Problem with Graphic Lag/Windows 7 Nvidia

Hey all,

Lets try a few things here. Please let us know if these do or do not work for you.

  1. Reset Driver Settings
  2. Reset Game Settings
  3. Check Power Settings

If these do not work please update the thread with DxDiag as indicated by Nathandrick so we can gather more data. Thank you.

None of these solutions have worked, and I also completely reinstalled the game as well. Both Skylan and I have already posted our DxDiag reports.

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Aparently, I “fixed” the problem by installing Windows 10.

I do have another thing I wanted to try. The recent patch did make some updates for DirectX11. Lets open the Battle.net launcher and click Blizzard > Options > Game settings. Under World of Warcract check the box for “Additional Command Line Arguments”

In the box, type the following:
-d3d11legacy

Another command to try is as follows:
-d3d11

As a note, do not have both of these in the box at the same time. Try one and if that does not work delete all the text and try the other. If neither works please email us an MSInfo file then update this forums thread letting us know you sent it.

To: Techinfo@blizzard.com
Subject: Windows 7 Graphics Lag Issues

Neither argument resolved the issue. I have just sent an email with the requested file.

I tried both all of the reset fixes and the two command lines and nothing worked. The only difference was that the framerates seemed even lower using -d3d11. My computer is already using the high performance power plan. I sent the MSInfo file in with an email.

Can also confirm running WoW in Windows 10 with the same hardware does not produce this issue.

I can’t upgrade to 10 atm, it’s no longer free is it? There has to be a way to fix it. I can play Overwatch flawlessly, makes no sense that Warcraft would require Windows 10 only now. Could we get a confirmation that a problem has been found and is being worked on, or a confirmation Wow is Windows 10 only now? I don’t want to dive into windows 10 and then the problem is still there.

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No, the minimum requirements call for Windows 7. This is a bug for sure.

WoW does not require windows 10, it requires a minimum of Windows 7 SP1 x64 with the platform update installed

It’s no doubt a problem with Windows 7 and Nvidia. Again, i’m using the optimus technology and i have 2 options, intel and Nvidia. Intel is not visible now in wow. I’d like to at least get the intel drivers showing again in hopes i can play in lowest settings. My intel graphics is HD 4000 and the driver is old from 2012. The problem is the drivers on the intel website will not work. I go to my manufacturers website and the 2012 driver is the only one they have. Is there any way to get the current intel driver to work?

Unfortunately that is now below the minimum requirements (I know this is confusing because the newer series is HD 500). That is not to say it won’t run WoW, it is to say that it may be a struggle.

Unfortunately no, the hardware is dramatically different at a micro-architecture level. Intel generally doesn’t believe their hardware is for gaming and only really supports it on the office replacement cycle.

There may be a way to install a more recent Intel driver Dreadpixie. Not the most recent - certainly better than 2012. I suppose you have nothing to lose in trying. First lets get a DXDiag report:

The second section of page has DXDiag report instructions - we don’t require the MSinfo report.

That will be a wall of text. Let’s put it up on Pastebin so we don’t clutter the thread here. Provide the end code as per the example below.

(The green bold portion of the link: https://pastebin.com/**Qk28Ed1P**)

You might as well head to the notebooks support page then download that 2012 driver as a backup. If things go south you will need it.

What people are saying about outdated drivers or an outdated graphics processor perhaps being the reason for you not being able to use your integrated graphics is not the case at all. (Updating the integrated graphics drivers isn’t a bad idea for other reasons though.)

You can still use your integrated graphics, just not via WoW’s settings(currently). If you go to the Nvidia Control Panel(just search that in the start menu), you can select the application you’d like to configure by going to Manage 3D Settings->Program Settings. Once there, you choose wow.exe and set the preferred graphics processor to integrated graphics. If you don’t see wow.exe then you’ll need to manually locate the executable in the World of Warcraft_retail_ directory. Then in the WoW settings, you’ll need to tell it to use the integrated graphics as it will still Auto-Select the dedicated graphics.

Fair warning though, trying my HD 4600 graphics resulted in about as unplayable gameplay as the stuttering dedicated graphics. It’s just different flavors of unplayable.

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Hey y’all,

We sent this up to be investigated. Appreciate all the information thus far. We’ll keep you posted as we get more details on what’s going on, or if we have any further work arounds/ideas to try to troubleshoot this.

Ty so much! :slight_smile: i’m going to hold off for now on trying to force update any drivers til we have more info. Being the Optimus technology i read it can really screw things up if you do so.

I know the intel driver is going to be horrible, but i’m pretty sure the intel option was actually using Nvidia. When 8.1. released i logged in and the graphics were terrible and stuttering. Only option i found, as well as others at the time, was to switch the GPU to Intel in the wow advanced menu. This produced a playing experience exacty like nvidia prior to the patch. This led me and others to believe that some how crap was mixed up and Intel was now acting as Nvidia, Nvidia was acting as intel. Now that intel option is missing and we’re left with 2 duplicate Nvidia options, it makes me wonder if Nvidia is still really only using Intel, hence the bad stuttering. So a small % chance that if we could get intel back in there, maybe it would work as nvidia once more(why i was thinking of other ways to install a newer driver). If anything having newer intel drivers might improve the quality of nvidia, since Intel/Nvidia backbone each other to work correctly with optimus. So updating the intel driver wasnt for actually using it but more a shot in the dark that it may magically make nvidia work as it did before. I did Oldmanas suggestion and went into the Nvidia options and set Wow.exe to use intel only, bypassing the wow gpu selections. As expected the game ran just as it is currently with Nvidia selected. So that tells me maybe the problem is selecting Nvidia isn’t actually loading Nvidia at all. Another side note… I know every little detail may have something that can help fix this. I always use Vertical Sync. Since i started playing Wow Vertical Sync keeps my FPS at a steady 60fps. This was important to me because anything over 60 created screen tearing for me. Since 8.1 Vertical Sync is no longer a steady 60fps… its all over the place. 64fps 67 fps, 69 fps, 62 fps. I know this isnt a big deal but its something that changed the same day the problems begin. once again, this could be the FPS of the Intel driver if Nvidia is indeed just not working.

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So my understanding (and an MVP with more experience in these matters would have to jump in to confirm or deny) is that if you’re using switchable graphics the ‘integrated’ adapter (Intel in this case), is the core ‘display’ adapter and is the only one actually connected to the screen. The Nvidia adapter is the ‘render’ adapter and does the rendering but then sends the frames through shared memory to the Intel adapter to forward to the screen.

This should mean that both drivers should be kept as up to date as is possible for that hardware, there are other threads talking about this in far greater detail.

My problem is the Intel driver is 2012 and the Nvidia driver is march 2018. Neither have any updates that work from their websites. Neither does my Laptop manufacturers website :frowning: So i believe there are options where you can get newer intel drivers to work as well as alternative versions of Nvidia Drivers, such as the Geforce Drivers. But everything ive read online says not to do that because it could make things worse due to lack of optimus supprt.
Side Note: Grumbles was me as well, it keeps picking a different toon name every time i log in to reply lol

So I can’t speak to getting newer drivers to work. I can say that those drivers have almost certainly not been validated to work on that hardware. Manufacturers go through hardware revisions at the silicon level too, so newer drivers even for similar micro-architectures could cause random crashes if the driver expects features in silicon that aren’t present in your hardware. Given the age of your hardware (at or exceeding the WoW base system requirements in terms of age) it’s unlikely you’ll be able to update beyond those drivers. Business grade hardware usually receives updates for a bit longer, so if you’re able to find the business grade version of your laptop you may be able to install the drivers from there. That said I would not be highly optimistic.