I had a friend build a computer for my husband to play WoW. He used a HP Z230 Workstation and put a Nvidia GE Force GT730 2 GB graphics card and it worked just fine. He played BFA expac great, no lag. Now with the Shadowlands expac, sometimes when you’re in the action or in the new main sanctuary Oribos with heavy traffic it just locks up frozen for a few seconds up to a minute. It catches up and starts movement again but those seconds are the difference sometimes especially in a fight. I’m so not a techy person and my IT friend has since retired and wants nothing to do with it at all. My question is, does this happen from computer hardware or server lag or internet spikes form my service provider? I live in Louisiana and the infrastructure had to be rebuilt after the hurricanes this year by a small service provider in my area so I probably at best get about 5 or 6 MBpS.
Older Haswell (I think it is a Xeon E3-1200 v3 series based on google) should be okay, but the GT730 isn’t really a competent gaming graphics card. That’s designed basically for the video outputs and maybe home theater pc duty.
I think that’s weaker than integrated intel graphics on newer chips.
Shadowlands has increased system requirements some, and possibly that just isn’t cutting it anymore.
It may be possible to upgrade your PC to make it work a little better.
But important question
Can you explain the “lock up frozen” for a few seconds up to a minute?
Do you mean the graphics freeze up, or actions just don’t register?
Neither, graphics nor actions registering. The whole game just stops. Then when it starts again, you’re either dead or some kind soul saw you struggling and saved you or I playing my healer kept him alive.
Check to see that your husbands graphic settings have not increased since shadowlands is not that more demanding than BfA at lower settings. Your description almost sounds like the computer is losing its internet connection and then regaining it. Regardless, you probably want a better video card for shadowlands.