iMac 27" retina keeps freezing whilst playing WoW

[Deleted]

So I bought myself a new computer for christmas last year and about 2 weeks ago it started to randomly freezing when I play WoW. I'm not really an expert when it comes to computers in general so I'm wondering if anyone knows why this is happening and how to fix it.

I've tried updating everything completely: WoW, addons, OS and so on. I've tried playing the game on the lowest settings and without addons but it still happens. We have another iMac that runs WoW just fine, without ever freezing.

This is a copy and paste from apple.com for some information about the computer:

◦27‑inch (diagonal) LED‑backlit Retina display
◦3.5GHz quad‑core Intel Core i5 processors
Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
◦1TB or 3TB Fusion Drive or up to 1TB flash storage (SSD)2
◦Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad

Any help is appreciated.

[Lathais]

So I bought myself a new computer for christmas last year and about 2 weeks ago it started to randomly freezing when I play WoW. I'm not really an expert when it comes to computers in general so I'm wondering if anyone knows why this is happening and how to fix it.

I've tried updating everything completely: WoW, addons, OS and so on. I've tried playing the game on the lowest settings and without addons but it still happens. We have another iMac that runs WoW just fine, without ever freezing.

This is a copy and paste from apple.com for some information about the computer:

◦27‑inch (diagonal) LED‑backlit Retina display
◦3.5GHz quad‑core Intel Core i5 processors
Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
◦1TB or 3TB Fusion Drive or up to 1TB flash storage (SSD)2
◦Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad

Any help is appreciated.

GPU? /10char

[Kagthul]

The iMac Retina (only has one config) runs the R9 M290X with 2GB of VRAM.

If you're trying to drive WoW at the native rez with that card...

well, there's your problem. Its a mobile chip with anemic VRAM - it was never designed to push max settings in games at 1080p, much less freaking 5k.

hell, even if you BTO-upgraded it to the M295X/4GB, it sill wont push games at 5k. Gonna have to turn that thing down a few notches.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Tell WoW to run at 1920*1080 or 2560*1440.

[Deleted]

Unfortunately you'd need 2 x 4gb 290's to WoW at retina resolutions.

[Sunius]

Check the temperatures. Either it's overheating, the OS kernel is panicking, or the hardware is damaged.

[tielknight]

Check the temperatures. Either it's overheating, the OS kernel is panicking, or the hardware is damaged.

Or it's got a GPU with 2GB of Vram that is trying to run WoW at 5k :P

[Cyi]

I have the same computer, albeit I just got mine recently. I set my max FPS to 50 and run it at 1080 and have no issues at all. Game has never looked or run better. I do hear the fan kick on once in awhile during heavy scenes but other than that everything seems great. Sorry to hear of your troubles and hopefully it is an easy fix. I am running 8 gigs or ram, not sure you listed how much you had going. I will say that I seriously thinking of upgrading to more though.

[Sunius]

Or it's got a GPU with 2GB of Vram that is trying to run WoW at 5k :P

To you and everyone: that makes no sense. Weak GPU WILL NOT cause OS to freeze. It will cause low frame rate, but definitely not crash the whole computer. Stop confusing the OP.

[Akainakali]

So I bought myself a new computer for christmas last year and about 2 weeks ago it started to randomly freezing when I play WoW. I'm not really an expert when it comes to computers in general so I'm wondering if anyone knows why this is happening and how to fix it.

I've tried updating everything completely: WoW, addons, OS and so on. I've tried playing the game on the lowest settings and without addons but it still happens. We have another iMac that runs WoW just fine, without ever freezing.

Any help is appreciated.

First don't just turn the settings down, lower the resolution. Under the wow menu /system/graphics. There should be an option to change the resolution. I'd try something about half what the native resolution of the monitor is, in this case 2560x1440. That should minimize the fuzziness from the lower resolution.

In the future if you are buying a machine with a resolution as high as this one is, I'd spend the extra money for the top end graphics. There is an option for a 4gb r295x and there is usually a similar option on most of the top end macs. It's not quite accurate to describe one as "just a laptop graphics chip" the ones you find in an iMac aren't typically used in laptops aside from the large gaming laptops and they also don't have the same thermal constraints a laptop have, which is one of the primary limitation on the laptop graphics chips.

In any case it takes silly amounts of hardware power to handle 5k resolutions for gaming. More than any mac really can handle and you're talking multiple $500-$1000 graphics cards on the PC side of things to get close even there.

When you say "freezing" what exactly do you mean? Is the computer locking up completely or is it just WoW? Does it occur after a set period of time or is it linked to intense activity in the game?

Are you running WoW fullscreen or windowed?

I'm guessing you just have the base 8 gigs of ram. You might want to use the activity monitor app somewhere in your applications folder (probably in utilities) to see how much ram is being used.

Check and make sure you're using the 64 bit version of the OSX client. Was this a clean install or did you copy it from an older machine? If it was, do a clean installation of wow. You can download it from your battlenet account.

[Xe4ro]

May not solve things but try running the fans at max speed with MacFanControl.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

To you and everyone: that makes no sense. Weak GPU WILL NOT cause OS to freeze. It will cause low frame rate, but definitely not crash the whole computer. Stop confusing the OP.

When you have not got enough video memory then the computer will appear to freeze for about half a second, probably every 3-5 seconds. That is exactly what is happening to the OP while he is playing WoW. He should try to reduce the resolution that the game is being displayed at to 2560*1440 and the issues will be mostly gone.

[Kagthul]

To you and everyone: that makes no sense. Weak GPU WILL NOT cause OS to freeze. It will cause low frame rate, but definitely not crash the whole computer. Stop confusing the OP.

Acually, as someone with a LOT of experience with OSX, the most common Kernel Panic ive ever had, have always been GPU related. A fault in the drivers could cause it to create an error that results in a system freeze or kernel panic when the GPU runs out of texture memory.

[Sunius]

When you have not got enough video memory then the computer will appear to freeze for about half a second, probably every 3-5 seconds.

That's not freezing. That's stuttering/low frame rate caused by VRAM paging.

Acually, as someone with a LOT of experience with OSX, the most common Kernel Panic ive ever had, have always been GPU related. A fault in the drivers could cause it to create an error that results in a system freeze or kernel panic when the GPU runs out of texture memory.

True, GPU problems are a common kernel panic source. However, running out of VRAM is so common (all modern OSs even implement VRAM paging) that it definitely should not cause kernel panic, or you'd be panicking really often.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

That's not freezing. That's stuttering/low frame rate caused by VRAM paging.

Looks like freezing to somebody that doesn't know what is happening though.