TBC Classic 2.5.3 Client, system crash

I had a similar issue MacBook Pro 16" AMD 5500 and Catalina - couldn’t log into the PTR when others could just got the spinning ball. Deleted WoW completely and Battle net made new user on OS X still couldn’t access PTR, but I COULD on a different computer at work. My reg Classic TBC was working fine on both systems however.

Wiped comp completely fresh OS X Catalina, and Battle net and WoW - same issue.

Patch was released/installed and I was no longer able to log into TBC!! - same symptoms as before. Tried the “SET gx” to the intel card trick - no help.

Upgraded to Big Sur and BOOM everything works now

I’m pretty sure all the 2019 16" macbook pros have discreet graphics, so people who posted their graphics as Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB prob are just seeing that because it’s currently active. If you go to “about this mac” then click “system report” and go to “Graphics/Displays” you should see both the integrated intel graphics and whatever flavor of Radeon Pro you have.

According to Apples spec, these machines came with either:
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M
AMD Radeon Pro 5600M

I have been playing TBC since launch and have had no problems until yesterday’s update. I did experience similar problems with SOM however, and eventually gave up on it.

Yeah, looking at the systems specs posted, i do see a lot of 5500Ms, but so far, i think I’m the only one reporting a 5300M

MacBook Air M1. Similar problem as everyone else is describing here. App stops responding on load, but I force quit after a minute or two. Have not seen a complete system freeze.

On M1 Mac and did some more troubleshooting and tried to reinstall. Launcher app could never connect to the CDN to download. I disabled pi-hole and tried again just in case and had the same problem. Deleted the launcher app to reinstall the launcher. Battle.net-Setup freezes and have to force quit. This is very strange but might be all linked if some CDN isn’t accessible that each app is checking in with before proceeding.

Edit: Was finally able to reinstall after multiple tries and walking away and leaving it for a long time. But, the original problem still remains. Cannot load the actual game.

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
CPU: 2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
RAM: 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
GFX1: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M
GFX2: Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB
OS: Catalina 10.15.7

OS: Catalina 10.15.7
Model: MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
CPU: 2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
Graphics 1: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M
Graphics 2: Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB
RAM: 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Same system freezing problem, have to hard reset upon launch.

Update: I upgraded to Big Sur and am able to connect and log in to Classic, Classic TBC, and retail with no issues.

Same thing is happening for me. Can’t launch the client, crashes my system entirely.

macOS 10.15.7
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M

Add me to the list of folks with the same problem. I have not been able to log in on my MacBook Pro since the patch. Battle.net loads find, I click on “Play”, WoW:TBC launches, the music starts, the “connecting” box appears and then I get a hard crash. By ‘hard crash’ I mean the entire machine is locked up and requires a reboot. I’m not even able to [cmd+opt+esc] to force quit the app. (This kind of crash is pretty rare these days.)

I am able to load WoW:Shadowlands fine from this same MBP, however, and launch WoW:TBC on a desktop PC I also own, which suggests the problem isn’t my MBP, home network, router, ISP, etc. I did all the usual stuff: repair install, re-install, run Disk First Aid, etc. Same problem in exactly the same spot.

2019 16" MacBook Pro (Intel)
macOS 10.15.7
2.4 GHz Intel Core i9
64 GB RAM
AMD Radeon Pro 5600M

Good luck tracking the problem down!

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Try the fix here for anyone that missed it.

Some people have tried this “Workaround” and it does appear to let them play the game, but it is a workaround, and not a fix.

This forces the use of the integrated Intel Graphics card instead of the Discreet AMD Graphics card. Yes the game will launch, but your video quality and FPS will suffer.

Others have mentioned that Upgrading to a newer version of Mac OS (post Catalina) will allow them to launch the game without crashing the system.

Catalina was the last Version of Mac OSX, I am going to update to MacOS 11 Big Sur, and report my results here.
If it doesn’t work, I will then try to upgrade to MacOS 12 Monterey and report back.

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UPDATE:
It does indeed appear to be an issue with Catalina and the Radeon 5000M series Graphics cards (Not just the 5500M), but all 5000M series Cards, 5300, 5500, and 5600

I Updated to MAC OS 11 Big Sur.
Launching TCB Classic 2.5.3 Client, now works without issue.

System Specs Post UPGRADE
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
MAC OS Big Sur
version 11.6.1 (20G224)
2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7
6 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4 GB
Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

looks like since the update i’m getting the same error in TBC classic as the SOM/classic era client.

AMD graphics not working anymore, in the error logs it shows the GFX crd has no emory detected

2019 MBP
32GB ram
Mac OSX 10.5.7
AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20
Intel UHD Graphics 630

----------------------------------------
               GxInfo
----------------------------------------
<GxApi> MTL
<Graphics.ShaderModel> mtl_1_1
<PresentModificationState> Unmodified
<WarnedPresentModified> No
<Graphics.VendorID> 0x1002
  <Graphics.PCIIdentifier> VID=0x1002,DID=0x69AF,REV=0xC0,SSID=0x0000019A
Graphics.DeviceID 0x69AF
Graphics.DeviceName AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20
<Graphics.VideoMemory> 0 MB
<GxRestarts> 1
<GxFailedFrameStartRestarts> 1
<GxDeviceLostCount> 0
<BlocklistedDriverWarningShown> No

switching to the iGPU in the WTF config file

> SET gxAdapter "Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630"

immediately fixes the issue, no crash anymore.
off course, FPS is like doodoo with the iGPU

I can confirm upgrading from Catalina to Big Sur solves the crashing problem with the Radeon 5500M.

Are you noticing that TBC Classic runs hotter in Big Sur than it did in Catalina? My fan goes nuts almost before the video even renders since I updated to Big Sur.

Since the big sur update, while the game does launch without a total system crash. Performance is absolutely terrible. Almost unplayable. I was getting like 8fps in gruuls. Runs very hot.

Even before the 2.5.3 update, when I launched TBC Classic, my fan kicked into High Gear.
As far as performance, it isn’t bad, but the Colors of Water is WAY OFF. Like Bright Blue water in Shadowmoon Valley, and yellow water in Terrokar Forest.

Some of you who recently installed Monterey (learning it doesn’t have crash), keep in mind that after any large update like that, system may run worse for several hours/rest of day do to time machine or spotlight or other system services consuming cpu in background after the update

I would first open activity monitor and make sure cpu is not tied up elsewhere before making a final determination performance is worse.

Yeah, my fans ran pretty high most of the time before as well. But I got decent FPS and could raid. The performance is so bad it’s nearly unplayable now, possibly even worse than forcing wow to use the intel graphics.

Just to add, I’m playing on very low graphics settings.

Think we’ll get a blue reply anytime soon? Switching to the Intel GPU is so bad, I’m getting 30 FPS just idling in shatt, when I start to play it goes even lower.

The game is essentially unplayable in it’s current state.

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