If WoW Forever has been running a little rough on your PC, then you’re not alone.
Players testing the beta have reported everything from strange stuttering to FPS gradually dropping over time, with major cities like Stormwind and Thunder Bluff proving particularly troublesome. Some players with high-end PCs have even reported inconsistent frame rates, despite having well over 100 FPS on their tracking. The good news is that there are a few settings worth changing before you start turning everything down to potato quality!
Start with Secondary Lighting
The biggest setting players seem to be talking about right now is “Secondary Lighting”.
Several players in the community have reported significant improvements after lowering this setting from “Maximum”. One user claimed that simply changing Secondary Lighting to “Good” or “Fair” fixed most of their lag, while others reported smoother gameplay and noticeable FPS gains.
Blizzard’s forums are also seeing players recommending setting Secondary Lighting to “Good”, particularly for systems experiencing sudden FPS drops. If you’re struggling with FPS and lag, then this is the first setting I’d experiment with.
Don’t Immediately Turn Everything Down
Interestingly, lowering the entire graphics preset doesn’t seem to be fixing the problem for everyone.
Some players have reported almost no difference between high and low settings, suggesting that at least some of the current performance problems may be related to the beta’s optimization rather than everyone’s individual graphical settings. That means you can potentially keep things like textures and other visual settings relatively high while lowering the settings that are primarily causing problems.
Keep an eye on your FPS cap
If your FPS is constantly jumping between 15, 60 and 200, then you may get a smoother experience by setting a static FPS limit.
One player running at 1440p reported choosing a stable 60 FPS rather than allowing their frame rate to fluctuate wildly helped, while another capped their game at 72 FPS to match their display setup. A stable frame rate can feel much smoother than a higher number that’s constantly bouncing around.
The Beta May Be The Problem
It’s good to remember that WoW Forever is still in beta. Players have reported FPS gradually deteriorating during longer sessions and memory leak issues in the past, and these were fixed in recent days. Others have reported that restarting or repairing the game fixes problems after spending time in busy cities too.
For now, try lowering Secondary Lighting, set a static FPS cap, and test your settings in both quiet zones and crowded cities. With Blizzard still working on the beta, there’s a good chance these performance problems will be addressed before WoW Forever officially launches on November 4th.
