I apologise for the follow-up post. I wanted to share my findings.
https://imgur.com/a/GY8QzgL
Check out my pally, anima conductor streams active staring at Bastion with 30 fps (bottom right corner on the image).
Then I have my shammy, no streams going on here, staring at the same place with a solid 60 fps.
I have confirmed that the performance all throughout is much better on my shammy. The only difference between the two is the anima conductor being active.
VSync active, so the fps gap might not be as huge as it seems.
Perhaps 9.0.5 changed how the anima streams are rendered?
M1 Mac mini running at 1080p, graphics slider at 7 with shadows set to low.
What would be interesting is to know how bootcamped macs are doing (yes I know not an option for m1) try identify causes. Clearly sounds like there’s a mac issue after OS update. But spires tanks fps on pc and mac … maybe moreso on mac but I think there are some world issues. I have to take view diestance down to 1 or 2 in spires regardless of platform. Sounds like some people notice this in open world depending on where they are looking as well.
Blizzard Support has confirmed in a support ticket that:
We have received reports from other players about crashing and stuttering with newer Mac systems running macOS 11 with M1 chips. The QA team is investigating this and working with Apple to find a solution.
And
… I’m sorry to say there isn’t something we can do to directly fix this issue since it is related to the operating [system] and/or chipset.
And
… for now I would suggest periodically checking the patch notes and game forums in case there will be more information regarding this.
My suggestion: open a support ticket and request additional subscription time in compensation for not being able to play the game. In the meantime, read a book, or five.
Still on non-M1 Mac, still having issues post 9.0.5. I found the solution: don’t play Shadowlands content lol! But seriously, I avoided it for the most part for a few weeks and didn’t have any problems! I had brought up the anima conductor theory awhile back that I found in the PC forum if you look high up on this thread, but it definitely seems to be at least one factor, as others have reiterated. I have three night fae characters to compare, and the one without an anima conductor active is having no issues in the sanctum or surrounding areas near the sanctum, but the other two with anima conductors active are having the drop in FPS and stuttering. I am sure that it is not a catch-all for the technical problems and is probably just one of many, as ALL characters have the problems in Oribos, regardless of anima conductor activation. I avoid it as much as possible, given that the floor texture in stuttery 30FPS is making me want to
Edit: I will add, Kryian seems to also have the drop in the sanctum, but haven’t compared one without anima. I haven’t noticed much of an issue with the Necrolord sanctum, maybe lose about 15FPS through the little misty area. Theater of Pain loses about 20 through the fog right outside the entrance. I do not have an anima conductor in Venthyr yet. Ardenweald and Bastion and Oribos have the most of that anima-like foggy aura however, so possibly also adding to the problems.
I really don’t think 11.3 is going to fix much seeing as I’ve been on it for a few now. Still having the issue even with the RC (have not installed 11.4 b1) however I might do that here soon as I’m noticing wifi issues on 11.3 which I’m going to leave to Apple messing things up. However I did just goto the ptr and it’s far worse on beta for fps drops then it is on live. After some tweaking I can get a consistent 60fps in Arden and most places but that’s with dropping the screen res down. PTR though SAME settings and I was only getting like 15-30 fps in Arden and I tryed walking around to see if it would get better in other areas and it just didn’t. At this point I’m kinda annoyed seeing as well still get nothing from Blizzard and the fact that the beta is worse ugh…
Update on my previous post: necrolord character did not have any reinforced anima threads when the issue was not presenting in the sanctum. Now that I have an anima stream channeling, I am getting the stuttering more prominently there as well near the anima conductor device.
I’ve had very poor gameplay experience since patch 9.0.5 like many running macOS (16" 2019 MacBook Pro, macOS 11.2, fine before patch 9.0.5). Stuttering, increasing to 5-10 second freezes, in open world Shadowlands areas and especially Oribos and sanctums, requiring frequent quitting/restarting WoW. I did not have these problems in instances so I was able to run the BC timewalking dungeons and Torghast.
So tonight I saw this post, reset display resolution as suggested, and voila! The game has now been playable for 20 minutes or so in open world content with no more than a few stutters on the flight path through Oribos and occasional stutter in Ardenwield.
I’m glad it worked for you! It didn’t make a difference for me as I was already at Default display settings. I tried changing to a scaled setting and back to default just in case, but it didn’t change anything.
It didn’t totally fix the problem, I had to restart WoW after about 45 minutes. But since 9.0.5 I usually couldn’t make it more than 5 minutes in open Shadowlands zones and if I went to Oribos I had to immediately restart WoW just to make it out.
It’s really sad this has been a problem for so long now. Surely Blizzard must be able to review graphics-related changes for 9.0.5 and figure out what the problem might be. Based on the posts about this issue it’s not exactly a rare, unreproducible problem.
My thoughts exactly. It’s been almost two months since this issue was reported after 9.0.5.
I was hopeful about the 9.1 PTR but, currently, the problem is persistent in that version.
(I’m not allowed to post links, but google RkBlog WoW for an in-depth analysis in one of their posts)
Problem is a lot of those issues were present on the M1 Macs prior to 9.0.5 just further amplified … The fps drop is apparent not just in the Shadowlands but across the board in BFA and Legion zones from what I’ve observed. Seems to roughly be an average drop of 10 fps with amplified spikes and drops on the M1 since 9.0.5 …
I had brought up the anima conductor theory awhile back that I found in the PC forum if you look high up on this thread, but it definitely seems to be at least one factor, as others have reiterated. I have three night fae characters to compare, and the one without an anima conductor active is having no issues in the sanctum or surrounding areas near the sanctum, but the other two with anima conductors active are having the drop in FPS and stuttering. I am sure that it is not a catch-all for the technical problems and is probably just one of many, as ALL characters have the problems in Oribos, regardless of anima conductor activation. I avoid it as much as possible, given that the floor texture in stuttery 30FPS is making me want to 