League of Legends Performance questions

I have been playing League of Legends on all low settings and 1366x768 resolution. I get a steady 60 FPS at these settings. I have noticed though that there is a hint of lag that drives me crazy when I scroll the screen around (by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen). However this bit of lag seems to go away after about 5 minutes in the game. I can only assume this is due to the processor's turbo boost kicking in...(is this correct?)

Anyways I waited last game until the scrolling lag had subsided, then moved all the settings up to medium. The game ran at a very playable ~48 FPS, and scrolling lag did not reappear. I could probably move some settings still higher and keep the game playable, but that is not what this thread is about.

I want to know that, if this temporary "scrolling lag" is in fact due to the computer waiting for the processor's turbo boost to kick in, is there any way that I can ramp up the processor in anticipation of the game? instead of waiting 5-10 minutes in-game for the processor to catch up

Or if it's not related to the processor's turbo boost, what could be causing this?

 

By the way, I have the core i5, not overclocked, and a vertex 2 80GB ssd. 4GB of RAM.

 

"I can only assume this is due to the processor's turbo boost kicking in...(is this correct?)"

No, it's not Turbo Boost. Turbo Boost will kick in pretty much instantaneously when you do something that requires 100% of the CPU at a lower speed, so the fact the lag stops five minutes later really shows it's not Turbo Boost because if it was it would happen the whole time. Actually, Turbo Boost requires your CPU to be lower than a certain temperature, so it's possible that Turbo Boost is less effective after five minutes than at first moments, but not the other way around as in your case.

Sorry I do not know what could cause it, but it's definitely not Turbo Boost.

 

Turbo Boost is rather instant, and only limited by TDP & Power draw of the CPU.


I think it's switching back and forth between the IGP and the nVidia GPU.


I could be wrong, though.

 

The m11x can run the game on ultra settings. I have logged at least 50+ games on the laptop. I average about 45 - 50 FPS in game. First thing, did you white list league of legends? LoL actually uses two application executables, one for the user interface pre-game and then when a match starts it will actually launch the game client. I'm not on a PC right now that has the game installed but if you look in the league of legends install folder you will see both executable files.

I do experience some "scroll lag" but from your description I don't think it is the same. Lets verify that though. The scroll lag I experience (BTW haven't resolved my issue) goes like this: When I hit the edge of the screen I feel like it takes 1-2 seconds times to process that I'm at the edge of the screen for it to register to start scrolling. Although once it does start scrolling it is not choppy.

 

I have white listed the game. I think I even whitelisted the client too, just to be safe. I have checked the nVidia GPU activity icon in the taskbar while the game is running. It shows that the GPU is indeed in use.

And yes the scroll lag you describe is exactly what I'm talking about. It is very annoying to me, even if it is only ~1 second. This is probably because I am used to playing on my desktop which moves flawlessly around the map.

 

TDP has nothing to do with Turbo Boost (I think you confuse TDP with temperature).

The only reason it would switch between the IGP and nVidia GPUs is if there is a program starting and stopping due to movement in the first five minutes of play, which doesn't seem likely. Actually, I suppose there could be a bug in the drivers causing that, raising the question, which drivers are you using? There are some bugs in early Optimus drivers.

 

I got the 258.96 driver following instructions from a thread on these forums so that it would work on the m11x

 

I have no idea why this happens and it is annoying. I too also have a desktop that runs the game flawlessly and suspect the same exact thing, that I'm just used to the speed of the desktop. Every time I go from Desktop to m11x it takes some time getting used to.

 

Just so you know, in my experience LoL runs better on high settings on the M11X than on low. I think this is because the low settings use many software effects which are CPU taxing assuming your GPU cannot handle them. In the M11X the GPU is very much capable. I would recommend trying all high except for shadows which I generally turn low or off. You might mess with effects as well, though I don't think I have mine turned down. Also make sure you have the FPS limit set to benchmark, otherwise it does funky things to try and give a stable FPS, but generally you would rather have 60-80 FPS most of the time versus 30 FPS all the time.

On the M11X R1 I generally see 40-100 FPS depending on the action. 100 FPS just in lane, probably average 70 while laning (so with minions and enemy champs around), and dropping down farther when it is a 5v5 with everyone blowing their spells.

With these settings I find it perfectly playable, and it looks fantastic, I really don't even notice the missing shadows on the small M11X screen.

 

Thanks for reply, I will try this when I get home. I personally prefer at least Medium shadows (again just because I'm used to it on desktop) so hopefully it can handle that. With the high settings that you use, do you experience any of the "scroll lag" that has been described in this thread?

 

I don't experience scroll lag.

However, I can tell you shadows on any game are the M11x's weak point. For example, on some games I have seen low shadows and no shadows give a 20 FPS jump.

You are far better to have everything else on high versus having shadows and having to tone down everything. The M11X just doesn't have the bandwidth for shadows, especially RTS shadows.

 

I am having a similar issue with my m11x r2. It seems like it is not running on the nvidia card because on very high settings with shadows off i get around 20 fps. I have both the lol client and the lol launcher set to use the nvidia and still does not work. Also it does not say that anything is using the GPU on the Nvidia activity center thing when am playing lol

 

Goto NVIDIA Control Panel (right click on the desktop) click Manage 3D Settings under the 3D Settings tab, click the Program Settings tab, and then add C:\Riot Games\League of Legends\game\League of Legends.exe and select the 335m as your preferred gpu.

Also try unclewebb's ThrottleStop found here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/524257-how-supercharge-m11x-core-i5-i7-um-cpus.html

It helps a LOT, and I can play LoL on full settings perfectly fine P:

 

The only problem I have with the M11x when playing LoL, is the amount of room I have to click around. But that's probably just due to fast mouse sensitivity and me panicking when trying to get away from a gank

 

I just want to say also there are two that I would suggest adding just because my nvdia client liked the lol.launcher rather than leagueoflegends.exe. I have both added just because LOL loves to update and may change which one the nvidia wants to use.