Hello,
(see edit#2 at the bottom of the post as well)
I recently came back to try retail WoW after a break since last year. This is also the first time playing it on my newer PC. I have an issue where I get almost constant frametime spikes (from baseline 7.1ms to 14+ms) even with locked 140 FPS. I don’t seem to have this issue in Classic WoW nor Apex Legends. BUT the problem is much more pronounced on my level 50 hunter in drustvar compared to my level 46 warrior in Highmountain.
My warrior I get much smaller spikes so you never really notice it, but my hunter feels way worse. This is a fresh OS and game installation with NO addons installed.
I’ve tried messing with a bunch of gsync/vsync/frame cap settings but none seem to make a real impact on this. I’ve also tried changing between dx11 and dx12 but this also did not make much of a difference. The only real difference I can see is that when using dx11 it disables gsync (my indicator turns off), where in dx12 it remains enabled at all times. The only thing I’ve noticed is that the boost clock on my 2080ti constantly fluctuates up and down by a few hundred mhz while in combat or more demanding areas like cities. While running/flying it maintains its max boost clock. Temperatures are not an issue as the GPU does not go above 64-68C, and my CPU does not stray from 50-55C while this is happening.
Typically I run the following settings for games:
- gsync on
- vsync on, sometimes off thru Nvidia Control Panel (game dependent)
- use RTSS to cap fps at 140 (tried using the in-game cap instead but no real change, maybe made it worse)
My FPS doesn’t seem to be an issue as I never dip below 140fps where I have it locked. Uncapped I get 250+ fps. Basically I can’t seem to get rid of these frametime spikes. My other games tpyically have a flat frametime line of 7.1ms while capped at 140. Meanwhile whenever I move into new areas or fly in circles around stormwind my frametime is constantly spiking up and down.
Specs:
- Win 10 20H2
- 2080ti (456.71)
- i9 9900kf (4.7ghz)
- 16gb 3200mhz RAM
- installed on a samsung SSD
- Asus pg279q (primary gsync)
- LG 27gl850gb (gsync compatible secondary, tried disabling adaptive sync as well here, no difference)
Edit #1: Just tried my 39 druid in frostfire ridge and also did not have as large frametime spikes. It seems significantly worse on my 50 hunter.
Edit #2: Oddly enough, dismissing my pet on my hunter has reduced the severity of the stutters during combat. How is this possible? This is the only thing that I’ve seen that has made an improvement to the stuttering on my hunter.
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Thanks for all the info I am going to seem like I am a jerk but I promise I am not trying to.
Are you playing in full screen or Windowed Fullscreen?
What is your resolution you are running at?
Why limit your frames?
Have you tried to delete the cache folder in the retail wow folder?
Are you running addons? Which ones if so?
I also doubt the validity of the 250+ FPS unless you are running your graphics on a very low setting.
WoW Classic has almost 0 demanding needs by todays standards.
No worries at all. I appreciate the response! I think it’s borderless fulscreen as I didn’t see an option for true fullscreen.
Running at 2560x1440p
I limit my frames to attempt to stay within gsync range of my monitor. Uncapped isn’t too bad but I find the screen does not feel as smooth and getting 200+fps seems like overkill to me.
I’m running at the default recommended specs after launching the game. I think it was set to a 7 on the slider. The only change I made was increasing to MSAA 4x and disabling triple buffering which may have helped incrementally.
No add-ons as this is a fresh install of OS/gpu driver/WoW. I didn’t try deleting the cache folder as I’ve only put in like 2 hours of total playtime (all of which was testing settings) and I didn’t think it would be necessary yet.
Can you do me a huge favor is it on the Windows 20H release?
Run command prompt as an admin
sfc /scannow
Tell me if there is any corruption. This update seems to be causing weird issues.
Yeah I am on 20H2. Will run that command once I’m back on the PC. Might not be back home until Monday next week due to work 
I’ll let you know if it finds any corrupt files/improves the game.
I really appreciate your help with this!
I have my notifications on so I will keep an eye out.
I’m having the EXACT same issue…my game used to be butter smooth at a 144fps all the time. Now the game stutters and skips. I just did a fresh install of windows 10 thinking it would solve it but it did not. The only thing that’s worked so far is to turn vsync off. But I prefer to have it on as to not overwork my gpu and avoid tearing. It was fine yesterday…what the heck happened?
EDIT: I determined it’s only happening when i port to stormwind and walk around that area and elwynn forest. Think it’s something to do with the patch.
Give this a shot for your install of WoW:
-
Navigate to your install of WoW in File Explorer Typically found @ "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft_retail_"
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Locate the Wow.exe and right click on it and select Properties
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Go to the “Compatibility” tab and put a check in the box that says "Disable Fullscreen Optimizations”
I make this suggestion because I had something similar towards the start of the patch release and this was the culprit. It was a setting I set a long time ago but somehow got turned off. GL!!
P.S. this works w/ other games that have issues, but it’s been my experience that games w/o an exclusive FS mode benefit more from this.
Doesn’t do anything for games that already run in borderless windowed mode. WoW no longer has the ability to use exclusive full screen.
The fullscreen optimizations are for games that run in the actual FSE mode. It tricks the game into thinking it’s using FSE when it’s actually be piped through as windowed borderless. Allows for quick alt tabbing and such. Basically, all the benefits of windowed, mixed with the benefits of FSE. When WoW made this change, they did it because Windows10 already handles borderless windowed mode like FSE now. The only reason why there are sometimes some frame rate discrepancies, in games that allow both modes, is because in BW mode, there’s a little overhead for the rest of the DWM. So games that might run at 100fps in FSE might run at 95fps in BW.
Here’s a good Microsoft writeup on it:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/demystifying-full-screen-optimizations/
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"we enhanced the DWM to recognize when a game is running in a borderless full screen window with no other applications on the screen. In this circumstance, the DWM gives control of the display and almost all the CPU/GPU power to the game. Which in turn allows equivalent performance to running a game in FSE. Fullscreen Optimizations is essentially FSE with the flexibility to go back to DWM composition in a simple manner."
I’m familiar w/ the blog post and the rabbit hole that it has created. It’s especially fun to read some of the conspiracy theories on it.
The suggestion I made was a common suggestion on the WoW forums and has netted a few results including my own first hand experience.
Most recent example:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/wow-loading-problems-and-fps-drops-been-happening-for-a-few-months-now/687057/24
Another example:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/83-fps-drop-and-freezing/428353/34
I almost wanna say this is related to GSYNC/dx12 interaction somehow. I’ve seen quite a few posts all seem to have that common thread, I never needed to disable the optimizations until I got a gsync monitor myself so I’m not sure.
This made no difference for me. Maybe made it worse actually. I definitely think its something to do with Gsync interaction with this game right now. Something must have gotten messed up with their code for the patch. Taking vsync off in goldshire shoots my FPS to 250-300 and there are no stutters at all. Vsync on and my FPS goes to 143.5 but will bounce +/- ~1 fps and the stutters and skips are noticeable. It’s a frame timing issues for sure. I tested a couple other games to ensure it wasn’t doing it on them, like Overwatch. Perfectly fine. Not sure what to do.
That applies more to older gen games that are still running DX11 legacy and under.
The actual option you’re disabling is ONLY for games that can use true FSE mode. BFSW is the default option for most games now and is the default for DX12 now. This is why WoW doesn’t allow FSE anymore, due to switching fully to the DX12 API(even the DX11 is just a fallback, but still runs through Win10 DX12).
Regardless of if you use FSE or BFSW mode, they both become the same when you’re using DX12. That’s why there’s no point in even trying to implement FSE anymore because there’s no gain. It all gets run through the same path now.
And I’ll say it again, it will do absolutely nothing for WoW. Anyone that claims it does is falling for placebo. It’s another one of those snakeoil performance hacks, like when people go into the registry and change scheduler settings, and then claim they notice a difference.
Updating: I was able to fix the issue with the Overclock feature of my LG 144hz Gsync monitor. The overclock feature increases the Hz of the monitor to 165. Opening the game back up my FPS is locked to 165 and the stutter is gone. Not sure at this point if the problem is wow related or just something on my end.
Tooled around for a few more mins today. Windows found the corrupt system files and repaired it but made no difference in-game unfortunately. Also increased my monitor overclock to 165 hz but set my cap to 144 in case I was pinging off the gsync ceiling but the result was unchanged as well.
I guess really the only thing left to try is a different gpu driver version. Going to have to try like 452.06 or something old and then switch up to the most recent and see if there’s a change. I really miss my old pc lol. Thing was a tank and I didn’t have to spend so much time tweaking each game to reduce microstutter.
There’s been a bug all throughout BFA for hunters, where the screen stutters whenever they mount/dismount with a pet out. That might be what you’re seeing on your hunter.
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Thanks, sounds like it could be related then. It’s not specifically occuring with the mount/dismount but almost constantly. Worse in combat too as it’s basically constant stutter during it.
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I played a lot more this weekend on a few toons, I am not experiencing the stuttering but I was getting 1-2 second delays just doing basic things in a few zones.
Appreciate the response. I guess I’ll chalk it up to whatever combo of driver/game/dx12 optimization in WoW for now. Maybe tool around with some driver versions.
I can confirm a stuttering gSync issue in WoW in any nVidia driver past 452.06, when they started updating the drivers for the new 3xxx series of cards. If you revert back to version 452.06, the gSync stuttering magically vanishes.
I can confirm that I just tried 457.30, get a massive stuttering issue, and revert back to 452.06 and everything is better.
nVidia has not solved this issue for months. They dont acknowledge it. I have a 1080ti and cannot upgrade even if stock existed, because I would need to upgrade the driver in order to use the new card, and games would be broken.
For now, try using 452.06 and see if that works for you.
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Really appreciate the response. I’ll have to give it a shot the next time I’m home.
I also took two screenshots of msi afterburner while running around attacking mobs in elwynn with and without my pet but good ol’ Blizz won’t let me post and Imgur link. Super weird and fingers crossed that this improves it.