Besides some other issues Ive commented on, it seems this version of WoW is hogging my RAM.
I have 40GB of RAM and pre-prepatch, it would sit on about 26GB available with only WoW and Discord running.
Today, with the same two apps (wow and discord) my available RAM drops down the 5GB available.
It would seem that whatever is caching the game isn’t clearing it out. I have to manually log out and restart the game to play, and the gobbling starts when changing zones or starting a BG etc. Once I log out of the game, the RAM jumps back up to 31GB RAM available.
This needs to be looked into please.
when looking at macOS, cached files memory doesn’t matter, at all. as long as there are no swap used stats, it’s actually good macOS is caching file data. As long s it releases cached files if any apps actually NEED that memory. But macOS is designed to use memory for caching vs just letting it sit free/unused what so ever. Don’t focus on how big caached memory is. it’s an insignificant stat
App memory should be looked at if it seems the heap size of a specific app is much higher than normal. 9.0 would be higher than 8.3 but probably not too much higher (when considering similar settings/hardware)
TL/DR, just make sure you aren’t running out of memory and seeing compressed memory or virtual memory pageouts.
For perspective, I have 64 gigs of ram. Apps are using 24, and 24 gigs are being used for cached memory. only 16gigs of free memory. Compressed memory is at 0 and pageouts are at 0. I have two copies of wow running, each using 4 gigs which is pretty normal.
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I’m seeing WoW grab over 10 GB Ram to run, and it’s killing my other applications. I’ve got 40GM, and I hope I don’t have to resort to running Onyx every day to clear the RAM caches.
I’ve not seen a Memory Leak this bad since ESO beta
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Ive been using Memory Clean 2 to try and get some of this back. Unfortunately, it can only clear about 5GB on average, meaning the game is still using about 20 - 25GB of RAM.
Its so strange that playing the game before prepatch was fine and then 9.0.1 is literally hogging this memory. WoW has been identified as the only app running causing the memory hog.
This in turn has been causing my fan to turn on ALOT sooner than what it did. It now comes on just flying somewhere as where previously it would only turn on for more intense gaming like raids or M+.
Im unsure as to what has changed in the coding side but this experience doesn’t sit well knowing there is a change in the way the RAM is being used by the game with the one change being 9.0.1 implemented.
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I am running into this issue as well, only in BGs so far. It’s highly annoying. You can’t even get rid of the annoying popup and then you start running straight without being able to stop.
I am not holding my breath they will fix this issue. I still can’t even sell anything. If this was a PC issue, it would be fixed in a day. 
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I am having the same issue, after some time of playing the game I get a pop up window saying your computer has run out of application memory please force quit the following apps. And the only apps I have running are WoW and Mac Finder. I never had a problem until this pre patch.
I’ve noticed an increase in memory usage as well. seems a lot more than usual. my imac only has 16GB of ram which I thought would be enough. I can always add more since its the 27" but still…
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This is getting worse for me.
I have checked all my settings, reduced from Recommended down lower to make sure the graphics changes of SL weren’t impacting this. Ive also only been using WoW as the only app running. All addons were disabled. No discord running
Today while in Waycrest Manor, the RAM ran out. The frame rate froze and my entire screen went red. WoW crashed and I had to restart the Mac to get it back up and running.
2019 27" iMac
i9 3.6GHz 8 Core Intel
Radeon Pro Vega 48
1TB SSD
40GB RAM
There is clearly something that’s changed with the coding where the compounded cache isn’t dumping and this is impacting gameplay for myself and others who are experiencing similar issues.
Thank you.
Curious, I am playing on only 8 GB of RAM in my mini and I haven’t seen an error on the Mac side. In boot camp, I have had the out of error message and crashed to the desktop a bunch of times 
Ill check and see later today if my mini is having the same issues
Just wanted to chime in that I’m also having the same problem. Was wondering if it was my Mac, but seems like it’s the app.
I’m having the same problem. The game has crashed three times in the last two days and I had zero problems pre-prepatch. It usually happens in instances. I’ve also had excessive freezing and slow FPS.
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Same exact issue here, happened within minutes of logging into the pre patch. no changes to my settings and literally no other reason for this to be happening aside from an error on WoWs end. I saw this has happened in previous patches, beginning of BFA is where I saw the lasts posts.
I sincerely hope this gets fixed asap!
I should also add that my Activity Monitor is showing WoW taking up 64.24 GB of memory post pre-patch.
Curious: Has this issue been fixed for anyone or is it still continuing?
My situations appears to have been relieved somewhat although the consumption is still more than what it was previously and uses about 15GB of RAM now at all times - much more than what it did in BFA but having said that, hasn’t reduced the consumption to the point where the system crashes.
Keen to hear if anyone elses has changed and if this additional RAM consumption is the new normal.
Thank you.
I’ve had to substantially reduce several graphics settings in order to keep it from crashing. No amount of changes seems to keep my fan from running at what sounds like max capacity. Pretty disappointing given I was able to run the game at max settings perfectly prior to the pre-patch.
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Mojojozo…
Forget about how your machine performed in BFA as you are not even running that version of BFA anymore… everything was converted for Shadowlands. This is why people find themselves compelled to upgrade their computers for the new expansion. They have high expectations and the game keep pushing it’s requirements upward (the price you pay for all those cosmetic changes at the barber shop for example).
Addons are causing a lot of issues because they weren’t ready for the new pre-patch, thus disabling them may do a world of good until they are updated for the new patch.
I haven’t crashed since I posted a few days ago. I haven’t had as many lag issues and my FPS is up a bit. I haven’t had to turn any settings down, yet, but I may if the FPS issues remain.
My pc have crashed many times im running the setting at 5 now but the ram consumtion still absurd and it takes me age to load orgrimmar or stormwind and to load screens while im grabbing a flight to some place
If you aren’t on a Mac, you will need to post in the Technical Support forum. Make sure to provide as much detail as you can about your system and its components. That way those helping you can at least attempt to diagnose your issue(s) and try to help you get things working again. 
This is also happening on Windows 10. I just took a picture of my memory usage on start up. This is from a clean start of the computer, no other apps running, just Battle.net and WoW. I am flying from the In-between (where it crashed earlier) to Maldraxxus and it used 10 gigabytes of RAM (I have 16). Why is this game using such an excessive amount of my RAM? It is the RAM. I thought maybe it was graphics memory but my graphics and every other performance function is fine. It’s the RAM. It crashes almost every time I play the game.
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