I found the exact issue I was having, posted here in the EU forums. I can’t respond there so I wanted to make a post here for the US forums – and to let the devs know that the problem isn’t just happening overseas.
The problem:
(WARNING: Story spoiler ahead!
Don’t read further if you have not started The War Within and do not want it to be spoiled.)
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During the Destruction of Dalaran scenario in the beginning of The War Within --right after you leave the sewers and find Khadgar-- is when it happens: a MASSIVE drop in FPS – I’m talking literally only 5 FPS. (Ping was 32 MS, though.) I thought it was a momentary lag spike, so I stood around for a while to wait it out, but it wouldn’t cease.
The FPS drop started the instant that big nerubian boss was bombed into Dalaran (not the matriarch lady queen nerubian, who webbed two people with her, but the giant nerubian that we have to kill). The instant that thing appeared, my framerate tanked. And it stayed at 5 FPS after the fight, while Khadgar talked, and even during the ENTIRE cinematic, which really sucked… It wasn’t until I went through the portal and loaded into the new zone (Tranquil Strand, Isle of Dorn), that I was back to [what I presume is my normal] FPS of 50+. But as soon as I got into the new zone, my FPS was fine again.
I’ve never had a framerate this low playing WoW, even on my last PC from 2015-ish. And I’m currently playing on a brand-new PC with a GTX40-something card; I play at max graphics and have never had a problem until those 5-ish minutes to which I refer. It’s not my rig. I turned off a bunch of AddOns, thinking that was the problem – it wasn’t. It was 100% the game. And unlike what someone mentioned in the EU post, it didn’t matter what direction I looked or where I stood – I was getting 5 FPS ceaselessly, until I took the portal.
Edit:
I’ve found that I’m having some slight framerate droppage while completing the Dragonriding Racing World Quests around the Isles, too, though not nearly as bad as 5 FPS. During the entire World Quest, my FPS will be around 35-40, but as soon as I hit one of those wind speed boosts, my FPS drops as low as 29-31.
This has been happening consistently ever since I noticed the nasty FPS drop last night during the aforementioned scenario. I’ve completed about 5 Dragonriding Racing WQs today, and all of them have consistently seen this drop in FPS in those ranges.
And just to reiterate: I have not had this problem until now. I’ve been playing Dragonflight content for the past ~3 months, quite a lot, and have not noticed any FPS droppage issues, in any part of the game or content, until now. Without knowing anything about programming or video game infrastructure, my guess is just the influx of players (which I’m assuming there is) is taxing the servers and that is causing these FPS drops? Idk.