A sudden FPS drop in League of Legends usually follows a change in your software or setup—not a sudden increase in the game’s hardware demands. The most common triggers are a graphics-driver update, low-power mode, incorrect GPU selection, overheating, overlays, damaged settings, or a recent patch.
First confirm that the problem is truly FPS, then test in Practice Tool before making changes. Work through the fixes below in order, starting with the safest and easiest.
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First, check whether it is really low FPS
Press Ctrl+F in-game to display League’s FPS and ping counters, unless you have changed the shortcut. Watch both numbers in the fountain, while moving through lane, during a crowded team fight, and at the exact moment the problem occurs.
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- Low FPS: The frame-rate number falls and the image becomes visibly slow or jerky.
- High ping: Actions feel delayed or champions appear to teleport, while FPS remains normal.
- Packet loss: The game briefly freezes or rubber-bands, often with a connection warning.
- Frame-time spikes: Average FPS may look high, but frames arrive unevenly and the game feels stuttery.
- Refresh-rate mismatch: The game can render at 144 FPS while Windows or the monitor is set to 60 Hz.
If the entire PC becomes sluggish, investigate drivers, temperatures, background processes, or hardware rather than treating the issue as a League graphics setting.
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Use Practice Tool to establish a baseline
- Restart the PC.
- Connect a laptop to its AC adapter.
- Close browsers, overlays, recording tools, and companion apps.
- Launch only Riot Client and League.
- Enter Practice Tool with your normal resolution, display mode, and FPS cap.
- Record FPS while idle, moving, casting abilities, and spawning several targets.
- Repeat once with all overlays disabled.
Low FPS everywhere points toward power mode, GPU selection, drivers, heat, configuration, or hardware. Normal idle FPS that falls during fights suggests CPU load, effects, shadows, background activity, or throttling. If other games are also slow, prioritize Windows, drivers, power, temperature, and hardware. If only League is affected, focus on its settings, configuration, overlays, Vanguard interactions, or a game-side regression.
Try the five-minute fixes
Restore performance power settings
In current Windows versions, open Settings → System → Power & battery → Power mode and select Best performance when available. Test while plugged in. If the option is missing, check your laptop manufacturer’s control software and Windows Control Panel power plans.
Higher performance modes can increase heat, noise, and battery drain. If this fixes League, find out why the system entered a low-power state rather than leaving an aggressive mode enabled permanently.
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Close overlays and recording software
For one clean test, exit Discord overlay, NVIDIA App or GeForce overlay, AMD Adrenalin overlay, Xbox Game Bar recording, Steam overlay, OBS, Overwolf apps, hardware-monitoring overlays, RGB utilities, fan-control tools, and automatic overclocking software. Close browser video streams and animated tabs as well.
Riot says third-party applications that hook into or open handles around League can conflict with protected processes. Its Vanguard retrospective identifies possible click lag and FPS-related symptoms from poorly behaved software, but this does not prove that Vanguard universally lowers FPS. Test by closing the software; do not disable Vanguard or Windows security protections.
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Riot’s Vanguard retrospective explains these interactions.
Check whether League is using the right GPU
This is especially important on laptops with integrated and discrete graphics.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
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- Open Settings → System → Display → Graphics.
- Locate League or add the actual
League of Legends.exefrom your installation’sGamefolder. - Set its GPU preference to High performance when Windows offers that option.
- Check NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Software for a per-application GPU preference.
- Test with the laptop plugged in and its manufacturer performance profile enabled.
Installation paths differ, so select the real executable instead of blindly pasting a standard path. An external monitor can also change GPU routing or display behavior; compare the laptop screen with the external display if possible.
Reset League’s graphics settings methodically
Open League’s graphics menu and change only a few diagnostic settings at a time:
- Test Fullscreen and Borderless; neither is universally faster.
- Confirm that resolution has not increased unexpectedly.
- Disable anti-aliasing temporarily.
- Lower shadows, effects, character quality, and environment quality.
- Test V-Sync on and off.
- Use a stable FPS cap below the frame rate your system can sustain. A consistent 120 or 144 FPS is preferable to an unstable uncapped result.
- Use low-spec client behavior or close the client during games if that option exists in your current client version.
Lowering resolution will not necessarily help when League is CPU- or game-thread-limited, particularly at low resolutions and very high FPS targets. Lowering effects and shadows is more useful for fight-related drops, but no single setting guarantees a large improvement.
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Check the graphics driver—update or roll back based on timing
Identify your GPU by pressing the Windows key, typing dxdiag, opening DirectX Diagnostic Tool, and checking the Display tab. You can also use Device Manager or your GPU vendor’s software.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsIf the FPS problem began immediately after a driver update, test the previous known-good driver or use the vendor’s rollback option. If the installation appears damaged, use the vendor installer’s clean-install option. Avoid unofficial driver sites. Display Driver Uninstaller is an advanced fallback, not the first step for ordinary troubleshooting.
Look for overheating or throttling
A system that starts fast and slows after several minutes may be hitting thermal or power limits. Check temperature, clock speed, GPU utilization, per-core CPU usage, RAM, and VRAM during the drop. Task Manager’s Performance tab provides basic information; optional tools such as HWiNFO or MSI Afterburner can log sensors, but disable their overlays while testing.
- High GPU utilization with low FPS suggests a graphics-bound workload.
- Low GPU utilization with a saturated CPU core suggests a CPU, game-thread, or background-process bottleneck.
- Falling clock speeds alongside rising temperatures suggest throttling.
These are diagnostic clues, not guarantees. Check for blocked laptop vents, dust, fan-control failures, unstable overclocks or undervolts, and charging or adapter problems. Stop testing if temperatures become unsafe or the computer shuts down.
Reset League’s configuration safely
A damaged configuration can preserve a bad resolution, display mode, or graphics setting.
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- Exit League and Riot Client completely.
- Find the League installation’s
Configfolder. - Copy it somewhere safe as a backup.
- Rename the live folder to
Config.oldrather than deleting it. - Relaunch League and let it create fresh settings.
- Reapply your graphics options manually.
Installation locations vary. Riot’s requirements and support material use the default installation structure as an example.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Consider patch or system changes
Write down when the decline began and what changed immediately beforehand: a League patch, Riot Client update, Windows update, GPU driver, BIOS or chipset update, monitor or dock, HDR or refresh-rate setting, antivirus configuration, sleep/resume event, or new overlay.
Undo or isolate one change at a time. Check Riot’s League support hub, current patch notes, and known issues. Community reports can reveal a pattern, but they do not prove that a particular patch is responsible.
Riot’s requirements page, updated February 3, 2026, states that Windows requires DirectX 11 feature level 11_0 and that this requirement becomes mandatory from patch 25.21. Mac requirements use the relevant Metal capability. Verify the current English page before relying on exact requirements, because minimum specifications do not guarantee smooth high-FPS performance.
Check Riot’s current minimum and recommended requirements.
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When repair or reinstalling makes sense
Use Riot’s repair and logging tools before reinstalling. The Riot support hub provides entry points for “Fix My League” and the Riot Repair Tool.
Reinstallation is reasonable when files repeatedly corrupt, repair fails, the Riot Client behaves abnormally, the issue affects only one installation or Windows account, or Riot Support requests a clean reinstall. It will not fix overheating, wrong-GPU assignment, a Windows power setting, a monitor refresh-rate problem, a defective driver, or a patch regression.
Quick symptom-to-cause guide
| Symptom | Likely categories | First test |
|---|---|---|
| Low immediately after launch | Wrong GPU, power mode, settings, driver | Plug in, select High performance GPU, reset settings |
| Starts high, then falls | Heat, power limits, background process | Log temperatures and clocks after a cold restart |
| Only during team fights | CPU load, effects, shadows, overlays | Lower effects and shadows; disable overlays |
| FPS high but controls feel delayed | Ping, packet loss, V-Sync, display latency | Compare FPS and ping; check refresh rate |
| Only League is affected | Config, patch, driver, overlay, Vanguard interaction | Run default settings with third-party tools closed |
| Every game is affected | Windows, driver, power, heat, hardware | Test another game and inspect clocks and temperatures |
| Only external monitor is affected | Refresh rate, cable, display mode, GPU routing | Verify Windows refresh rate and GPU assignment |
| Only on battery | Battery power limits | Test on AC and restore an appropriate power mode |
What not to do
- Do not download “FPS booster” programs.
- Do not disable Vanguard, Windows security, or exploit protections for ordinary low FPS.
- Do not edit the registry or set League to high process priority without a specific verified reason.
- Do not permanently disable fullscreen optimizations without an A/B test.
- Do not delete the Riot Games folder or League configuration without a backup.
- Do not assume a high-end GPU rules out CPU, power, temperature, driver, or software problems.
If Riot reports VAN 9002, follow its specific instructions for restoring Exploit Protection settings to their defaults and removing Riot-related custom entries. Do not change those security settings merely because FPS is low. See Riot’s VAN 9002 guidance.
What to send Riot Support
If FPS remains low after a clean test with overlays disabled, current or known-good drivers, default settings, correct GPU selection, and acceptable temperatures, collect:
- Riot ID, region, and server
- League patch number and the date the issue began
- Windows version, laptop model, CPU, GPU, and RAM
- GPU-driver version
- FPS before and after the drop
- Whether the issue appears in Practice Tool or other games
- Temperature, utilization, and clock behavior
- Recent driver, Windows, BIOS, monitor, or software changes
- The overlays and third-party tools tested
- Riot Repair Tool logs, screenshots, and exact reproduction steps
This information helps separate a local configuration problem from a game-side, driver-specific, or hardware-specific issue.
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