performance optimization classic

Step 1: Enable System - Graphics - Raid Graphics Quality

First of all you have to scroll down and click on "Raid and Battleground" and then enable the checkbox
"Raid Graphics Quality" to setup your separate graphics settings while in instanced content.

Once this checkbox is ticked(enabled), scroll back to the very top of the page.

This guide will start at the top of the Graphics config and go over almost every single setting step-by-step.

Following with some recommendations and explanations. They will obviously not work for every system and setup.

General

• Display Mode should be Fullscreen (Windowed) which is as close to native Fullscreen as possible.
• Resolution should be your native monitor resolution. Default will find it for you if you click apply.
• Render Scale modifications are no longer recommended due to specific bugs. Use 100%.
• UI Scale is not used while ElvUI is enabled and should be 100 to avoid misplaced DropDowns and some other frames.
• Vertical Sync should be Disabled unless you encounter screen tearing.
• Low Latency Mode recommended is NVIDIA Reflex or Built-in for non GTX/RTX users.

Anti-Aliasing

• Turn it off for a slight performance gain. At the top of the Graphics section (Set to "None").
• Alternatively we recommend Advanced for clean edges and 3d rendered fonts. Set it to the following:
• Image-Based Techniques CMAA or CMAA 2 | Multisample Techniques Color 8x / Depth 8x
• Enable Multisample Alpha-Test if you decide to use 4x or 8x.

Raid and Battleground profile

• Graphics Quality can be 10. It will automatically switch over to Custom in our process of tweaking.

• Shadow Quality should be Fair or Good.

• Liquid Detail should be Fair or Good.

• Particle Density is recommended on High for clean effects (mostly stuff to dodge on the ground).

• SSAO should be Disabled.

• Sunshafts should be Disabled.

• Texture Resolution can be High. Performance impact is almost non-existent and your game will look better.

• Spell Density should be Essential so you see only your personal abilities and important effects like healing zones.

• Projected Textures has to be Enabled. Otherwise you will miss important void zones and die to boss mechanics.

• Environment Detail You should set it to 1.

• Ground Clutter You should set it to 1.

Example screenshot

• This is the Raid and Battleground section. Open world content is not affected by this.

Advanced section

• Disable Triple Buffering to reduce input lag.
• For Texture Filtering the performance sweetspot is 8x but we recommend 16x on good hardware for clean texture sharpness.
• Disable Ray Traced Shadows.
• Use the Ambient Occlusion Type FidelityFX CACAO for the quality of lightning effects.
• The Resample Quality is not active on 100% Render Scale unless you used the ResampleAlwaysSharpen console command.
• Disable VRS Mode.
• For Graphics API DirectX 12 is recommended so you can use feature flags like multi-threading and async resource creation.
• Disable Target FPS or set it to 60 on potato hardware.
• Avoid using the ingame FPS limiter. If you need to limit your max FPS then do it in your driver control panel.

Console commands for Raid effects

• /console RAIDWaterDetail 0 (Default is 0)
• /console RAIDweatherDensity 0 (Default is 3)

Step 2: Lua errors

Lua errors will always impact your performance. Even if you disable or hide them.

Blizzard Console Variable

• Enable the error frame with the following chat command /console scriptErrors 1
• Reload your UI with the following chat command /reload

BugSack and BugGrabber

• We recommend to download BugSack and BugGrabber.
• BugGrabber will catch all your Lua errors and consolidate them into a Minimap icon which you can open on click.
• This is the best way to go through your errors and share them with AddOn authors so they can fix them.

Step 3: Optimizing in General

Friendly NamePlates

• You should turn off Friendly NamePlates in Raids using the hotkey (Default is Shift-V). Even in name-only mode with hidden health bars.
• They have a major performance impact in situations where auras (Buffs and Debuffs) are applied to your Raid.
• All the health events in the background will still fire and kill your FPS (Roughly a 15 to 20 FPS loss for low-mid systems).
• This is a Blizzard bug. They just set the health bar alpha to 0 instead of fully deactivating them.

Profiling

• Profiling your CPU and Memory usage is nice, but it does impact your performance.
• Make sure to disable it with the following chat command /console scriptProfile 0 and then /reload
• Make sure to disable addons like AddOn CPU Usage if you don't need them.

Step 4: Optimize your ElvUI

General

• Adjust Tag Update Rate to something around 0.25 - 0.50 for less text tag updates per second on all frames.

Cosmetic

• Using Thin Borders, UnitFrame Thin Borders and Nameplate Thin Borders will improve your fps slightly.

ActionBars

• If you have empty and unused bars which you don't use, disable them.
• If you want to use hotkeys on a hidden bar, enable the bar and set visibility state to hide.

Cooldown Text

• We recommend to use the ElvUI Cooldown Text module instead of AddOns like OmniCC.
• Our module is optimized for ElvUI frames and (optionally) also works for WeakAuras if needed.

DataBars

• Disable bars if you don't need them. Completely disable Experience on max level.
• Turn off threat if you don't care about it.

NamePlates

• Do not use Portraits or Heal Prediction for the best performance.
• Clean up old Style Filters if you no longer use them.

Tooltip

• Disable Target Info and Role for the best performance.
• Other informations are automatically hidden in combat and won't have any impact.

UnitFrames

• Disable Smooth Bars in the General tab of UnitFrames.
• The bigger your Filter Priority for Buffs and Debuffs, the higher the performance impact. Try to optimize them.
• Do not use Portraits.
• Do not use Heal Prediction for all frames if you are for example a DPS or Tank and don't need the information.

Bonus

It is highly recommended to do a full reset of your World of Warcraft installation for each expansion release.

This is obviously something people don't like to do but a clean install will improve your stability and performance.
Don't backup any files when doing this. Especially not the WTF or Interface folders. You have to do a full reset.
You can export your profile strings, but you should not carry over old files to the new install.
Your keybinds and actionbar spell placements will not reset. They are stored on Blizzards server.

How to do a full reset

• Log in to the game and run /console cvar_default then logout and close the game.
• Uninstall all WoW versions (Retail, Classic, Cataclysm, PTRs, Beta) in your Battle.net client.
• Close the Battle.net Client.
• Go in your drive and delete the leftover World of Warcraft folder.
• Log back in to the Battle.net Client and start a fresh download.

The best time to perform a full reset is between the Pre-Expansion patch and the full Expansion release.

Related Links

• Troubleshooting and Testing