Like a car, there are things that each person should do to keep their PC in top shape. When you are experiencing issues with framerate in League of Legends, tuning up your system is one of the easiest ways to increase performance.

Please bear in mind that while the tweaks listed below may help improve your PC's performance, they will never be able to improve it beyond the limitations of your hardware.

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Change In-Game Settings

One of the first places to start looking for the cause of low frame rate is within the game itself.

Minimize Effects of Heat

Detecting heat build-up

Do games work fine for a few hours and then start to slow down? Is the air coming out of your PC extremely hot? If this is the case, your graphics card is probably overheating. There are a few things you can do to reduce the effects of heat on your system:
Clean any vents or fans with compressed air. Computers often get their fans clogged with dust, dirt and hair. Cleaning your computer's vents and fans will improve airflow and should keep your machine at a lower temperature.

If you are playing League of Legends on a laptop, you might want to consider buying a laptop cooler. They are external fans that can be plugged into a wall outlet or USB drive depending on the model. They are very effective at keeping laptops cool.

Disable all in-game sounds

You may experience a performance boost by disabling your in-game sounds. You can do this in-game by pressing ESC, selecting SOUND and then checking the "Disable all Sound" box.

Cleaning Your System Registry

Each time you install a program, it makes modifications to the system registry, which is a database that stores configuration settings and options for your Operating Sytem and other software. Over time, the system registry can become quite bloated and adversely affect your system's performance. We recommend (but do not officially endorse) using CCleaner. 
Free Download Link!

Still having issues?

If none of the above points helped, please submit a ticket to Player Support. In order to help us resolve your issue quickly, please include the following information in your ticket:

• System Report
• r3d log
• Process List

Windows Only

Keep Your Drivers Up to Date

Why is it important to keep your drivers up to date? 

Video card drivers (software that interfaces with your graphics card) often include vital bug fixes and/or optimizations. Your card is generally shipped with a driver pre-packaged, but this driver is usually out of date by the time it reaches your computer. One of the most important steps you can perform when installing a new video card or using a new computer is installing the most up-to-date driver.The update process will vary depending on the specific video card you have, but many players will find that they likely own a card from one of three major product lines: NVIDIA, AMD or Intel. Since these are the most common types of graphics cards, we will cover the basic update process for each.

How to Identify your Graphics Card

• Press [Windows Key] + R (this will open up a "Run" window)
• Type dxdiag and then hit Enter.
• Select the Display tab.
• Note the name and manufacturer of your card in the top left corner of the window.

Most common graphics card manufacturers have a solution that scans your computer and updates drivers automatically. They can be found here:

• AMD
• NVIDIA
• Intel
• For issues with switching between multiple graphics cards, please see the article here.

Disable or Remove Potentially Unwanted Programs

What do you mean by that?

Before removing any programs, it's a good idea to check what software is running in the background after Windows starts, as a lot of software tends to start itself automatically. In order to disable non-essential processes, we recommend performing a clean boot on Windows. To do so, please follow the instructions below:

• Press [Windows Key] + R
• Type msconfig into the text bar at the bottom of the menu
• Click on the Services tab
• Check Hide all Microsoft services so you don't end up accidentally disabling a key process
• Click the Disable All button
• Click on the Startup tab
• Click on the Disable All button
• Click on the Apply button
• Click on the OK button
• Restart your computer
  Note: For performing a clean boot on Windows 8 and 8.1 please see this Microsoft article.
  Uninstall resource intensive applications

If your in-game performance improved after a clean boot, chances are that there are a number of resource-consuming programs on your PC. You might want to uninstall any unwanted applications by using Programs and Features (Add or Remove Programs on Windows XP). Doing so will free up more system resources for the game to use. If you cannot find the applications that utilize those resources or those application do not allow you to uninstall themselves, they may be malicious and will need to be removed in a different way

Run a scan for potentially unwanted programs or Malware

The unfortunate side effect of browsing the Internet is that our computers tend to accumulate a lot of unwanted software (that can also be potentially harmful!) that we are not aware of. This software tends to run in the background and uses up your PC resources without alerting you in any noticeable way. In order to get rid of this software, we recommend (but do not officially endorse)using Malware Bytes.

Note: If you have other security software that you prefer to use instead, please make sure that it is up to date. Security software requires regular updates or a subscription to counter threats effectively. Without one of those, it tends to be just another pointless resource hog!

Reset Your Graphics Card Software

Make sure your graphics card software isn't interfering with League of Legends

NVIDIA comes with the NVIDIA Control Panel and AMD comes with the Catalyst Control Center. Both of these programs allow users to set up graphic profiles that can override application settings and sometimes interfere with League of Legends as a result. Resetting the software to default values usually gives control over graphics back to the applications. Here's how to do it:

• NVIDIA Control Panel
• Right-click on your desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel
• Select Manage 3D Settings
• Click on Restore Defaults

Catalyst Control Center

• Right-click on your desktop and select Catalyst Control Center (also called VISION center)
• Select Preferences
• Click on Restore Factory Defaults

Set Windows to Best Performance

Configuring your Operating System

Underpowered systems may not be able to run the graphical features of Windows and League of Legends effectively at the same time. You can turn off many of the advanced graphical features within Windows to improve your system's performance. While underpowered machines will see the most benefit from this step, most PCs may see an increase in performance by changing these settings:

• Right-click Computer
• Select Properties
• Select Advanced System Settings
• Select the Advanced tab.
• Click Settings under Performance
• Select the Adjust for best performance radial
• Move to the Advanced tab
• Select the Adjust for best performance of: Programs radial
  Note: If you are running the game in Windowed or Borderless mode, you might want to disable Aero as well.

What is Aero?

Aero is a graphical feature set of Windows. It enables the following: transparent windows, Win Key + Tab options, and window transitions. Unfortunately, all of these features tend to slow your computer down. Using the steps above will automatically disable it, but if you want to disable Aero manually you can follow the instructions below:

To Disable Aero in Windows Vista or Windows 7:

• Click "Start" > Search Aero > Click "Window Color and Appearance" > Click "Advanced appearance settings..." > Select a non-Aero theme.

To Disable Aero in Windows 8:

• Click on the Windows key
• Search for Control Panel
• Under Appearance and Personalization, click Change the Theme
• Click on Windows Basic to select this theme

Defragmentation

Hard drives work a bit like filing cabinets. As you constantly add and remove files from them, they tend to get disorganized and it becomes more difficult for your computer to locate the correct file. Files are sometimes split into small pieces and scattered on the drive. Windows XP machines are more prone to this than other versions of Windows and will benefit most from this step. To resolve this problem you need to defragment your main hard disk. Here is a guide by Microsoft to performing this on a windows machine (you can change the Windows version by clicking on the button on the right side of the page).

Change Laptop Power Settings

Sometimes laptops and notebooks use power saving plans to conserve battery power, which unfortunately limits the operating capacity of your graphics card and CPU. You can alter this setting by doing the following:

• Open the "Power Options" through your computer's Control Panel
  • If your power plan is set to one of the battery-saving options, you will need to change it to a performance option.
• After making sure you have a performance option selected, click on "Change plan settings"
• Enable High Performance

Mac Only

Close Any Unused Applications

Turn off any memory-heavy programs while playing League of Legends
Before starting a game, you might want to consider turning off memory-intensive programs, especially applications that render 3D (such as other games, Photoshop, etc). Also, you might want to check if there are any CPU-intensive processes running in the background. You can check this by doing the following:

• Press Command+Shift+U and double-click "Activity Monitor."
• On the top bar, click "View" and select "All Processes, Hierarchically."
• Sort the listed processes by the %cpu column. To do so, on the "CPU" tab, click the header for the "% CPU" column once.
• Check if there are processes that take up 25% or more CPU. If you don't need them right now (like printer subprocesses, for example), you can turn them off by doing the following:
• Click the process in the list you'd like to terminate.
• In the upper left corner, click the X icon.
• In the resulting popup, click "Force Quit."

Resetting the System Management Controller

The System Management Controller (SMC) is a low-level system on your Mac that controls power to system components. The SMC interacts with components such as the fans, display and keyboard backlights, power button responsiveness, and the graphics card.
Corruption of the SMC may occur due to bad software updates, power surges or overheating. Resetting the SMC will reset the voltage to your graphics card.

To learn more about how to reset the SMC for your specific Mac, see Apple's official SMC Reset page.

Note: When running on battery power and the battery charge is low, you may notice significant loss of FPS. This can be remedied by plugging in the power adapter for your laptop. When using the discrete graphics processor and playing with higher video quality settings, you may find that your battery will drain more quickly. When possible, it is best to leave the laptop plugged into a power source while playing League of Legends.

Reset the NVRAM

Your Mac stores certain settings in special memory called NVRAM even if it is turned off. Those settings might interfere with League of Legends, so resetting them can sometimes solve issues. You can do so by following the instructions below:

• Shut down your Mac
• Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (?), Option, P, and R (you will need to hold these keys down simultaneously during the bootup sequence later)
• Turn on the computer
• Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
• Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the start-up sound for the second time
• Release the keys

After an NVRAM reset, some system settings may return to default values and may need to be reconfigured. You can read more about NVRAM from Apple here.

Disable Automatic Gr aphic Switching

A large number of Mac systems utilize Automatic Graphics Switching, which is enabled by default to allow your computer to automatically switch to the best graphics system for the applications running on your computer. On laptops, this is often enabled to maximize battery life.

However, using this feature may lead to FPS issues and general performance problems while running League of Legends. Disabling this option will use the higher-performance discrete graphics processor at all times. On laptops, this will decrease your battery life at the gain of higher performance while in-game.

If you are having FPS issues, disabling this feature is a good place to start.

• Open System Preferences
• Click Energy Saver
• Uncheck the Automatic graphics switching option at the top of the Energy Saver dialog
• Click the Lock icon at the bottom left of the dialog to prevent further changes
• Reboot your system