I have a 4090 i9 14900K, running a 4K 240hz monitor with vsync (PG32UCDM). I’ve been experiencing FPS stutters in classic wow for at least the past 1 year and a half. I don’t have issues on any other games except for classic wow. I’m on the latest drivers, latest bios, latest everything.
The issue goes something like this, game is buttery smooth, but every x amount of seconds (anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds, i don’t really know) i’ll experience a complete freeze. Not only will my fps stutter but my mouse will freeze for .1 second then go back to normal
This makes the experience super annoying and prevented me from being able to enjoy wow classic. I bought a 60 day sub and didn’t even login at all and didn’t level in tbc because of this issue, it’s just so incredibly annoying.
I tried contacting blizzard support and they didn’t even pretend to try to help. Didn’t transfer the issue to developers so they can fix it, nothing.
So i’m left with nobody but the forum to ask for help. I’ve tried everything guys.. tried to play without vsync, with vsync, lowest settings, capping fps, nothing works.
Have you tried running WoW at 1080p instead of 4k? Keep the Windows settings at 4K.
Still freeze?
Try running WoW at 1080p. And change the Windows settings to 1080p.
Still freeze?
Connect your monitor to your 14900K’s integrated graphics and play WoW Classic. Does it still freeze?
WoW should run fine on the integrated graphics. I have a 9900k and a 2080 Super OC connected to two 1080p monitors. Before I bought my 2080 Super OC, I installed Skyrim and played it fine for 5 to 15 mins on Vanilla settings. I then turned on some mods and the game froze on me. So I’m pretty sure WoW Classic will run on the integrated graphics to test if it still freezes or not.
One difference will be that I’m on Windows 10 and I’m going to assume that you are on Windows 11. But I’m not on the latest nVidia driver too. I’m on 581.42 because sometimes I go by “if my system is fine, then don’t run the update in case it still has bugs in it”.
That’s all of my suggestions for now. And my suggestions are kinda random so I really don’t think they will work.
I just thought of one more. I Googled “can games freeze with bad ram” and it seems that is a thing.
My last suggestion will be taking out all of your RAM except for one stick and playing WoW Classic. Does it freeze? If not, then try playing the game with a different RAM stick and check if one of the RAM sticks is causing the freezing.
Do you have good liquid cooling for that CPU? Seems like it’d generate a lot of heat. Have you checked that the cooler is working? Pumps can die or thermal paste needs to be reapplied. Have you cleaned your computer & fans out recently? They overly dusty?
Swap your video cables, (HDMI/display port) see if it changes anything
Swap your input port
Check your windows performance & energy settings, set to balance & then to performance or vice versa
Try using older drivers, windows updates & GPU drivers, see if their old stuff has better synergy
Try disabling 3rd party software for recording/accessories like keyboard/mouse/headphones, swap out accessories see if it changes anything
You might have a broken GPU or something, hopefully not
For me, I had the annoying problem of the games graphics option select graphics card was set to “Default” or “AutoDetect” cant remember the term they use..
Whatever that is, its a bad option sometimes because if your CPU also has on die Graphics adaptor then the game can occasionally select that over your real graphics card.
The fix for me was simple, manual select in the games menu and that fixed for me.
thank you ill try that, although my game is always on 4k 240 fps so theres zero chance it 'accidentally’ chose the cpu as a graphics card because i’d notice it in 2 seconds
I was thinking more about it and Frozenfire seems nearer the mark because it could be anything but your issue is indicative of a ‘load bearing issue’ of some sort. I was guessing if you double checked PSU & replaced PSU, you’d probably find it’s ok unless it damaged any computer components. Still, he could be on the money.