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LoL Performance on different platforms, with interesting results (linux won!?)

XXX Caster Couch·3/26/2015, 1:42:54 PM·5 votes·13,103 views

I've done some frame rate benchmarking and performance review with league of legends on a few different OSes. Here are the results. First: my hardware Clevo W230SS based laptop Nvidia GTX 860m Intel i7 4810MQ @2.80 Ghz 8gb ddr3 1600 RAM 7200rpm HDD killer wireless 1202

All of the following are clean installs with a few performance tweaks, and system updates to the newest version. as well as the latest drivers available for network card, GPU etc. Framerates are at max settings with uncapped fps and ping is based on a wireless connection at a standardized location in my home. the results are an average from 3 different games played on each platform to completion

Windows 7: FPS: peak 89 avg 79 Ping: 112 steady with spikes to 180 every 20ish minutes Notes: fps drops to 58 in teamfights but no lower

PC-BSD: FPS: peak 79 avg 65 Ping: rock solid 95 with periods of lower ping, never higher. Notes: BSD has great network performance, but the technical skill and effort to get the drivers and game working aren't worth the effort in my opinion.

Linux mint 17 Ubuntu based systems have several nvidia driver configurations, of which I have tested the most popular Bumblebee optirun FPS: 55 avg peak within 5 Bumblebee Primus FPS: 63 avg peak 71 Nvidia-prime FPS: avg 93 peak 104 (!!) Ping: Solid 104 spikes to 115 Notes: Drivers on linux for optimus users are finnicky and the bumblebee solutions aren't optimized well out of the box. however, play feels smoother and more responsive with the nvidia-prime setup than even windows.

Arch Linux Barebones (System can pretty much only run blender, gimp, league and native steam, highly optimized for gaming and graphical work) FPS avg 102 peak 143 (!!) ping avg 99 jumps to 104 notes: By far the best results and best gameplay experience, takes some linux know-how to get working though.

These results were interesting to me because the windows client does a better job in linux than it does in windows with the right configuration. even ubuntu (linux mint) users can benefit from the performance boost. I don't know if these results extend to AMD cards, and they certainly don't to integrated graphics, but if you have high end optimus based hardware and want to eak out a little more responsiveness and performance, linux seems to be the way to go. Riot, maybe there's an opportunity here? maybe sell a mid range box with stripped down linux and an automatic installer to LoL enthusiasts like valve proposes to do with steam? Benchmarks on different hardware and other information on this topic are appreciated, and discussion is encouraged.

28 Comments

Tavish3/26/2015, 2:07:28 PM3 votes

As a user currently posting from a unix like OS, (Ubuntu linux), I thoroughly support this.

XXX Caster Couch3/26/2015, 2:40:45 PM2 votes

Any interest in a guide on dual booting into a league only linux installation? if so let me know and I'll be sure to post one up

Tavish3/26/2015, 5:50:30 PM2 votes

I'd really like to see your guide! I have a PC as well, but I'd like to duel boot with ubuntu, but I fear loss of frame rate in League.

Duffkitty3/26/2015, 6:00:13 PM2 votes

I have an older nVidia graphics card but it runs just as well under Linux Mint 17 as it did on Windows, however my older graphics card makes me turn off shadows to push 1080P resolutions....

Occasionally I have to open the launcher a few times to get it to run and can't buy RP but those are small prices to pay to use my OS of choice.

Penguin Eclipse3/26/2015, 7:45:38 PM2 votes

Nicely done. Good to see some discussion on this topic. I must admit I have never run league on linux. Not that I couldn't only that I have never really had any desire to run windows software on Linux. Though seeing that you are experiencing an increase in performance I may have to give it a test run. I actually find the ping results the most interesting of your findings. It's very rare one sees a difference in ping from using a different OS. If you had used wired the results would likely have been identical. But using wireless is much more interesting.

There were some rumors floating about last year that Riot had a team working on a new game client. Maybe they will bring official Linux support while they are it. One can always hope. Though I doubt you will see official PC-BSD support anytime soon. ;)

Matthias91193/27/2015, 3:09:35 AM2 votes

These results were interesting to me because the windows client does a better job in linux than it does in windows with the right configuration...

Did you take screenshots to make sure the rendering was 100% the same? With that much of a framerate jump I'm guessing some quality-enhancing features are being disabled.

The Queen Viper3/28/2015, 6:24:45 AM2 votes

[{quoted}](name=XXX Caster Couch,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=G5r8vMka,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-03-26T13:42:54.691+0000) Riot, maybe there's an opportunity here? maybe sell a mid range box with stripped down linux and an automatic installer to LoL enthusiasts like valve proposes to do with steam?

... ooooor they could just hire proper coders and optimize the game better + use a better engine which is not some buggy homebrew shit. Or hell, pay royalties for DoTA / SMITE / HON or whatever and use their engine as a base ffs. Anything is better than this current one, which is not even stable and has performance issues all over the place even with high end (TITAN etc) setups.

Only Play Darius3/28/2015, 6:13:43 AM2 votes

Awesome. I love linux.

Number Òne10/1/2016, 7:13:16 AM1 votes

I would like to confirm that.. this is 100% bullshit.. I get 112fps on windows 10 and I get 12-20fps on ubuntu 16.04 lts

Crackling Eyes9/7/2015, 10:15:35 AM1 votes

Windows (low):180- 200FPS Linux(very low): 20-25FPS Linux(low): 20-25 FPS Linux(medium): 20-25 FPS Linux(high): 20-25FPS Linux(very high): 20-25FPS Freebsd: driver crash

Ping rock solid 50 regardles of platform I dont understand how people get so high fps on wine. I remember playing it on very hight rock solid when it was seasson 2. Stupid riot updates destroyed the game.

Cpu: intel celeron dualcore 2.8Ghz Gpu: 9800 GTX RAM: ddr2 3GB

DONT BAN LEE 4/21/2016, 1:23:37 AM1 votes

can you put the linux download link somewhere plz mint 17

HalakUnique3/26/2015, 2:00:24 PM1 votes

First comment! I have to try installing LOL on Linux, i have been having problems lately with my windows being too slow! Glad to know that I can install on Linux!!! Ty Caster Couch!Varus