Does the combat log use a lot of computer resources?

I am not sure how much resources the combat log uses, but here is something I did to try to limit the resources used by the log in your UI. I don't think you can turn combat logging "off" per se, since your client needs to get a lot of that information for other reasons, and because AddOns can always request combat log events. But what you can do is apply a minimal filter to the log.

Create a minimal combat log filter:

• Right click on the Combat Log Tab and Choose Settings.
• Click 'Add Filter' and give it a name.
• Select the filter, and in the panes below, de-select all the types of events.

Once you do this, you'll have a new filter for the log (in addition to 'Everything,' 'What happened to me?,' etc). When you use this filter, you'll see no combat events appear in the log.

I am not sure what kind of performance impact this has. I believe it does save resources, since combat events won't be formatted for display. However the events are still sent to your computer. So I'm not sure, but you can give it a try!

The combat log itself is unlikely to eat much, especially when it's not displayed. In any case, it's definitely lighter on your computer, than animating the enchant on your weapon.

The combat log itself cannot be turned off, the addon API guarantees that it's always there. That's how addons can rely on it.

By not displaying the combat log you are not significantly effecting WOW's resource usage.

Consider the amount of processing power it takes to render an object such as a piece of armor. The video card has to call instructions specifically used for texture maps and other special effects. Now think about a log. No video or audio functions need to be called, only simple text needs to be displayed.

Therefore the combat log is probably one of the lowest threads in terms of resource usage. In fact, whether the log is visible or not, wow still keeps track of the information. The only difference is how the data is stored vs how it is presented to the user.

As with all graphical interfaces. The GUI simply pulls pre-existing variables then displays them in a nice pretty fashion. Thus it is only pulling some basic combat variables, and showing us what they are or how they change. The variables themselves will still be computed by game engine regardless.