League of Legends System Requirements in 2026 (PC and Mac)

The LoL system requirements are about as low as they get for a competitive game in 2026. An i3-530, a GeForce 9600GT, 2 gigs of RAM, and you’re in. Mac side needs an i5-750 and macOS 10.13.6 at the bare minimum. Riot started forcing DX11 in Patch 25.02. If your GPU only does DX10, the game won’t even open anymore. Specs for PC and Mac are all here. I also threw in FPS tricks that pulled 40 extra frames out of a $100 Optiplex I bought on eBay.

LoL System Requirements at a Glance (TL;DR)

Spec	Minimum (PC)	Recommended (PC)	Mac Minimum
CPU	i3-530 / A6-3650	i5-3300 / Ryzen 3 1200	i5-750
GPU	GT 9600GT / HD 6570	GTX 560 / HD 6950	HD 6570 / HD 4600
RAM	2 GB	4 GB	2 GB
Storage	16 GB	16 GB SSD	12 GB
OS	Win 10 (19041+)	Win 10/11	macOS 10.13.6
DirectX / API	DX11	DX11	Metal
Download Size	~16 GB (PC)		~12 GB
ARM Support	Not supported on any platform

LoL System Requirements for PC (Windows)

LoL runs on a 2009 engine. Visual quality went up over the years but the game still barely asks anything from your PC. Minimum hardware will get you through laning phase fine, but 5v5 at Baron? Expect slideshow FPS. You’ll be fine in lane and then drop to 20 FPS the second a 5v5 breaks out near Baron.

Component	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	Intel Core i3-530 / AMD A6-3650	Intel Core i5-3300 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT / AMD HD 6570 / Intel HD 4600	NVIDIA GTX 560 / AMD HD 6950 / Intel UHD 630
DirectX	DX11 (feature level 11_0)	DX11
VRAM	1 GB	2 GB
RAM	2 GB	4 GB
Storage	16 GB HDD	16 GB SSD
OS	Windows 10 (Build 19041+) or Windows 11, TPM 2.0 enabled	Same
CPU Features	SSE3	SSE4
Settings	Low, 1024×768	High, 1920×1080

TPM 2.0 has to be on in BIOS for Windows 11. A lot of boards from 2016-2019 ship with it off. ARM is a dead end too. Surface Pro X, any Windows-on-ARM tablet, forget it. And you need a 64-bit OS. If you’re still on a 32-bit install somehow, League won’t launch.

The DX11 Change That Updated LoL System Requirements

This happened in Patch 25.02 (you might see it written as “25.S1.2” because Riot renamed their patch format around then). Bottom line: no DX11 support on your GPU, no League. The Play button literally grays out and you get a popup telling you to upgrade your hardware.

If you’re on ancient integrated graphics, this is where it hurts. Intel HD 3000? Dead. That chip only does DX10.1. The 9600GT is DX10 on paper but runs DX11 11_0 after driver updates. It scrapes through. Hit Win+R, type dxdiag, open the Display tab. If “11_0” shows up under Feature Levels, you’re good.

Mac side got the same treatment. No Metal support, no League. Any Mac from before 2012 is out. Riot has the full list on their support page if you want the source.

Mac Requirements for League of Legends

Mac League has always been the worse experience. Same hardware, fewer frames, more bugs. And Riot only supports Intel Macs, so Apple Silicon users are on their own.

Component	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	Intel Core i5-750	Intel Core i5-3300
GPU	AMD HD 6570 / Intel HD 4600	AMD HD 6950 / Intel UHD 630
VRAM	1 GB	2 GB
RAM	2 GB	4 GB
Storage	12 GB HDD	16 GB SSD
OS	macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra)	macOS 11 (Big Sur)
Graphics API	Metal	Metal
Settings	Low, 1024×768	High, 1920×1080

There’s a bug with fresh installs on macOS 10.15 Catalina are bugged. The game just won’t launch. Players who originally installed on macOS 10.14 and then upgraded to 10.15 seem fine. But fresh installs on Catalina have problems. Only workaround: downgrade to macOS 10.14, install League, then update back to 10.15. Annoying, but nothing else works.

macOS 12 Monterey and 13 Ventura also aren’t on Riot’s supported list. Nobody knows why. I have no idea if that’s a docs mistake or a real issue. People on those versions seem to play fine, but if it breaks, Riot won’t help you.

What About Apple Silicon Macs?

M1, M2, M3, M4 MacBooks are all ARM. No native ARM build of League exists for Mac. It works through Rosetta 2, and tons of people play this way daily. Riot just won’t help you if it breaks. Results are all over the place. Some M1 users hold 60 FPS on medium no problem. Others get random stutters during ults and teamfights. Depends on the game, the patch, who knows. If you’re on an M-series Mac and want to play ranked, go for it. Just don’t be surprised if you get random stutters that Windows players never see.

How Much Storage Do the LoL System Requirements Call For?

Riot says 16 GB on PC and 12 GB on Mac. I’d keep 20 GB free though. Patches add weight over time, and the updater creates temp files that eat space. If your drive is nearly full, the patcher can choke mid-update. Then you’re stuck re-downloading the whole thing.

Throwing League on an SSD is night and day for load times. I’m talking about going from 30-second load screens on a mechanical drive down to 10-15 seconds on even a basic SATA SSD. In a game where network and loading problems can already put your team at a disadvantage, you don’t want to be the last one loading in.

LoL System Requirements vs Other MOBAs

LoL system requirements are a joke next to other games in 2026. Dota 2 asks for a Core i3-2100 and 4 GB of RAM at minimum. Valorant has similar base specs but actually uses your GPU. League doesn’t really care about your GPU. TFT has the exact same specs because it literally runs on the same client.

Any PC from 2015 or later runs League. The bar is underground. Bad internet causes more LoL problems than bad hardware at this point. A stable connection under 60ms ping matters more than having a fancy GPU when you’re trying to hit skillshots in a teamfight.

Internet and Network Requirements for League of Legends

Riot doesn’t publish official bandwidth numbers alongside the LoL system requirements, but League is extremely light on internet usage. League barely uses any bandwidth during a match, like 3-6 Mbps total. One hour of gameplay burns about 70-100 MB. Your phone hotspot can handle that.

Ping and stable connection beat raw speed every time. Your 500 Mbps fiber means nothing if your Wi-Fi is dropping packets every 10 seconds. Numbers:

Metric	Minimum	Recommended	Competitive
Download Speed	6 Mbps	15+ Mbps	25+ Mbps
Upload Speed	1 Mbps	3+ Mbps	5+ Mbps
Ping (Latency)	Under 100ms	Under 60ms	Under 30ms
Packet Loss	Under 5%	Under 1%	0%
Jitter	Under 30ms	Under 15ms	Under 5ms
Data per Hour	~70-100 MB

If you’re on Wi-Fi and getting ping spikes, plug in an Ethernet cable before you blame your ISP. Wi-Fi adds random jitter that Ethernet doesn’t. 100ms of lag is the difference between flashing a Malphite ult and getting knocked up into fountain. I run Ethernet and my ping sits at a steady 18ms on EUW. On Wi-Fi in the same room, it jumps between 25 and 80ms randomly. Not worth the gamble in ranked.

Expected FPS Based on LoL System Requirements Tiers

The LoL system requirements spec tables tell you whether the game will launch. This table tells you what it actually feels like on different hardware. Rough numbers at 1080p. I tested some of these myself, the rest are from community benchmarks on Reddit and PCGameBenchmark.

Hardware Tier	Example GPU	Low Settings FPS	High Settings FPS	Verdict
Minimum Spec	Intel HD 4600 / GeForce 9600GT	30-50	15-25	Playable but rough in teamfights
Low Budget	GT 1030 / RX 550	80-120	50-70	Solid for casual play
Mid Range	GTX 1050 Ti / RX 570	150-200	100-140	Great, smooth 144Hz possible
Modern Mid	GTX 1660 / RX 5600 XT	250-350	180-250	Overkill for LoL
High End	RTX 3060+ / RX 6700 XT+	400+	300+	Way overkill, GPU will idle
Integrated (Modern)	Intel UHD 630 / AMD Vega 8	80-120	40-60	Surprisingly good on low
Integrated (Old)	Intel HD 520 / UHD 620	50-80	25-40	Playable on low, rough on high

League is CPU-bound. Not GPU-bound. Your processor does the heavy lifting here, not your graphics card. That’s why people with RTX 4080s sometimes see the same FPS as someone with a GTX 1660, because the CPU is the bottleneck. If you’re choosing between upgrading your GPU or CPU specifically for League, go CPU every time.

Can You Play LoL on Steam Deck or Linux?

Nope. Not on the default OS, at least.

SteamOS is Linux under the hood. League used to work on Linux through Wine and Proton. Then Vanguard landed in 2024. It’s a kernel-level anti-cheat that hooks deep into Windows. Linux can’t do that, so League just dies on launch now. Vanguard hooks into Windows kernel stuff that Linux just can’t replicate, so League flat out refuses to start on SteamOS.

Your options if you own a Steam Deck:

• Install Windows on the Deck. This works. Throw Windows on a microSD, dock it, plug in a keyboard and mouse. Works fine. The Deck is more than powerful enough for League. But at that point, you’ve turned your handheld into a tiny desktop, which… yeah, not exactly portable gaming at that point.
• Play Wild Rift instead. Wild Rift is the mobile version. Android and iOS, built for touchscreens. It’s a different game (smaller map, 15-20 min matches, way fewer champs), but it hits close enough if you just want some League on the bus.

Same problem on desktop Linux. Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, doesn’t matter. The Linux gaming community has been begging Riot to fix this, Valve even asked publicly. Riot hasn’t budged. April 2026, still nothing.

Vanguard Anti-Cheat and TFT System Requirements

Riot Vanguard boots with Windows at the kernel level, which means it’s always running in the background, even when you’re not playing League. On anything made after 2018 you won’t notice it. Maybe 30-50 MB of RAM. On a 4 GB RAM machine with a spinning drive? That’s where it starts to pinch, because Windows already eats most of your resources at boot.

Vanguard also enforces some hardware requirements beyond the standard LoL system requirements:

• Secure Boot must be enabled in BIOS
• TPM 2.0 must be active (same requirement as Windows 11)
• Your system must be running a 64-bit OS

If any of these are off, you’ll get error codes like VAN 57 or VAN 68 before the game even launches. I see this in Reddit threads constantly. People think their board doesn’t have TPM when it’s just off in BIOS. Go into BIOS, find the Security tab, enable fTPM or PTT, and save. Takes two minutes.

TFT? Exact same client, exact same engine, exact same system requirements as LoL. Runs League = runs TFT.

Budget PC Build That Meets LoL System Requirements Perfectly

Need a PC for League and normal stuff? You can build one stupid cheap. I priced out a build under $350 that pushes 120+ FPS on high settings. Most parts are used or on sale.

Component	Pick	Approx. Price (USD)
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (used) or Intel i3-12100F	$60-80
GPU	GTX 1050 Ti (used) or Intel UHD 730 (skip discrete)	$0-50
RAM	8 GB DDR4 (2x4GB)	$15-20
Storage	256 GB SATA SSD	$20
Motherboard	B450M or H610M (cheapest with TPM header)	$50-60
PSU	400W 80+ Bronze	$30
Case	Any $25 micro-ATX	$25

Ryzen 5 5600G with no GPU at all? 80-100 FPS on medium. The integrated Vega graphics handle League just fine. The i3-12100’s UHD 730 does about 60-80 FPS on low. League doesn’t need a dedicated GPU unless you want 144+ FPS consistently.

Or just buy a used Dell Optiplex off eBay for $100-150, throw a GT 1030 in it, done. Those office machines already have an i5 and 8 GB RAM. League runs great. I know people in Diamond who play on setups like this.

How to Boost FPS on a Low-End PC

If you barely meet the minimum LoL system requirements and your FPS tanks during 5v5 fights near dragon, try these. I ran through all of them on a Dell Optiplex with Intel HD graphics and pulled about 40 extra frames out of it. No money spent.

This video from Krypto walks through the best LoL settings for getting maximum FPS on any PC.

Client-Side Settings (Before You Load In)

1. Enable Low Spec Mode. Open the League client, click the gear icon, and check “Low Spec Mode” under General. This strips animations from the lobby and champion select, which frees up resources.
2. Enable “Close Client During Game.” This one is huge. The League client stays open in the background during matches by default and eats 500 MB to 1 GB of RAM doing absolutely nothing useful. Turning it off gives back those resources to the actual game.

In-Game Video Settings

• Set Graphics Quality to Very Low.
• Turn Shadows completely off. This is the single biggest FPS gain in League, especially during teamfights when multiple champion shadows are being rendered.
• Disable Character Inking. Those black outlines around champions look nice, but they cost 5-10 FPS for no gameplay benefit.
• Set Effects Quality to Low. This reduces particle spam from abilities, which is where most FPS drops happen.
• Play in Fullscreen mode (not Borderless). Fullscreen gives your GPU exclusive access to the display output.
• V-Sync off. Locks frames and adds delay. Kill it.
• Cap your FPS to your monitor’s refresh rate (60 or 144). Uncapped FPS can cause unnecessary GPU heat on older hardware.

If none of that helps enough, Riot provides a MinConfig file you can download from their support page. You drop two files (game.cfg and PersistedSettings.json) into your League Config folder at C:\Riot Games\League of Legends\Config, and it forces every setting to absolute minimum. Bear with me here: the game looks terrible with MinConfig, but it runs.

Windows-Level Tweaks

Enable Windows Game Mode (Settings > Gaming > Game Mode). Set your power plan to High Performance instead of Balanced. Close Chrome. Five tabs of Chrome eats more RAM than League does. Update your GPU drivers. I’ve literally seen people running 2022 drivers on a GTX 750 and wondering why they stutter. NVIDIA and AMD push driver updates that sometimes bump LoL by 5-10 frames.

Can You Play LoL on a Laptop?

Absolutely. A 2020 budget laptop with Intel UHD 620 does 40-60 FPS on low. That’s a $300 machine. Biggest laptop killer is heat. Your laptop runs fine for 20 minutes, then the CPU throttles and your FPS drops off a cliff. Clean out the dust, play on a hard surface, maybe grab a $15 cooling pad from Amazon if temps are bad.

Buying a laptop for League? $400-500 max. i5 or Ryzen 5, 8 gigs of RAM, integrated graphics. That’s it. 80+ FPS on medium-high. Spending more than $500 just for League is throwing money away. Check out all the LoL skins you could buy with the money you save instead.

What Specs Do Pro Players Use?

Pros play on $3,000+ rigs that obliterate the League of Legends system requirements. Faker sits at 240+ FPS on a 240Hz monitor. He still plays shadows off, effects on low. Every pro does. Zed shadow in a teamfight matters more than water reflections looking pretty.

For ranked, 144 FPS on a 144Hz monitor is where you start feeling the difference. Kiting on ADC, dodging skillshots, flashing abilities, it all feels crisper than 60 FPS. Not twice as good, but noticeably better. But if you’re in Gold or below, I promise you that the difference between 60 and 144 FPS is not what’s holding you back. Good game sense beats good hardware every time below Diamond. If you want to learn from the best, check out how to play League of Legends like Ruler.

Checking Your Own System Specs

Not sure if your hardware meets the LoL system requirements? Takes 30 seconds to find out.

1. Press Win + R, type dxdiag, and hit Enter.
2. The System tab shows your CPU, RAM, and OS version.
3. The Display tab shows your GPU model, VRAM, and DirectX Feature Levels.
4. Look for “11_0” or higher under Feature Levels. If it’s not there, your GPU doesn’t meet the DX11 requirement.

On Mac, click the Apple menu, then “About This Mac.” You’ll see your processor, memory, and graphics info right there. To check Metal support, look up your Mac’s model year. Anything from 2012 onward should have Metal support through macOS updates.

Can I Run League of Legends? Common Scenarios

Instead of just listing specs, I’ll tell you what actually happens on hardware that people constantly ask about. I’ve either tested these myself or pulled results from community benchmarks.

Can I run LoL with 4GB RAM?

4 GB works, that’s the recommended spec. But close Chrome and Discord first, those two hog 2-3 GB easy. Windows 10 eats 1.5-2 GB at idle, so on 4 GB you’re running tight. Turn on “Close Client During Game” or teamfights will stutter.

Can I run LoL with 2GB RAM?

Technically yes, since 2 GB is the listed minimum. Practically? It’s rough. Windows 10 alone uses most of that. You’ll need to close everything else, use Low Spec Mode, and play on the absolute lowest settings. Expect 20-30 FPS with dips during fights. Seriously though, 8 GB of DDR3 is like $15 on eBay. Biggest bang for your buck upgrade you can make.

Can I play LoL on a Chromebook?

No. ChromeOS can’t run League, period. No ChromeOS build exists, Vanguard won’t work in the Linux subsystem, and there’s no legit workaround. Chromebook only? Wild Rift on your phone is the move.

Can I run LoL on integrated graphics?

100%. Way more common than you’d think. Intel UHD 630 on 8th-10th gen chips pulls 80-120 FPS on low. The older HD 4600 from 4th gen still manages 40-60. AMD Vega 8 and 11 in Ryzen APUs do about the same or better. League is one of the few competitive games where you straight up don’t need a dedicated GPU.

Can I run LoL on Windows 11?

No issues. Full support. Windows 11 already needs TPM 2.0, so Vanguard won’t bother you. FPS is basically identical to Windows 10. A few Reddit threads claim Win11 runs a tiny bit better because of DX optimizations, but you won’t notice.

LoL Download Size and Install Guide

Initial download is 5-6 GB, but it unpacks to about 16 GB on PC and 12 GB on Mac. Patches stack up over months, so 20 GB free is the real number you should aim for.

You download the game from leagueoflegends.com through the Riot Client. League isn’t on Steam. It was there briefly back in 2009 at launch, but Riot pulled it. The Riot Client also handles Valorant and TFT, so if you play those too, you already have it installed.

Install time depends on your internet. On a 50 Mbps connection, expect about 20-30 minutes for the full download. On slower connections (10 Mbps), it could take over an hour. Download stuck? Disable peer-to-peer in Riot Client settings. P2P sometimes routes through garbage nodes and tanks your speed.

Wild Rift: LoL System Requirements for Mobile

If your PC or Mac doesn’t meet the League of Legends system requirements, give Wild Rift a shot. It’s Riot’s mobile version of League, available on Android and iOS. Different map, shorter games, fewer champs. But the core 5v5 team fighting still feels like League.

Platform	Minimum Specs
Android	Snapdragon 710+ or equivalent, 3 GB RAM, Android 8.0+, 3.5 GB storage
iOS	iPhone 7 or newer, iOS 13+, 3.5 GB storage

Any phone from 2019 or newer runs Wild Rift fine. Mid-range phones hit 60 FPS without drama, and flagships push 120. If your PC struggles with League, Wild Rift on a halfway decent phone honestly runs smoother. Touchscreen controls are weird at first but you adapt.

Will League of Legends Get Heavier Over Time?

Riot keeps the LoL system requirements low on purpose. A huge chunk of their player base is in regions like SEA, Latin America, and Eastern Europe where people play on internet cafe PCs from 2015. But the floor does creep up. DX11 was the latest bump, and Riot gave a few months warning before pulling the trigger on it.

With the League Next project in development (a potential engine overhaul Riot has been hinting at), specs could increase meaningfully in the future. But for now, Season 1 of the new era (what we’re in as of Patch 26.7) still runs on the same core engine. If your PC handles League fine today, it should be good for at least another year or two.

If your hardware is getting long in the tooth and you want to skip the leveling grind on a fresh account, you can always pick up a smurf account that’s already Level 30 and ranked-ready. Saves you a lot of time that you could spend figuring out your hardware situation instead.

Common Issues When Your PC Barely Meets LoL System Requirements

Even if your system technically passes the LoL system requirements on paper, you’re going to hit some annoying problems.

FPS drops during teamfights. The laning phase might feel smooth at 45-50 FPS, but the second five players start throwing abilities in a dragon pit, you’ll drop to 20-25. That’s because particle effects and champion model rendering spikes hard during group fights.

Long load times. On an HDD with 2 GB of RAM, loading into a game can take 60+ seconds. Your teammates will be annoyed. You’ll feel bad. Get an SSD if you can.

Client lag. The League client itself (the launcher, not the game) is notoriously heavy for what it does. Reddit has been roasting Riot for years over how bloated this thing is. 1 GB of RAM just sitting there doing nothing during your match. Turn on “Close Client During Game” or deal with the stutter.

Vanguard resource usage. Vanguard starts with Windows and never stops running. On ancient PCs, that extra load is noticeable. VAN 57 errors? That’s Secure Boot or TPM being off in BIOS. Same story: old hardware, more problems.

LoL System Requirements FAQ

What are the minimum system requirements for League of Legends in 2026?

Intel i3-530 or AMD A6-3650 CPU, GeForce 9600GT or HD 6570 GPU (must support DX11), 2 GB RAM, 16 GB storage, Windows 10 build 19041 or later. TPM 2.0 needs to be on.

Can I run League of Legends on a Mac?

Only Intel Macs on macOS 10.13.6+. Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) works through Rosetta 2 but Riot doesn’t officially support it. Your GPU needs Metal.

Does League of Legends require DirectX 11?

Yes. Yep, since Patch 25.02. DX11 feature level 11_0 minimum. No DX11, no Play button. It grays out.

How much storage space does League of Legends need?

16 GB on PC, 12 GB on Mac. Stick it on an SSD if you can. Load times on HDD are painful.

Can I play LoL on an Apple Silicon Mac with an M1 or M2 chip?

Riot won’t support it. Rosetta 2 makes it work, but if something breaks, you’re on your own. Most M1/M2 users play fine, but some get random issues.

How do I boost FPS in League of Legends on a low-end PC?

Low Spec Mode on, Close Client During Game on, shadows off, Character Inking off, effects on Low, fullscreen (not borderless). That combo can get you 30-60 extra FPS on a weak PC.

What is MinConfig in League of Legends?

MinConfig is a set of configuration files from Riot that automatically set all in-game graphics to the lowest possible values. You download the files, drop them into your League Config folder, and start a custom game to apply them.

Can I play League of Legends on Steam Deck?

Not on the default SteamOS. Nope. Vanguard kills Linux compatibility. Install Windows on the Deck or just play Wild Rift on your phone instead.

What internet speed do I need for League of Legends?

6 Mbps download is enough. But ping matters way more than speed. Get under 60ms, use Ethernet not Wi-Fi, and you’re set. One match eats about 70-100 MB of data.

If you want to check where your MMR stands once your PC is ready to go, we have a free tool for that too.

Last updated: April 2026