The best laptop for League of Legends isn’t anything special.

Look at all the ads and spam…you think they’d make the game difficult to run? They’re trying to reach out EVERYBODY.

Heck they even target countries where the computers aren’t even there yet.

So yeah almost any laptop can run LoL and at decent framerates…if you don’t mind playing the game at the lowest settings.

Just be sure to avoid any laptop below 350$ (we’ll talk about specifics soon) if you want 60fps at low to medium.

Far more important than fps however…

Is to pick a machine that can keep your framerates consistent throughout a match.

Why?

High video settings, cool effects and +100fps are all nice  but they’re useless when you’re entangled in a crazy teamfight where all heroes are popping out their ULTS at the same time.

The severe framedrops will make your laptop temporarily freeze and you’ll get killed before you even have the chance to use yours.

Luckily…

As long as you know a thing or two about computers the game won’t fluctuate much in terms of framedrops even in these extreme instances.

However…. if you want to play at the highest highest settings with crazy framerates…

You’re going to need a dedicated GPU.

My 3 year-old laptop with a dedicated GPU still has no issues whatsoever to play the game.

So it doesn’t matter how old the dGPU is, what matter is that you have one.

Looking back now it was actually the amount afkers and rage quitters during ranked games that made it so painful to reach lvl 25.

Anyways…

Let’s go through the best laptops for League of Legends as of 2021, we will include models that can play the game at low, medium and epic settings.

In the section after that, I’ll dsicuss in detail what you need to know to pick up a laptop yourself or build a cheap desktop for LoL that can play the game with no LAG, horrible framedrops and the settings you’d like.

Top 5 Best Laptops for League Of Legends (LoL)

League of Legends didn’t become the biggest PC game in the world with punishing system requirements. Millions of kids play the game on budget laptops.  

Let’s look at the official site’s hardware requirements . When translated to laptops specs, these reqs are:

Minimum: 2GHz processor, Intel HD 5XXX graphics card and 2GB RAM

Recommended: 3GHz Dual Core Processor,  NVIDIA 930MGTX and 4GB RAM

If you get anything close to the minimum requirements you’ll be getting 30 fps and we both know that’s no good.

Laptops shown here will go beyond that without emptying your wallet (w/ at least 60FPs ). 

Our Recommendation:

• 3.5GHz+ CPU (multicore doesn’t matter), see list below
• 2GB-4GB vRAM 2017+ GPUs, see list below (4GBvRAM is a bit too much for LoL but they’re cheap )
• If taking the integrated route only go for: Intel HD 620/AMD Radeon Vega 3 GPUs. You don’t have to specifically look for these, if you get a recent CPU ( Intel Core or Ryzen) these integrated GPUs will come by default.

1. Lenovo IdeaPad

Cheap Laptop For LoL 2021

  AMD Ryzen 5 5500U

  8GB RAM

  AMD Radeon 7

  256GB SSD NVMe PCIe

  14” FHD 

  3.11 lbs

  8 hours

League of Legends is a CPU bound game. You’ll be able to play the game with super high framerates at low settings as long as you get a good CPU.

A good rule of thumb to define what a good CPU is:

“Any intel Core CPU or Ryzen CPU released within the past two years”.  “Good CPUs” released this year are actually kind of overkill for LoL at low settings especially this Ryzen 5 5500CPU.

You can play the game with weaker CPUs like the Core i3s or Ryzen 3s , however, this model is at a deal right now and close to the price of Core i3 and Ryzen 3 CPUs.

Windows 10 Home:

Obviously, I’m talking about those laptops that come with Windows 10 Home pre-installed.

The other 350-400$ laptops you may have seen will not let you play LoL because they only Windows 10 in S mode and you’ll have to pay 139$ to buy the full version of Windows.

Other alternatives:

If you want to settle for a laptop with an integrated GPU , these are the other good options w/ great specs/money ratios:

If you want a dedicated GPU, check out our next 4 laptops.

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2. EVOO Gaming Laptop

Budget Gaming Laptop For LoL – 120Hz

  Core i5 10300H

  8GB DDR4

   GeForce GTX 1650

  256GB PCIe SSD 

  15.6” 60Hz Full HD IPS

  4.4lbs

  5 hours

Even those big shot streamers would be fine with this laptop if they want the best performance out of LoL.

The truth is, like I said, LoL isn’t hardware demanding. As long you’ve got yourself a dGPU you will be able to get super crazy high framerates and still kick ass.

Core i5 10300H+1650GTX:

If you’re streaming, the Core i5 10300H has 4 cores, so it should not be interefering with the game running in the background. And if you want the highest settings, this mid-range GPU here (some call it high entry level), is actually far more powerful than those entry level GPUs from past generations : 940MX. It will give you the option to set all graphics settings to ultra. You can get a sense of the performance here in our video:

We tested a laptop with the same GPU but a slightly different CPU, the Core i5 9300H which is just one generation older. So you should expect a bit more framerates across all settings. Note that you get +130FPS at the highest settings even when entangled in a group fight.

There are tons of 1650GTX+Core i5 9300/10300H laptops to choose from. However, only a few are at a fair reasonable price (it should cost you no more than 750$ and even that’s kind of pushing it). We chose this model because it is the cheapest and most reliable AND one more thing….

The 120Hz display….

Which is not something very common at this price, in fact, it’s rare so it will probably run out of stock. If that’s the case you can choose any of these models.

3. Lenovo Gaming IdeaPad

Best Gaming Laptop For League of Legends – 120Hz

  AMD  Ryzen 5 4600H

  8GB RAM DDR4

   GTX 1650 4GB 

  256GB PCIe NVMe SSD       

  15.6 ” FHD IPS 120Hz

  4.84lbs

  5 hours

Another great option to a Core i5 9300/10300H is a Ryzen 5 4600/5600H model.

AMD Ryzen 5 4600+1650GTX:

These might be cheaper in some instances like this model AND they’re slightly faster than Core i5 CPUs.

This is more ideal if you want to stream your matches because AMD CPUs have +2 more cores (this one has 6 cores) and they have slightly faster processors (although on paper it looks like it has lower clock frequencies than Intel CPUs).

There’s really no reason to upgrade the GPU anymore because going past +150FPS at super high settings is pretty useless especially if you don’t have a 240Hz display. Even if you did the game looks smooth enough at 120FPS.

120 Hz Refresh Rates:

This model also has a 120Hz display, it’s not something you should demand at this price so if you find it out of stock you’ll have to settle for any of the 60Hz models if you don’t want to pay more than 750$.

4. ASUS TUF FX505DT 

Best Gaming Laptop for LoL under 1000

  Core i5 10300H

  8GB DDR4

   GeForce GTX 1650Ti

  512GB PCIe SSD

  17” 144Hz Full HD

  5.73lbs

  5 hours

If you have a budget close to 900$, you may be tempted to invest your money on a better GPU and CPU. That’s fine but remember although you will get increased performance in the FPS counter, you will notice any difference in graphics when playing the game.

17 Display + 144Hz:

This model has a slightly faster GPU but it’s not something that will raise the price dramatically, what makes this laptop kind of expensive is the 17” display and the refres rates. Moreover, 144Hz is the sweet spot for a 1650Ti laptop because it sits around the highest number of framerates you’ll get at very high settings.

So if you want to improve your gaming experience and perhaps even make matches more fun, then just get a 17” laptop.

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5. Acer Predator Helios 300

The Best Laptop For WoW- Ultra Settings +150FPS

  Core i7-11800H

  16GB RAM DDR4

   GTX 3060RTX

  512GB PCIe NVMe SSD (2x PCie Nvme slots free)

  15” IPS full HD 144Hz

  5.07lbs

  4 hours

If you’re looking for a laptop that will let you run pretty much every AAA game out there even those with the most insane graphics, then you should think about getting something like a 2060RTX/3060RTX/1660Ti. Although they are overkill for League of Legends, they have the best performance/money ratio from all other high end laptops. They will let you play nearly every game at high settings with +100FPS even CoD, The Witch and those games that weight like 120GB.

Theare are 100s of 2060/3060/1660Ti models but this is the most popular and reliable model out of all them and you can see that by the reviews and the reputation of its older models.

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How To Buy The Best Laptop For League Of Legends

The hardware requirements for LoL are pretty low and the game is playable with just over 15fps.

But if you get a laptop with the official minimum requirements you’re not going to get a solid and consistent framerate. 

Most modern laptops today will be okay though, you just need to avoid a few bad apples.

How?

This will automatically get you a 8GB of RAM, a fast CPU, the FHD display you need to play LoL

Most of us want to get the best bang for our buck though and avoid unnecessary power, what’s the point of getting 500FPS at high settings when you could be doing fine with 100FPS?

1.GPU

The GPU isn’t necessarily the most important component for LoL but in the laptopville it can dictate the quality of your purchase and what other high end components you will end up with so it’s good to know what GPUs are all about and what they can offer you in terms of FPS/settings for LoL.

Basically there are two types:

1.1 Integrated Cards

These come by default and share resources with the CPU, so they are a lot weaker to process graphics.

Low-Medium Settings

Integrated GPUs whoever have come a long way these days. They’re not just useful to play 2D PC games, indie games or 10 year old franchises. They’re sufficient to play triple A games at low settings and in some cases at medium settings.

Performance: As long as you get a recent integrated GPU, you should be able to play LoL at low settings with +60FPS. 

What are the latest? Intel HD 5XXX,6XXX. AMD Radeon Vega X, AMD Radeon RX.

Here are some specific examples:

All of them will give you  the same framerates, if you are picky about a tiny bit more speed then go to notebookcheck.com and compare them side by side. Here’s an example.

I’m not saying you can’t play the game at high settings with these but you’re not going to get solid and consistent framerates throughout the match and you’d be lucky to get 30FPS( a super fast CPU might help offset the lack of GPU power).

1.2 Dedicated Graphics Cards

Dedicated GPUs have their own “vRAM” and do not share resources with the CPU, they can process images on their own and they are several times faster than integrated GPUs.

Modern NVIDIA GPUs

2018-2021 AMD GPUs

High Settings

High settings at 80-120 FPS can be played with something like a NVIDIA GTX 840M or an AMD R7 M260X, dropping to 80FPS during team fights only.

What does this mean for modern GPUs and the table?

All of them are either equal or more powerful than those two GPUs. So as long as you get one you’ll be able to play at high settings starting at 80FPS and going up to 300FPS (though there’s no point going beyond 120FPS I think).

Blue: MX150,MX250,Pro RX 555X These will give you 80-120FPS at high settings 1080p.

Green: GPUs can output 100-150FPS at very high settings with dropping below 100FPS.

Purple GPUs: completely overkill for LoL. Don’t touch them unless you get a great deal on them or you plan on trying other AAA games.

NVIDIA vs AMD

You’ll have many people swear up and down that an intel machine with NVIDIA graphics is the way to go for. I can agree with that  but they are also expensive.

AMD laptops have disadvantages usually 10% less faster/powerful but they are still decent machines at very decent prices. One thing that I’ve noticed is that they can be a bit hotter than the average NVIDIA armed laptop though.

CPU

Like almost any game out there. CPU is the single most important component to make your framerates jump to crazy numbers.

Clock Frequency vs Multi-Core

The rule for gaming is simple, no matter how much game developers tout their “multi-core optimization”, all games rely on single clock speeds. This means that all that matters in a CPU is the clock frequency of a single core not the number of cores or cache or anything else.

With this rule in mind you can save yourself a few bucks but buying the supposedly “weaker GPU”  than the other one who supposedly has “8 cores” with +0.2GHz clock frequency.

This makes the rule of finding a good CPU a much simpler task. Just look at the clock speed regardless of the generation or the brand. Forget about the U,HQ,HK,H labels just look at the clock frequency.

Low settings:  If you want your Integrated GPU be able to hit 60fps at low settings FHD, get anything close to a 3GHz .

High settings: 80-100FPS at high settings FHD will just need anything close to 4GHz. This has a few exceptions if you have a pretty good GPU then you can get away with 3.5GHz.

Streaming

I don’t like streaming on a laptop, it makes it hot and that’s dangerous for both the CPU and GPU. If you’ve got no other choice, then jut get a cooling pad and yes more cores will help offset the loss in framerates.

RAM

8GB vs 16GB

Because 8GB is standard today and that’s exactly how much you need to make LoL run with no hiccups, the question is whether or not to ugprade yours to  16GB.

The answer is no. There’s no need to. Heck even 4GB might be enough if you’re not running anything in the background.

Dual Channeled RAM

You can squeeze a few more fps if you set up your RAM to be two sticks of the same size and same model.

Ex: x2 4GB RAM for 8GB and x2 8GB for 16GB. Don’t ask me why or how it works, it just makes the CPU run faster that’s all.

Storage

LoL only requires 12GB . Patches/updates might go as far as 20GB in the future. So you really don’t need to worry about storage. SSDs will not help your framerates either , they’re standard these days and that’s actually good because they’ll make your laptop run faster outside of LoL.

Display

IPS FHD

FHD is a must for the game. How else are you going to play the game at FHD if you got a 720p display?

If you’re shopping for laptops under 500, you ought be careful with these two specs. Some laptops will have them others not. 

Refresh Rates

Refresh rates means how many times your display can refresh the image on it. If it’s 60Hz it means 60 images per second. 

So yes, if you’re GPU outputs 60 frames per second you’re going to need an equal or higher refresh rate than 60.

Ideally all laptop display would have 1000Hz but this fluctuates between 60 and 300. The higher the refresh rate of a laptop’s display, the higher the price increase. 300Hz display can make a laptop cost as much as 2000 dollars.

I’m not saying you should get 300Hz displays but if you have a beast GPU you’re definitely will be hitting past the 100+FPS and if you want to see every framerate on your screen you better make sure your laptop has at least that much refresh rate.

If you have a 60HZ screen and 100FPS, you’ll still feel the game smoother than just having 60fps but yeah you’d notice a huge difference if you could a higher refresh note.

Keep in mind that some manufacturers try to cut down prices by giving you a 60Hz even with a powerful 1000 laptop.  It’s probably the only thing to be cautious when checking out a laptop’s display specs.