Odd FPS capping behavior

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1

I noticed an odd fps bug or whatever you want to call it after 10.1 in some zones, and instances that were “connected” to said zones. So I first noticed the fps drop when I went to go do the Obsidian Citadel and noticed lower fps then what I normally get. I was getting about 30 to 35 fps in the Obsidian Citadel when I normally have about 80 to 120 depending on how many people were out there, except there were maybe three other people out there so I was confused about the low fps. I first thought it was because the world boss was being attacked. So, I went over to the world boss and helped kill it, however I noticed that when I left the Obsidian Citadel my fps went back to normal which is about 115-120 fps and it only went down to about 65-70 when fighting the world boss. After this I went back to the Obsidian Citadel and my fps dropped again, so I finished up and left thinking that maybe the new zone is messing with the fps at the Obsidian Citadel.

Well to make a really long story much shorter I started to notice other odd places I would get these drops in fps, and it was not just the outdoor zones. I also noticed said drops in fps in what seemed to be random Dragon Flight dungeons as well.

Here is a list of the zones I got lower fps in. fps was at 30-35 in them.

Obsidian Citadel
north of the Ohn’iri Springs flight path
Brackenhide Hollow
Iskaara
The ocean/bay area between Iskaara and Azure Archives
The Jade Forest - whole zone

Here is a list of the dungeons that caused my fps to drop to about 30-35 fps

Neltharus - located at the Obsidian Citadel
Nokhud Offensive - has the sub zone Ohn’iri springs in it
Brackenhide Hollow - located in Iskaara and has the sub zone Brackenhide Hollow
Temple of the Jade Serpent - located in The Jade Forest

As you can see every zone that I had seen a drop in fps in, the dungeon that was connected to said zone or took place in said zone also had lower fps. Additionally, I did check the other DF dungeons and I had 120 fps in them so I only got lower fps in the ones that were again connected to those zones I had lower fps in.

Further proof of this is that when I was running around going to all the dungeons I went through Stormwind to use the portal room and thats when I noticed I had lower then normal fps in stormwind city, so I checked out the stockade to see if the bug or whatever followed the same pattern like the rest of the other dungeons did.

And, the Answer is that yes I had for some odd reason 30-35 fps in the stockade’s of all dungeons.

Now, I am running a I7-9700k, 32 GB of ram and a GTX 1080, and WoW is on a SSD. I get on average about 60-75 fps in Valdrakken, and about 70 to 100 in raids and dungeons. So the fps lose in the other zones/dungeons confused me at first. Looking at cpu and gpu usage when in Valdrakken or any other zones besides the ones I listed above I have about 40-45% cpu and 55-65% gpu usage. However, in those zones that I get lower fps both the cpu and gpu usage drop off to about 15-20% cpu and 20-30% gpu and stay there until I leave said places. The only other time I can get my cpu and gpu usage that low is when I hard cap the fps around 30 fps.

What I dont get is why the game is capping my fps in those zones when it is told not to. I checked each of those zones/dungeons with addons installed and no addons installed, additionally, I checked both the zones/Dungeons with different graphic settings turned on and off. I checked/unchecked max fps 120, check/unchecked background fps 50, checked/unchecked target fps 60, tried Dx 11, and 12, V-Sync on and off, different AA settings, and changed the graphics quality to 1 and then set them to 10 and still could not get the fps to uncap itself from 30-35 fps in those zones/dungeons.

Really at first I thought there was something wrong with my cpu or gpu but after noticing that my fps is getting capped in those places I just find it odd and really funny that the two places I would think would give me fps problem are not. Those being Zaralek Cavern and Valdrakken

I also want to note that when I was running Nokhud Offensive while most of the time my fps was stuck/capped at around 30 fps it would randomly unstuck/uncap it self and it would jump back to about 80-100 fps which is the normal fps I get before patch 10.1 in there, and then it recap would self at 30 again about 5 to 10 seconds later. Cpu and Gpu usage would go to normal levels during the 5 to 10 seconds it was at 80 to 100 fps and fall back down again when it was stuck at 30.

Lastly, any other place other then the ones I have already listed I get perfectly fine fps in just like before patch 10.1 but I dont know what happened in 10.1 to cause those to bug out like that.

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2

Also experiencing the exact same issues along with it also happening in the raid. Did the exact same things you did and this is with both addons on and off. I’m running a I5-8600k with a GTX 1070 with 32 GB of ram and also on an SSD.

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3

Experiencing the same issue, dropping down to 30 - 40 FPS in instances -

Nokhud Offensive
Brackenenhide Hollow

I came back to the game after a 1 year break 2 days before 10.1 released. My FPS was great - running 144 FPS in all zones on a 3080 before 10.1. Since 10.1, My fps seems to fluctuate and dip to as low as 50 FPS in open world and to as low as 30 - 40 FPS in the instances listed above.

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4

After some tests, it seems related with skyboxes, or maybe how environmental light it’s working.

Can you check if with “Inky Black Potion” the problem seems fixed?

Also if you have access to “Environmental Emulator” toy, check if every option makes the FPS go normal again, but the Burning Skies one where it runs bad.

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5

Hey there,

The WoW team is looking into this FPS behavior described in the original post.

Could you try disabling the Max Background FPS option under Graphics → Advanced, then see if that has any effect on it?
Or try setting Max Background FPS to a high limit like 90-100 FPS?

That is interesting info about the sky box Neosaro, thanks for sharing.

If we need any more info or discover anything we will update this thread.

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6

Experienced the same thing as well- but strangely, its not what Jambrix said that fixed my problem, disabling Max Foreground FPS Toggle fixed it. Some may work with that fix.

On old zones like Stormwind, Isle of Giants and westfall, my fell from a smooth 134 to 23-27. Newer Zones like SL and DF, were even more unstable- I couldn’t play with the stuttering and fps drops. It has never happened so I searched the forums.

For reference, I play on a MSi Laptop, Nvidia GeForce GTZ 1050 Ti, 16 GB Ram and using an SSD for WoW.

On a very weird note however, I play in windowed mode most of the time since ive paper work to do, and the first time I log in on an alt, the above happened. But the exact moment I click off the screen and say, click my desktop or go to click chrome or Excel, the FPS problems disappeared. It went from spiky screen tearing fps dropping unplayable WoW to how it was before the patch came. It was kinda weird to see. All my settings were base game 1. I returned it to 8 after unchecking the box and nothing else has happened.

7

I have been experiencing the same issues in pretty much the same circumstances since the patch went live tuesday.

Can confirm my issues are skybox related, since I have noticed my framerate shooting up back to normal levels during the last phase of Balakar Khan’s encounter, as the sky turns dark.

Using an Inky Black Potion has been alleviating the problem, at least inside dungeons.

I have a Ryzen7 5800X CPU, Radeon RX 6800XT GPU, 32GB RAM and the game is running on an SSD.

8

Thanks for the reply. I did try what you said to do, but disabling the max background fps did nothing. I did however try out the temp fix Neosaro talked about with the “Inky Black Potion” and that did fix the problem. I remember a similar problem with the skybox and fps loss in shadowlands that the fix for it was to use the “Inky Black Potion” until you guys were able to patch it.

I recorded a video of myself doing as you asked when it came to disabling the max background fps and setting it up higher. I also in the same video show how the fps drops when entering said bugged areas, and how the “Inky Black Potion” helped to fix it.

Thankfully because this did happen before I had a large amount of them on my Demon Hunter so I was able to test to see if it potion worked, which it does. (=

9

I was just searching for a solution to this very same issue.

I’ve run at a stable 60fps (full screen windowed) for months. However, in 10.1, I am experiencing 30fps or less in specific zones, including Valdrakken and the entirety of the Shadowlands (where I am currently leveling an alt).

I can also confirm that drinking an Inky Black Potion immediately alleviates the problem

10

Setting the game back to Directx 11 seemed to fix it for me, if that helps at all.

11

Your experience mirrors mine nearly exactly, albeit I have a Radeon GPU.

12

Changing the max background toggle did nothing to help, nor did disabling the max foreground or the target. Inky black potion did very little to help my FPS loss in Valdraken either. I’m still down around 40% of my FPS from before 10.1.

13

I’m having the exact same issues outlined in the initial post. FPS is normal unless in certain areas in which it becomes hard throttled to 30. Areas I’ve noticed in the limited play time since the patch have been:
Stormwind
Elwynn Forest
Vault of the Incarnates
Obsidian Citadel - Waking Shores
Scalecracker Keep - Waking Shores
Mirewood Fen - Ohn’ahran Plains (Zaralek Caverns entrance between Thaldraszus and Ohn’ahran Plains)

My relevant hardware is as follows:
Intel Core i7 6700K
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
16GB RAM
Samsung 950 Pro m.2 SSD

I can confirm that the Inky Black Potion consumable instantly alleviates the issues as it changes the skybox as one of the previous posters mentioned, so there’s almost assuredly an issue with the skyboxes in some regard.

14

this is the EXACT same thing that was happening to me, in the same dungeon. i’m glad it’s not just me.

15

Hi Jambrix,

Tried both of those to no avail unfortunately.

Thanks for the response,

16

Hey all,

Thank you very much for testing and providing amazing info for this issue. The WoW team has identified the root cause for this FPS behavior and they are looking to push out the fix soon.

In the meantime here is the work around that should clear up the FPS issues in those specific areas.

  1. Navigate to the WoW directory (In the Battle.net app go to Options → Show in Explorer)
  2. Open the _retail_ > WTF > Config.wtf file in Notepad (or text editor of choice)
  3. Delete the SET SkyCloudLOD line completely
  4. Save the file and launch the game from the Battle.net app
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17

Thanks Jambrix, that indeed does fix the issue. I wonder why this issue wasn’t more widespread, no one else I know had anything similar happen.

18

this fixed it!! thank you jambrix and wow team for the support!

19

That did it. Thank you Jambrix! :partying_face: :dracthyr_blob_dance_animated:

20

Finally got around to trying out your solution, and it fixed the problem. Thanks Jambrix and the rest of the support team that helped find the fix.