Players think League of Legends system requirement update tied to new champion release
Riot GamesRiot announced that the League of Legends and TeamFight Tactics system requirements are being raised with the release of patch 11.17, with some players thinking it has to do with the upcoming champion release.
Over the years, League of Legends has gone through massive changes to upgrade its visual fidelity. Many champions over the last year, like Malzahar and Zilean, have seen full VFX updates making their kits look brand new.
Riot has also put in major work to make new skins and champion releases look better than ever. The newest champion hitting the Summoners Rift on July 22 is Akshan, who sports a grappling hook to outplay his competition. Every new champion release is more complicated than the last, asking more and more of the machines that run LoL.
Riot GamesLoL system requirements
As of patch 11.17, LoL and TFT will require higher system requirements according to a new blog post from Riot. In the post, they give a breakdown of what the changes specifically are.
Here are the new PC requirements:
| Minimum | Recommended | |
| CPU | Intel: Core i3-530
AMD: A6-3650 ARM: not supported |
Intel: Core i5-3300
AMD: Ryzen 3 1200 ARM: not supported |
| CPU Features | SSE2 | SSE4 |
| GPU | NVidia: GeForce 9600GT
AMD: HD 6570 Intel: Intel HD 4600 Integrated Graphics |
NVidia: GeForce 560
AMD: Radeon HD 6950 Intel: Intel UHD 630 Integrated Graphics |
| GPU Features | DX10-Level Hardware | DX11-Level Hardware |
| VRAM | 1GB | 2GB |
| Free Storage Space | 16GB HDD | 16GB SSD |
| OS Versions | Win 7, 8, 10 | Win 10 |
| OS Architecture | X86 32-bit, x64 | x64 |
| RAM | 2GB | 4GB |
| Recommended GFX Setting | Low | High |
| Recommended Resolution | 1024×768 | 1920×1080 |
The biggest note from the system requirement changes is the suggested VRAM going from 512 MB to 2GB, asking players for four times the amount of VRAM than before.
Upping the system requirements makes sense as the game demands stronger hardware than ever before. Fans on Reddit speculated that patch 11.17 could also see the release of new yorlde champion Vex, which could be one of the main reasons for the system requirement upgrade.
Back in April, Riot developer Reav3 said in a blog post “Last we chatted, the new mid lane mage was scheduled to release ahead of the marksman. Since then, we’ve decided our gloomy new yordle needed a bit more time in development as we needed to create some new tech to visually sell her source of power.”
Adding together the system requirements announcement with Vex’s upcoming release, it’s likely their releases will coincide with each other and that Vex had something to do with Riot’s new requirements.