Lagging after Nvidia driver update

[Arnangrin-azralon]

Hello, WoW community!

This is going to be a rather long text about a problem I’m facing, if someone could kindly help me, I’d be very grateful!

The text below was copied from the ticket I tried to send to Blizzard, I just made a few changes:

I’m having intense crashing/freezing problems in the game.

I’ll give you a very detailed explanation to make it easier to identify the problem. Let’s go:

I use a laptop, the model of which is: Acer Nitro 5 AN515-43, with AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor, and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 video card.

Before I started playing, I noticed that there was an update to be made to the video driver in the Nvidia application, something I had never done manually through that application (I use another application called Driver Booster, which also performs updates, and usually does this for me). The version of my Nvidia video driver was 522.33, and I updated it to the current version, which is 537.34. After completing the driver update I entered the game, and noticed crashes on the character selection screen. In addition, when I entered the world, the loading screen took several seconds to start (in other attempts, it took more than a minute to load), whereas my laptop has an SSD, and before it took around 5 seconds. I’ve tried changing the graphics quality to try to improve the situation, I always play at “5” general quality, in the settings, and “4” in instances. I don’t use Addons on my laptop.

In the game, I entered with a character who is in Thaldraszus, it crashed a lot, and I even tried to go to Valdrakken, and there, it became impractical to move, the game screen froze. The QPS (FPS) stays at 20 or much less.
I went in with another character, this one in Northrend, with the Timewalk active. I also experienced crashes with him, but when I tried to change the graphics quality to 4 (it used to be 5), I saw improvements.
I then looked for help on the internet, and was told to change the graphics settings under: Systems - Graphics -; Anti-aliasing; Multisampling techniques; Multisampling and Show/Hide maximum FPS in the foreground. I tried various combinations and got no results.
I also tried reverting the driver version ( 537.34 to 522.33 again), something I didn’t even know was possible, and I went to test it in the game: the crashes continue. I didn’t try any more modifications after that.

*Note: I tried to send a ticket to Blizzard support but the following error appears after filling in the information:

“You can’t submit this ticket. An error has occurred. This may be a temporary error, so please try again later.”

I’m out of options if I don’t hear back from the forum. I’m counting on your help! Thanks in advance!

[Elocin-mugthol]

Did you try just doing a clean install of the GPU drivers? The utility nVidia uses, GeForce Experience, should have the reinstall and clean options.

[Arnangrin-azralon]

Just tried doing that, and i also updated my AMD driver, unfortuately, it didn´t work. First time i logged after i completed the updates, only the loading screen took 3+ minutes to load…

Sorry about the late response, i´m not having much time to play ultimately…

[Elocin-mugthol]

You said you were using an nVidia card, so you don’t want AMD Catalyst if that’s what you’re referring to.

[Arnangrin-azralon]

The AMD ( Ryzen 5 ) is my processor actually, i got confused and thought i had to update everything hehe. Today i´m having a better gaming experience though, with less lag especially on alts on older zones, by changing graphics in game, and settings on the GeForce Experience

[Vralok-turalyon (Vralok)]

Just FYI, the latest Nvidia driver (537.42) is causing horrendous framerate issues in this game (and according to a friend of mine, several other games as well). I was only getting ~45 FPS in Valdrakken when I normally get 120+. Downgraded to 537.34 and the issue is fixed, framerates are back to normal.

My hardware for reference. i9-12900k, 3080ti.

[Arnangrin-azralon]

Oh, i see, it explains a lot, so it is the Nvidia update that is causing me trouble, i thought i was the only one having this issue…
I also did downgrade the version before (537.34 to 522.33), but it did not work at the time.
I will keep changing settings in and out of the game until i find a stabilization point.
Thank you both for the help, i am going to update here if i eventually find a solution!

[Vralok-turalyon (Vralok)]

Doesn’t sound like the same issue I had. My performance was totally fine, I updated to 537.42, and it instantly went to poo. Downgraded and back to normal. My issues were with 537.42 specifically. And I’ve seen threads in other places about it. That particular driver seems to be buggered.

[Arnangrin-azralon]

It seems so, i will be looking for new ways to solve it, maybe the laptop Performance Power Plan has something related.

[Pawgwalker-dalaran]

@Vralok-turalyon

I was only getting ~45 FPS in Valdrakken when I normally get 120+. Downgraded to 537.34 and the issue is fixed, framerates are back to normal.

Did you check the box to do a clean install? It’s possible that the new driver didn’t cause the game to force recompilations of the old shaders and now it’s trying to run them anyways and might be causing all kinds of errors at the driver level behind the scenes. When you’re reverting back, the shader cache now matches the intended driver version and functions correctly.

Are you using Geforce Experience with it as well? Maybe it’s autochanging your settings to something far higher than you were using with the previous drivers.

Lately, I’ve been playing with an Nvidia card again(been mostly using AMD the past handful of months) and have had no issues with the latest driver version.

[Vralok-turalyon (Vralok)]

I always do a clean install. And while I do have Geforce Experience installed, I do not allow it to optimize my game settings, that stuff is all definitely disabled. I just checked again and it is still disabled. I will try it again at some point, but I will probably wait for the next driver since I’ve seen other issues reported with this one (the main “feature” of it is DLSS3.5 which my card doesn’t support anyway).

[Elocin-mugthol]

The new nVidia driver was terrible for me. Rolled back and reported to nVidia, has nothing to do with Blizz.

[Arnangrin-azralon]

Yeah, i am going to hang on until a new driver launches, or a fix update appears.

[Vralok-turalyon (Vralok)]

Yep, exactly the point I was trying to make. I was having a terrible experience with the new driver. And a friend of mine reported severe FPS issues in several other games with the same driver, that rolling back fixed. When I rolled back myself, back to zero issues, 120fps+ in most places.

Considering the big feature of the new driver is DLSS 3.5, and I have a 3080ti (laptop has 3060), I don’t really gain anything from it anyway.

[Alynya-elune]

Yea, the last Nvidia update caused my video card fans to skyrocket to 100% and temps rose very high on the card. RTX 3060Ti. This occurred on the first boss in HOI and 2nd boss in DotI. After the boss fight, the fans went back to normal and temps were normal.
I rolled back to the old driver I had, June 4th, and fought those bosses again, no issues and everything was normal.

Something going on with Nvidia drivers as of late, so I’m waiting until I hear the all clear from Blizzard on if they are safe to install.

[Vralok-turalyon (Vralok)]

Nvidia updated again a couple days ago, to 537.58. I went ahead and installed it (after having horrible issues with 537.42). No issues with the new one. I wanted to give it a few days (the update was on the 10th) before I gave the all clear for my system. But I’m not having the FPS issues I was having with 537.42.

[Arnangrin-azralon]

I also updated to this current version (537.58) recently. Unfortunately, i am still facing lag/crashing/low FPS issues.