League Of Legends Is A Remarkably Lightweight Game
The free-to-play model relies on as many folks as possible playing a game in order for it to be successful. It's simple math: a certain percentage of people will buy in-game items via micro-transactions. So, the more people you can get to play, the higher your revenues. The folks at Riot Games are well aware of this relationship, and LoL is consequently accessible across a wide range of PC hardware. No doubt, this contributes to LoL's record-breaking popularity.
Even at 1920x1080, dialed in to the game's highest-detail settings and Shadows set to High, LoL runs in excess of 30 FPS on AMD's mobile A10-4600M with integrated Radeon HD 7660G graphics and Intel's Core i5-3210M with HD Graphics 4000. As for the discrete cards, Nvidia's GeForce 210 is the only add-in board that couldn't handle our target. With that said, the GeForce can definitely cope with this title at less demanding settings. The same cannot be said for entry-level hardware and Dota 2.
With the Shadows drop-down set to Very High, a Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 and GeForce GT 630 GDDR5 both provide playable frame rates that exceed a minimum of 45 at 1920x1080. Add two more monitors for a aggregate resolution of 5760x1080 and even the GeForce GTX 650 and Radeon HD 7750 keep frame rates up above 45 FPS.
When it comes to platform performance, the game is even less picky. We expect any dual-core processor above 2.0 GHz to handle it with ease.
So, how about the epic battle between LoL and Dota 2? Put simply, Dota 2 looks better, but requires more graphics and processing horsepower. On the other hand, LoL's graphics don't look as good, though you're able to run the title with less-advanced hardware. Put into perspective, when Dota 2 is set to that title's lowest detail settings, its frame rates are comparable to LoL's at its highest. Dota 2 won't run smoothly on an entry-level card like the GeForce 210 at 1920x1080, whereas LoL's options can be dropped far enough to accommodate the low-end stuff.
Anyone who has a dedicated gaming machine should find that both of these popular MOBA games are easy to run at high resolutions and settings.
And if you're a League of Legends player looking for some friendly competition from your fellow Tom’s Hardware LoLers, head to our League of Legends intro thread on our forums and post your username and a quick hello! See you in-game!
