WoW Dragonflight Graphics Settings Guide for M+ & Raids

This video is a simple guide to the best WoW Dragonflight graphics settings. This includes what settings to turn on when you can't see mechanics or swirlies and what you can leave off for better performance and visual clarity.
Camera Commands: • Zoom Out Camera Farthe...
00:00 Intro/Disclaimers
00:33 My Setups Were Pretty Bad
00:46 Spell Density
01:23 Projected Textures
01:45 Outline Mode
02:17 Particle Density
02:37 Other Basic Settings
03:37 Advanced Settings
03:56 Vertical Sync
04:05 Nvidia Reflex Low Latency
04:17 Camera FOV & Distance
04:30 idk what to call this part
04:52 Max vs Minimum Comparison
05:30 Bonus Darkheart Thicket Skip in the Background/Goodbye
Most of the wow graphics settings barely do anything, the game is 2 decades old so who would've thought really. These settings are what I have used for years and years even when I was playing on Mac or with Integrated graphics, hopefully it helps!
"@notSachy" on Twitter/Discord/IG

[@alexisramosgomez899]

Great video. Hope you make audio settings soon 👍

[@amal8332]

Thanks for the video. Can you tell me what Scrolling combat text that is?

[@MostlyFish21]

Hey man, thank you so much for the video! This really helped me out. I'm getting like 100 FPS in valdrakken now lol. I think my problem was trusting the NVIDIA GeForce app to "optimize" my experience but that just made everything laggy because everything is turned to max

[@notSachy]

Happy it helped!

[@fabaskuz]

Nice Video! Whats the Addon called, u use to change your Damage-Font?

[@notSachy]

Hey I'm just using ElvUi, and the font is called GothamNarrowUltra. another common font a lot of UI's use is Expressway. Hope this helps!

[@fabaskuz]

Ty alot@@notSachy

[@mooski0770]

Hey, what is your damage font name ?

[@codydetty-yv2lh]

I just came back to wow a few days ago, took a hiatus at the end of BoA, are these setting good for just all around anything or just M+ and raids. Because the reason i ask at certain intervals like shadowlands main city hub or dragonflight main city hub, or when im out an about where large numbers of ppl are doing things i drop FPS like crazy. What would be good settings to use for that, i dont plan on raiding at all, maybe some mythics but no raids.

[@notSachy]

So city FPS is fake, places like oribos and valdrakken are so vast and have so much activity you really don’t get to have high FPS there. I barely get 90 FPS and I have the current best consumer specs. These settings are the bare minimum important settings to see important dungeon/raid mechanics, but not much more. If you want more visual prettiness you can use these but also turn up view distance, turn up environmental, turn up texture resolution and turn up shadows/SSAO. These are all high impact pretty settings.

[@codydetty-yv2lh]

@@notSachy ty, yeah prettiness is nice an all which I'm fine with just decent settings I'm more about gameplay stability

[@nikroth]

Everyone has to see this ! Pure gold !

[@dennisthgersen453]

hey man! really enjoyed the video! i've tryed to find solutions to my fps problems for a while now and im at the point where im ready to buy a completly new system so the right now im running a Ryzen 9 5900x with a 3080ti and 32gigs of ram and i really thought it would get me atleast some decent wow preformance and it does some times but man i wanna be able to sit in a 30 man raid on max graphics and have a good amount of fps without any real drops! like what do i need? i mean im sure the gpu can handle it and tbh i really thought the Cpu would do too! so what cpu do you or anyone else think i should be running? i mean i know what im asking for is overkill but to me that doesn't really matter i wanna play my games on max with top preformance and especially Wow! thanks in advance for any help!

[@notSachy]

3080ti is totally fine for 1440p/1080p max graphics, I don't really think the game itself can manage 144fps in a 30-man raid maxed out. Wow has an age problem, it's almost impossible to sit at pure 144, even on 1080p, in certain situations. A lot of frame drops, like in Valdrakken for example, has very little to do with system and is mostly just shortcomings of the game engine/design/some other nerd word. Once you're getting 80-90fps minimum, and sitting in the 100s most of the time, i'd consider that as very good if not as good as it can get. I have heard really good things about X3D Ryzen's with its nice little cache, those typically have tremendous frame jumps in WoW. I personally run 13900K at stock clock/volt, and I'm usually around 110-130fps on 4k in raid combat. Just know that chasing stable max refresh rate fps, on max graphics, isn't something that's possibly in WoW because of its age and design. If after that info you still want an upgrade recommendation, what resolution do you play on, and what framerates are you currently getting?

[@RukkuHeizen]

Does Spell Density only work when there's a lot of other players? I'm having difficulty in M+ with all the spell effects obscuring important mechanics, I have it set to essential but I dont really notice a difference. Unless i'm misunderstanding what it does

[@notSachy]

Spell Density affects what other players spells look like to you. Essential basically shows you the least amount of friendly spells that don’t affect you - blizzard still lets some thru depending on the quantity of spells going out (idk y). If you can’t see much in dungeons try turning particle density UP all the way, or DOWN to the 2nd lowest setting. It varies based on how each fight was developed and screen size/resolution etc. I personally play with max particle density and essential spell density and have no issues at all with mechanic obscuring however raid members have selectively used low particle density on certain fights like smolderon.

[@swada02]

How is your camera fixed in a more birds like view? Mine always lowers itself back down when I try to move up the camera.

[@notSachy]

I don’t know what the setting is specifically, won’t be back home until Thursday to check, but you’re looking for a camera setting that has “Never Adjust Camera” as an option. I can’t stand when moving readjusts my camera so I have it totally off, altho I think you can set it to only move vertical/hortizontal

[@swada02]

@@notSachy Kool thanks a lot. Yes, It's very frustrating the camera constantly moving back to default when I move it higher!

[@pawapre]

I've been hunting for this video because of Nymue. If there's a mistweaver in the group I can't see the stun lines on the green floor and green soothing mist, etc. I've tried all the colorblind modes, everything just blurs together.

[@notSachy]

Pro Nymue tip, go into accessibility and turn on one of the colorblind options. Don’t remember the name specifically but toggle thru them and see which one works - this was my solution to escape the blue on blue on green on green

[@captainexistence]

Yeah Nymue is a total cluster f**k it's so bad you can't even see your own character, and Larodar aswell, this is exactly why I searched for a video like this. Wow raids and dungeons are FAR too cluttered now.

[@marklafrancis253]

Genuinely useful video as I have a 3060ti and didn't realize the game was looking a little lackluster. Boosted a bunch of things and lost no frames in group content so thanks!

[@notSachy]

Happy to hear it! 3060Ti was what I had previously, excellent card!

[@julian.galenziok]

Wasnt able to see my shamans spirit link inside of raids with lowest graphics. I hope this fixed it!

[@notSachy]

Hopefully it does, I have no issues seeing spirit link totem on these settings. If you still can't see it let me know.

[@imbeauty1113]

The settings you listed are very good however you should note that you can apply them if your GPU is very good. For example, I have a 3090 and a 5600x and since wow is basically a cpu only game, sometimes it is better to crank up some settings to offset the workload to the gpu, which in our case (4090 and 3090) are basically doing nothing. I suppose that your pc has top specs all around, so you probably have a 7800x3d, but if you had a 5600x you would ironically notice that higher settings will give you more fps. Also, I'm not sure why you decided to remove the toggle to foreground fps because that guarantees you a stable experience without noticeable peaks/drops in fps that could cause stutters. You don't need wow to be running at more than 120ish fps imho

[@Aesthetics87]

what edits would you suggest if I have a 3080ti and 5600x3d?

[@imbeauty1113]

@@Aesthetics87 you should raise some gpu based effects like texture resolution and anisotropic filter so that you offset the workload to your cpu. If you set the graphic quality to around 4-5 and use those presets you could gain some fps compared to 1

[@xlLightning]

I have a 5600x, should i set my settings higher?

[@nonye0]

30secs in. listen to this guy. all others creator just read tooltip. off your vsync in game but have it on in NVCP if u are using G-sync monitor.

[@jygb7092]

Qua?

[@ryagas5369]

Heroic Fyrakk brought me here. 😄

[@notSachy]

Bonus tip for fyrakk/tindraal. Turn off details damage meter. You can set it to update very slow, or just turn it off entirely - it might help a lot depending on your group comp. You can use something like Warcraft logs uploader (a standalone client) to live-log the fight so you can see things in between pulls

[@sermerlin1]

Jeeesus leaving ground clutter and model at 1? Like you don't see 90% of the game details xD... it's 8/8/10 for LoDs for me. I5 11400 can't handle more without dropping hard FPS. For ray tracing I leave that to max... Ray traced shadows just bring so much detail and contrast as it has hard local contact shadows, penumbra and soft shadows for distant objects... As well as all objects in radius now cast shadows without shadow pop in.... While with regular shadows you get shadow pop in, all shadows are rendered the same be it close or distant object and it's not as detailed. But of course it depends on the GPU you use. It costs about 10-15 fps but I have RTX 3090. Though 3070 and on all can enable ray tracing to max... Especially 4070 and onwards. It just brings proper look and every time i fly in dragon isles everything looks like proper professional painter painted it with knowledge to how light and shadows work... Just looks beautiful. But basically for majority RT should be off as it eats too much performance on low end hardware. Though I wish dynamic lights also casted local RT shadows... And wish there was RT AO. My god how beast it would look then.

[@robinenbernhard]

To bad wow DX12 dont work with amd. There so much driver time out probleem with game with AMD GPU :( i got 7900xtx and give alot probleems even big topic on EU forum about it from 5700xt and up to 7900 XTX

[@Muppet-kz2nc]

a couple things: - Vsync is a vestigial toggle. in DX12 windows DWM enforces vsync in WoW regardless. Nvidia low latency or AMD antilag will reduce the frame queue to < 1 (assuming you have triple buffering disabled) - WoW has a lot of CPU Bound scenarios like in Valdrakken where your GPU wont impact performance. Only way around this is with a high frequency processor or AMD CPU with 3D Vcache (best option). Alternatively, reduce View Distance, Env Detail, Ground Clutter to reduce CPU usage. - Shadow quality matters more now than it ever has. With the latest SSAO and AMD FX CACAO ambient occlusion displays shadows much better when set to ultra high, particularly on models. At the end of the day, WoW is a cartoon. If you want top perf set it to Low, which mirrors the game at original release which had Shadows drawn into textures. P.S. If you want clarity in dungeons or raids, especially repurposed Mythic+ Dungeons, type '/console ffxglow 0'. This will disable Full Screen Glow Effect. The feature did not originally ship with the game. It was added later for effect. Early implementations were truly awful.

[@Kthrakyaska]

GPU aint problem with this games :) you could have much lower tier card with the same performance outcome. this is literally CPU bottlenecked game :) but good guide mate, you have explained it nicely :)

[@notSachy]

Very true! And thank you! I do play on 4k144 so the card isn’t totally wasted (I’m coping a lot). I hope one day we get an engine upgrade for the game to better have better multithread utilization. Also new graphics engine might be cool too :-)

[@dwarrior7149]

I can see everything clearly now this content drought is gone.

[@MuslimGamerTV]

Thank you for this information. A word of advice: It is clear to me that you can be very "jittery" in your movements, at lest sometimes; for example, you showed a clip where you strafe your character right and left very fast unnecessarily - typically a sign of impatience, and you also shake the mouse cursor vigorously to indicate spots, instead of circling around the area smoothly or shaking it gently at the exact spot, for example. These movements can represent a variety of possible long-term or temporary issues. A temporary issue can be overconsumption of caffeine, like coffee or energy drinks. Long-term issues can be ADHD, anxiety, stress, and so on. Regardless, such unnecessary, jittery movements can be jarring, stressful, or distracting for your viewers; can adversely affect the confidence you can project to your viewers, and can also cause you avoidable fatigue, especially if you play for long hours. It's not even just one type of fatigue that can be caused by such movements; it can lead to a mix of physical, mental, emotional, and neural fatigue. The last type especially, neural fatigue, can also affect your ability to play well, because it leads to a decrease in the central nervous system's (CNS) ability to generate voluntary muscle action. Many gamers should be aware of these issues. You may not feel the consequences of living this way for many years while you're still young, but you will almost certainly feel the consequences hard as you get into your fourties and beyond.

[@AIethion]

Im not taking the piss when I write this. Set render scale to 98%. For some dumb reason it sharpens the image.

[@notSachy]

This is true! I don’t know why it works exactly but this helped me a lot when I used smaller displays. Didn’t mention it here cuz I think besides making things look edge-ier and world text more readable it didn’t really have a functional benefit in my opinion. Maybe worth a quick vid tho idk

[@KveruLars]

Setting render scale to 98% will enable FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) and thus upscale and apply sharpening. You can enable it without changing render scale, by entering this command: /console set ResampleAlwaysSharpen 1 Although, the game won't look any different at 98% vs 100% unless you're already playing at 720p, but hey

[@brendane8106]

Swag cotent

[@notSachy]

reinstall the game amen

[@brendane8106]

@@notSachy when is the mythic plus resto guide

[@notSachy]

healer's aren't real ppl

[@sc_3433]

Valdrakken man, I think its the worst performance hub of recent expansions, it feel so choppy

[@labyrinthworm4511]

Ya huge FPS drops in Val.

[@ivocorti8370]

Bro using a 4090 and not cranking everything to max is crazy for me :D

[@notSachy]

Man the game is 20 years old xD even a 4090 can only do so much. I do play at 4k on a 32inch display tho, so not totally wasted!

[@powerplay074]

4080 native 4k rtx on max settings 120fps babee.

[@syedie7283]

:D Sure, nice fairy tale since WoW from 90% depends on CPU only :)

[@powerplay074]

@@syedie7283 not when you max out setting at native 4k and rtx+10/10 quality. even when 4080 strugles at busy valdrakken or 30man raid if you dont adjust seperate raid settings. Cpu chills at ,20% or below. I9 11900k@5.1ghz all cores.

[@burnabykrompel7072]

*Promo sm* 😝

[@AzeroxDoomraider]

*laughs in 7900xtx

[@abep.3110]

What’s there to laugh at ?