WoW WOTLK - TIPS & TRICKS

Mouse Problems

If you have a 1000hz polling rate mouse you might have random "mouse-jumps".

To fix this use this guide here:

WARNING: use their .exe patchers at your own risk! I would rather recommend applying the patch on your own with HxD by editing the hex of your own .exe file! I accept no liability.

Pro Tip: make a safety copy of your wow.exe in case you mess it up!

Performance-Boost & possible mouse fix

There is a way to improve your performance on this old ass client drastically, just by simply forcing the game to be translated from DX9 into Vulkan. This might also fix the mouse-jump or weird acceleration on your new gaming mouse (but idk I use both).

Download the latest release (.tar.gz file) from this github:

WARNING: again, use his files at your own risk! .dll files could hold malicous code as well as .exe files! I accept no liability.

I use this on my own but I will guarantee for nothing, since it is not my stuff!

After you downloaded it, open the archive by double-clicking (you might need 7zip for it), click through until you see 2 folders, x32 & x64, and copy the d3d9.dll within the x32 folder (This old client is actually x32).

Now paste it diretcly into your game folder, where wow.exe is lying at.

Then you create a new file, at the same location, named:

Make sure it is NOT named dxvk.conf.txt or something, you might need to toggle file endings in your Windows options!

After you're done, open the new file in some editor and paste in following:

Make sure to set d3d9.maxFrameRate 5 fps below your highest refresh rate on your monitor! 235 is just an example from my config. This will make sure, your game will start in exclusive fullscreen, VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) is used correctly, and HDR is disabled, so you can use your Nvidias RTX HDR or windows auto HDR correctly. It should fix oversaturated colors and such. I had some issues with this.

Also make sure you set dxvk.framePace to your monitors highest refresh rate, for example if you have a 144hz monitor you do:

WARNING: If you are not using Gsync or Freesync you will probably not really need or want the game to run in exclusive fullscreen (dxvk.allowFse). It does give you better latency and performance, but it will be lagging and causing a black screen for a few secs, also might reset your window positions, if alt-tabbing. Your choice basically. If you use Gsync, you need it to work properly. I don't have too much problems with it, I just can't see the game running when tabbed out. Also what you don't need without Gsync/Freesync is d3d9.maxFrameRate & dxvk.framePace. This will be useless or can even cause microstutters if you use this without Gsync/Freesync on. Also d3d9.presentInterval disables your ingame Vsync, which is handy for Gsync/Freesync since you usually activate Vsync globally, in your drivers settings, to use it properly. So you might not need this as well. Basically, a lot of this depends on YOUR setup.

Note: IT WILL definitely cause stuttering at the first loading of your game or other areas. This is normal, because shaders are compiling new. This should settle after a few seconds/minutes. It also will probably mess with your colors. I had to adjust gamma ingame, to make it fit again, combined with RTX HDR via Nvidia App, it is pretty good. The tradeoff for this performance is just worth it!

I am REALLY astonished by how much smoother the game runs with it. It also improved the extreme low fps near a lot of players for me (for example in Dalaran), since Vulkan is actually able to use multiple cores on your CPU. I went from like 60 fps or lower to like 80-95 fps in Dalaran between all the people.

If you have any issues with setting this up, feel free to use my contact form on my website, I will try to reach out to you as soon as possible and help you as much as possible! But I will say it again, if you break your stuff, it is your own fault!