all my addons
  • Deleting my cache in the WoW folder
  • Turning my graphics down to the lowest of the low
  • Updating Windows
  • Updating my drivers

There seems to be nothing I can do on my end to fix this problem. My PC isn’t great but it runs fine if I don’t touch the map or do quests, hovering anywhere from 120 FPS to 70 FPS depending on zone (my PC hates Ardenweald).

Processor: Intel Core i5-6400
Memory: 16 GB DDR4
Graphics: Radeon RX 480
Mainboard: MSI H110M Pro-VD Plus (MS-7A15)
OS: Windows 10 Home 21H2
Drive: 250 GB SSD (dedicated to WoW, no other files or programs on the drive)

Doing a /reload every 10 minutes is not a solution, but I’m forced to do it for the game to be playable. I’m not exactly looking to pay a subscription to play Load Screen Simulator 2022.

I’m open to additional weird things I can try on my end, addons that will automatically clear the map’s cache when quest or map windows close, or pretty much anything else. Ideally, however, it will simply be readdressed by the developers.

DXDiag

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GuaRBW63wAmMWpt_o840cKbB7WVRN5vW/view?usp=sharing

Sorry for the Google Drive link, but the whole thing was too large for Pastebin.

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There are lots of errors for the GPU driver crashing:

5/31/2022 8:10 PM Application Error Faulting application name: Radeonsoftware.exe

The desktop windows manager is also reporting crashes:

5/31/2022 3:19 AM Application Error Faulting application name: dwm.exe

The overlay from this app might be causing it:

5/31/2022 3:19 AM Windows Error Reporting Problem signature: P1: Overwolf.exe

It can also be caused by running the game on a drive:

  • other than the one with Windows (C:)
  • without 15% free space
  • that it slow or dying
3

None of that explains why my WoW has the same behaviour as an unaddressed issue in the referenced thread. I do not have this problem on any character under level 60, which would suggest that my system is not the problem (despite any errors).

Buttery smooth 70-120 FPS on every character under level 60. No hitching. With CurseForge/Overwolf open or not. This problem only exists on my level capped characters.

If the problem was persistent through my other characters, and occurred in every zone (which it doesn’t), then I’d be more inclined to believe the fault lay within my system.

I need a work around for the map cache, or the WoW team to get together and fix this issue.

Oh, and my PC absolutely crashed on the 31st, but it was related to Chrome as far as I’m aware. Are there more recent errors I’m not seeing? The hitching has been occurring consistently, every day. So if the errors aren’t equally as present, I again find it hard to think it’s my system considering the information available.

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The errors at the end are grouped by type, not date. I recommend just checking through them. If your PC crashed it sounds like you’re having worse technical issues than the map causing low FPS.

As for how it only happens on max chars, maybe a visual element is displaying that is causing the driver to crash. It does seem out of date anyway.

5

It is not possible for my drivers to be out of date. I have the most current driver available for my hardware directly from AMD. Current version 22.5.2 (released May 17th, 2022).

I’ve gone through my problem reports. I have reports of WoW crashes that were caused by an addon interaction when trying to remove quests off the tracker (easy fix, removed one of the addons). The rest are all from the very specific crash we’ve talked about already, but WoW is not on the list of problem programs even from that event. I’ve gone back a month, which is longer than I’ve had WoW installed for, and no other issues are reported.

The symptoms are identical to the existing problem from 9.1, right down to the weird circumstantial elements that provoke it and the fact it’s not present everywhere. I can replicate everything in that thread and otherwise experience no issues in any other aspect of the game (or any other game, for that matter).

Trust me, the first thing I did when this problem cropped up was blame my addons, and then my system. I have definitely gone through those usual suspects myself.

Edit: Solved?
Immediately after finishing the Chains of Domination campaign, all hitching and FPS reduction caused by opening my map (and related elements) immediately stopped in all zones.

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