Since its inception in 2009, League of Legends has been a hugely popular game. In fact, in 2021, League of Legends reached an average monthly player base of over 115 million, and that grew even more in at the beginning of 2022, reaching a whopping 180 million.
League of Legends now has over 140 champions to choose from, which creates a variety of unique gameplay opportunities. Apart from that, the continuous game patches and release of media covering the League of Legends lore (such as Netflix’s Arcane) has proven to be magnetic, continuing to grab the attention of both casual and competitive gamers alike.
Due to its competitive nature, the professional League of Legends scene has also evolved into one of the most celebrated eSports.
However, despite reaching new heights in popularity and praise, League of Legends cannot avoid the usual network and gaming issues, such as lag, a poor ping rate, a slow client, and the occasional game freeze, which can negatively impact the fun and enjoyment of any gaming session.
So how can these issues be fixed? Let’s take a look.
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Understand the League of Legends Minimum Requirements
Before we take a deeper dive into the specific issues that might be holding your play time hostage, it’s important to understand the minimum requirements for running League of Legends on your computer as of 2022:
- CPU
- Intel: Core i3-530 (Windows), Core i5-750 (Mac)
- AMD: A6-3650
- CPU Features
- SSE2
- GPU
- NVidia: GeForce 9600T
- AMD: HD 6570 (Windows and Mac)
- Intel: Intel HD 4600 Integrated Graphics
- GPU Features
- DX10-Level Hardware
- VRAM
- 1GB
- Free Storage Space
- 16GB HDD (Windows)
- 12GB HDD (Mac)
- OS Versions
- Windows: Windows 7, 8, 10
- Mac: MacOS 10.12
- OS Architecture
- Windows: X86 32-bit, x64
- Mac: x64
- RAM
- 2GB
- Recommended GFX Setting
- Low
- Recommended Resolution
- 1024×768
Take note that these League of Legends requirements are the minimum needed to run the game, which means you can go above and beyond with each specification. On the other hand, if your PC doesn’t meet even one of these specifications, perhaps you should consider upgrading to reduce the buggy and laggy play times.
Evaluate Your GPU to Determine Whether It Can Support League of Legends
The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), sometimes called the graphics card or video card, is an important circuit that helps render images, animations, and videos, and is an essential requirement for graphically heavy media (such as video games and visualizers) to run on your computer. Usually the CPU can do the computations involved on its own, but having a GPU means that “there is another CPU solely dedicated to graphical computations,” freeing the original CPU to do other work, and overall, reducing the chance your PC will freeze or slow down.
Having a good GPU is key when running graphic-heavy games, which is why knowing how to evaluate your GPU can help you determine if it’s the root cause of your computer’s lag issues. Your GPU specs can usually be seen in your Windows computer’s Device Manager (which is searchable through the Windows Start Menu), or on your Mac’s About this Mac page (accessible via the Apple Menu).
If your PC doesn’t have a dedicated GPU, or its specs are lower than those listed in the minimum requirements above, then perhaps you should consider investing in an upgrade.
Make Sure You Are Running the Latest League of Legends Patch
Another root cause of League of Legends issues and bugs is the patch version that you are running. League of Legends is a game that evolves over time, which means that it is updated regularly. These updates create new versions of the client, which are known as “patches.”
Players can be prone to running outdated League of Legends patches, so it’s always good to check what the latest patch is and update whenever there is a new release.
Patch updates aren’t always so smooth, however. You might encounter the following problems the next time you attempt a patch update.
League of Legends Patch Stuck
During a patch update, sometimes the update’s progress bar gets stuck at 0%. Fortunately, this is a common problem that has a couple of workarounds, namely:
- Waiting just a bit longer sometimes fixes the issue on its own. Give it around 30 minutes to an hour. If it doesn’t move, then you should move on to the next workaround.
- Check if the .NET Framework 3.5 is installed. This is required to run the League of Legends client.
- Repair your game files. This option can be found by clicking on the gear icon of your client.
League of Legends Won’t Update At All
Sometimes, League of Legends won’t update at all. The error “An unspecified error occurred” can pop up while attempting to update your League of Legends game files. There are a number of ways to solve this issue:
- Reinstalling your League of Legends game can help alleviate this issue altogether.
- Use the executable patch to upgrade the game (you can usually find it post-download in the League of Legends folder > Rad > Projects > lolpatcher, right click and choose “Releases”, then find the folder with numbers in its name, then finally click “Deploy” and run LolPatcher.exe inside the deploy folder) instead of using the auto-updater.
- Try using a VPN as sometimes your network service provider can be the root cause of the issue by blocking your connection to the game servers.
League of Legends Won’t Start After Update
Sometimes, the update will push through but the client won’t start post-update. Here’s how to fix this issue:
- Reinstalling League of Legends can solve the issue.
- League of Legends might already be running in the background, which is why it can’t run a new, working client. In Windows, opening the Task Manager, looking for the League of Legends process in the Processes Tab, and clicking End Task can help end any running League of Legends process. Trying to open the game again might work after this quick fix.
- Sometimes, the League of Legends shortcut is corrupted. To check, try running the original League of Legends client (LeagueClient.exe) in its folder (usually found in C:\Riot Games\League of Legends). If it works, just create a new shortcut manually via right-clicking on the .exe file and choosing the appropriate option.
- It could be a permissions problem. Try running the League of Legends client directly (as with the previous point) as an administrator (right-click and choose Run as Administrator) and see if it works.
- Remember to allow your League of Legends application through your firewall. Search Windows Defender Firewall via your Start menu and allow it from there.
What To Do If League of Legends is Slow
The League of Legends client is where you can interact with a lot of the aspects of the actual League of Legends game, such as friends, leveling up, customization, and matchmaking, making any slow-down frustrating.
The known causes for this sluggishness are a number of unresolved bugs and updates that also introduce new bugs, but thankfully you don’t have to wait for these bug fixes to speed up your League of Legends client lag. Here are a couple of tips to help alleviate the issues that make the League of Legends client slow:
- Open the Task Manager and look for all the League of Legends processes (these are ones that share the same icon as the game executable). Right click and choose Set Affinity, then uncheck CPU 0 and CPU 1. This usually does the trick.
- For an even smoother and faster experience on your League of Legends client, navigate to your GPU’s settings or control panel (which can usually be accessed by right-clicking your desktop) and tweak to the following settings:
- Anisotropic Filtering to 16x
- Antialiasing Mode to “Enhance the application setting” or similar
- Antialiasing Setting to 8x
- Antialiasing Transparency to 8x
- Low Latency Mode to Ultra (or the highest setting)
- Max Frame Rate to 1000 (or the highest number)
- Texture Filtering On
- Texturing Filtering Quality to Performance
- Threaded Optimization On
- Triple Buffering On
Resolving League of Legends Frame Drops
Frame drops happen when the FPS drops too low. FPS stands for “frames per second,” which relates to the number of frames per second the game is displaying. The higher the FPS, the smoother the animation and display. Also, there is less delay for data traveling between the server and what is being displayed on your screen.
When the FPS drops, however, the game appears to stutter, appearing as though actions are disjointed. This way, you’re missing crucial frames, which can be costly in team fights.
Low FPS is usually related to graphics capabilities, not to network latency or ping. Displaying your FPS while you’re in-game can help you see whether your League of Legends lag issues are FPS-related or ping-related.
To see this, simply go to your League of Legends settings and go to Hotkeys. Under the Display category, a Toggle FPS Display key is listed. Make sure you bind it to a shortcut (such as Ctrl+F or another key you are comfortable with). Once you bind it, toggle it on while in-game, and you’ll see both your FPS and your ping on the upper right corner of your screen.
To help increase your game’s FPS and reduce frame rate drops, you can do the following:
- Set a cap to your game’s FPS (60 is recommended) via your in-game Video settings.
- Disable overclocking, GeForce Experience, or other third-party apps.
- Disable overlays such as Discord by going to their overlay settings.
- Set your device to play on Maximum Performance whenever you open League of Legends. This can usually be set in your Power Options, searchable at the Start menu on Windows.
- In your game’s settings/options screen, turn off unnecessary graphics-heavy options, such as Screen Shake.
- Set your in-game screen resolution to your screen’s own native resolution. Then set the game to display on full screen or borderless mode.
- Lower effects, character, and environmental quality, and toggle shadows off if you’re comfortable with that.
- In the General options, enable low spec mode and closing the client during the game. Turn off HUD animations.
Ensure that you have the Best DPI for League of Legends Configured
DPI stands for “dots per inch,” and it often refers to mouse sensitivity settings. To put it simply, the “dots per inch” you set determines how many pixels you cover on screen per mouse movement.
A high DPI usually means flicking your wrist even just a bit causes a lot of movement, such as getting your cursor from one side of the screen to the opposite end. A low DPI, on the other hand, would mean that you will need to swipe your whole arm to move your cursor from one point to another.
A low DPI setup usually requires a lot more space for moving your mouse, and it gives greater accuracy and control since your arm’s muscles memory will take note of mouse movements relative to pixel distances with enough practice.
A high DPI setup usually gets things done faster but tends to take some practice for the wrist to be accurate, as well.
The best DPI for League of Legends is not necessarily a one-size-fits-all DPI. The best DPI is usually what you personally prefer. Most pros tend to prefer the more accurate low DPI setup, but there are a handful of exceptions. It’s best to test out each DPI range before settling on what’s best for you.
Make Sure Your Anti-Virus Isn’t Causing Issues with League of Legends
Online games tend to have issues with antivirus programs from time to time since they’re detected as malware programs even though they aren’t – and League of Legends is no exception. League of Legends has particular problems with the antivirus program Avast. To solve this, simply add the League of Legends executable to the Avast exceptions list, restart, and you’re done.
Hopefully, these tips and tricks will make your League of Legends experience more enjoyable. If you have other useful tips for making League of Legends run more smoothly or you have specific questions, let us now in the comments!
