LOTRO Hardware Survey and Requirements Update

[Sapience]

Recently we asked players to complete a survey telling us what kind of hardware they were running. We also conducted a number of tests with our game client running against a wide variety of hardware configurations including those mentioned by players. We also ran these tests against our minimum and recommended hardware configurations.

As a result of this process we’ve created new guidelines for minimum and recommended hardware for playing The Lord of the Rings Online.

New Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz or AMD Equivalent
• System Memory: 1GB (2GB for Windows Vista)
• Graphics Card: at least 128MB Onboard graphics memory.
• Internet Connection: Cable or DSL Connection
• Direct X Version: Directx 9.0c
• Disk Space: 12 GB (+3 GB for international clients)

New Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows Vista 64-bit
• CPU: Dual Core 2.66 GHZ
• System Memory: 2GB
• Graphics Cards: 512MB dedicated discrete card
• Internet Connection: Cable or DSL Connection
• Disk Space: 20 GB (+3 GB for international Clients)

Please keep in mind that these are requirements we feel should allow you to run the game reliably at low to moderate settings. If you wish to experience the game at the highest settings, additional system memory and higher end graphics cards should be considered.

[Sapience]

Suggestions from our Technical support team

About Graphics cards
The recommendations in the post above mention memory suggestions for discrete graphics cards, but please be aware that we suggest you have a video card that at least falls into the Nvidia 7000 series or the ATI equivalent range. Card falling under those performance levels may not offer sufficient performace, despite meeting the stated onboard memory requirements.

Intel integrated chipsets are good basic graphics solutions, but not ideal for gaming. If you’re using an older Intel integrated video solution you may experience poor performance and low frame rates on even modest settings. If you are using a newer Intel chipset, and the game reports that you can use DirectX 10 or 11 modes, we recommend not enabling these. Doing so may cause some graphical elements to display oddly or not display at all.

Use a 64 bit OS
Although LOTRO is a 32bit application we strongly encourage players to use a 64 bit OS like Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Please note that Windows 8 and 8.1 are not officially supported). 32bit operating systems may encounter memory limitations when the game client is running and stability issues may result. This is especially true for those using the High definition installation which uses significantly larger amounts of graphics and system memory due to larger textures. Those who choose not to or cannot upgrade to a 64bit OS are encouraged to use the standard resolution client install to reduce memory usage and avoid the memory limits for applications on 32bit versions of Windows. (If you have already installed the High Resolution version, lowering “Texture Detail” in Options > ADV Graphics to medium or lower can also aid in avoiding this memory limitation and improving game stability and performance on 32bit systems.)

[Crell_1]

Are you sure your CPU requirements/recommendation aren't backwards?

Thanks for finally getting us the new requirements.

[cdq1958]

Are you sure your CPU requirements/recommendation aren't backwards?

Thanks for finally getting us the new requirements.

Crell, I read that as the original Pentium 4 CPU, which was single core, if I am not mistaken. I think the 3GHz is a typo for 2GHz, but I may be wrong about that as well. When the original P4 was launched, you could get one with a 2GHz clock.

[Sapience]

Are you sure your CPU requirements/recommendation aren't backwards?

Thanks for finally getting us the new requirements.

Yes. If you read them the min spec is recommending a single core Pentium 4 while the recommended is recommending a multi-core processor of more recent vintage.

[SynysterA7X]

the minimum requirements may run the game, but that doesn't mean that they can play

pc can explode

[Lampion-Snowbourn]

With this beautiful scenery of Lotro it is a 'sin' to recommend to play on medium graphics. But from high to ultra I would definitely recommend more.

Thanks for the update though it's very pleasing that you take the time to do such things especially before Christmas. I though that after the rush of HD release everyone is on holiday for the rest of the year.

Keep it up guys!

[FCRoosterQ]

Maybe you can reccomend minimum requirements for running at full everything. That might help people wanting to gain the full effect without breaking the bank.

[Morgorth]

P4 single core processor is a 10 year old chip.
Dual Core is far more recent.

If you're still playing on a decade old system, my congratulations go to you.

[Sapience]

With this beautiful scenery of Lotro it is a 'sin' to recommend to play on medium graphics. But from high to ultra I would definitely recommend more.

Thanks for the update though it's very pleasing that you take the time to do such things especially before Christmas. I though that after the rush of HD release everyone is on holiday for the rest of the year.

Keep it up guys!

I won't disagree, but we try to keep the specs down to what you can reasonably expect to be required to run the game at moderate settings and still enjoy it.

Obviously if you are planning a major upgrade anyway you're probably going to exceed both specifications by a considerable amount and be able to turn the graphics up to the highest level and really experience the incredible visuals our team has produced.

[Eorlmer]

Hummm..... Perhaps I have a problem with my PC. Core I7 + 8GB RAM + ATI Radeon 8850M and it is impossible for me to play setting DirectX 10 or 11, got a lot of "graphic lag" if I set one of these versions. I play setting DirectX 9.0 on Ultra and it's around 50 ~ 60 FPS. High textures installation.

[Sapience]

Maybe you can reccomend minimum requirements for running at full everything. That might help people wanting to gain the full effect without breaking the bank.

I can share what I run on. I think anyone that's seen me live stream from my home rig knows I play with everything maxed.

Core I7 2.8GHZ (second Gen, so about 3 years old. Not the newer versions)
16GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 570 with 2GB
Windows 7 64 Bit.

You don't really need the 16GB, 8 was fine I upped it to 16GB because I do a lot of video editing unrelated to the game. Same with the 2GB card, you could get a 1GB version and probably still be fine.

You could probably throw a lot more money at it too if you wanted.

[SNy-lotrolinux-EU]

We also conducted a number of tests with our game client running against a wide variety of hardware configurations including those mentioned by players. We also ran these tests against our minimum and recommended hardware configurations.

New Minimum System Requirements

• System Memory: 1GB (2GB for Windows Vista)
• Graphics Card: at least 128MB Onboard graphics memory.

Please keep in mind that these are requirements we feel should allow you to run the game reliably at low to moderate settings. If you wish to experience the game at the highest settings, additional system memory and higher end graphics cards should be considered.

Are you saying you have tested the client on a 32bit OS with 1GB memory and a 128MB card in overhauled/new regions like the improved Bree, Rohan, Wildermore and the like and it didn't blow itself up in short order?
Note the explicit mention of these regions as the problematic ones, hence only a sufficiently long test there can be counted as useful information wrt. system requirements for players that actually intend to play there.

SNy

[Elrantiri]

Hummm..... Perhaps I have a problem with my PC. Core I7 + 8GB RAM + ATI Radeon 8850M and it is impossible for me to play setting DirectX 10 or 11, got a lot of "graphic lag" if I set one of these versions. I play setting DirectX 9.0 on Ultra and it's around 50 ~ 60 FPS. High textures installation.

Yeah DX10 and DX11 tends to that for me as well with AMD GFX (7870 here), and DX10/11 also tends to crash very often for me, so I've given up on them.

[Sapience]

Are you saying you have tested the client on a 32bit OS with 1GB memory and a 128MB card in overhauled/new regions like the improved Bree, Rohan, Wildermore and the like and it didn't blow itself up in short order?
Note the explicit mention of these regions as the problematic ones, hence only a sufficiently long test there can be counted as useful information wrt. system requirements for players that actually intend to play there.

SNy

You may want to read the second post, suggestions from the Tech Support team. Obviously we aren't talking about 15 year old Geforce 4 cards or Radeon 1900s, nor are we talking about (since you're commenting on the minimum requirements to play the game) playing on high settings. If you're having issues and you're playing on those specs I'd suggest turning things down/off and seeing how it impacts your gameplay.

[Sapience]

Yeah DX10 and DX11 tends to that for me as well with AMD GFX (7870 here), and DX10/11 also tends to crash very often for me, so I've given up on them.

Hummm..... Perhaps I have a problem with my PC. Core I7 + 8GB RAM + ATI Radeon 8850M and it is impossible for me to play setting DirectX 10 or 11, got a lot of "graphic lag" if I set one of these versions. I play setting DirectX 9.0 on Ultra and it's around 50 ~ 60 FPS. High textures installation.

I'm going way out on a limb here, especially since the data pool here is exactly two, but maybe something related to ATI drivers?

[maiki1978]

Mmmm... Finally new requirements... But wait!! Nothing mentioned about THE LAG! *facepalm* wait...I play from Europe I m destined to have a 130-160 ms latency and a 15 sec skill lag in ettens. But when I m in USA I get 10 ms...nothing to be done for us European players on snowbourn server despite the reports we ve all sent and the YouTube videos. I guess this is how it will be despite my Alienware m18x machine and my 100 MBps Internet connection. Some players due to their geographic position are simply not entitled to enjoy the game. It seems that Boston is the center of the world. Sadness....

monstreous

[araxiecbl]

Recommended settings should be what developers think a machine can run with all settings cranked up and in ultra settings, thats why are "Recommended" settings.. and not only "recommended to play in low-medium (at 20-25FPS maybe?)".. thats just unfair for all those of use who use High-end gaming rigs.. i hate how horrible are the game experience in all the Riders oh Rohan Maps. (the wold, east rohan, west rohan, etc etc).. I have a i7 3770K@4.4ghz, GTX 780 @1200mhz, 16GB RAM@2133mhz, game installed in a Samsung 840 PRO 256 SSD, and still the game run choppy in those areas, major FPS Drops(as low as 10FPS in some east wall pars) every ~3secs.. extremely unstable Frametime(16ms - 100ms every 0.2secs) and major stuttering.. sometimes even Bree show those behavior.. a rig like this should be able to be locked at 60FPS with Vsync. (way worse if play without Vsync. a drop from 400+ FPS to 20FPS its not not good). I think those minimum settings and recommended settings should be to allow people play through the whole game at minimum playable settings with 30FPS. and not only while creating a new character and make some run of the game in a lonely map.. not fair to have a good experience only in lonely maps and the rest its just playable but with lot of problems.. its good to see the game are optimized for very very low end machines, but should be good to be optimized for 4+ Cores chips with better memory management.

[Globox]

Thanks for sharing this.
Any suggests regarding in- and output? I mean the monitor for instance: whitch resolution is minimum, what preferable? Is the keyboard/mice combo enough or how about a gamepad?

[Snowlock]

So will matching or exceeding these specs eliminate the lag we see in the ettenmoors when 24 players are skill-locking or slide showing or rubber banding at the same time?

[SNy-lotrolinux-EU]

You may want to read the second post, suggestions from the Tech Support team. Obviously we aren't talking about 15 year old Geforce 4 cards or Radeon 1900s, nor are we talking about (since you're commenting on the minimum requirements to play the game) playing on high settings. If you're having issues and you're playing on those specs I'd suggest turning things down/off and seeing how it impacts your gameplay.

You can trust that I have, in fact, read the second post.

The question, again, was: did your testing include running these mininum specs for visiting the new Bree, Rohan and the like (ie: regions that have been reported to be problematic for 32bit OSs and low/medium amounts of memory?)
Would the answer to this question be a Yes, a No or a Maybe?

SNy

[Sapience]

You can trust that I have, in fact, read the second post.

The question, again, was: did your testing include running these mininum specs for visiting the new Bree, Rohan and the like (ie: regions that have been reported to be problematic for 32bit OSs and low/medium amounts of memory?)
Would the answer to this question be a Yes, a No or a Maybe?

SNy

To the best of my knowledge it would be a yes. There were a very large number of system configurations tested to arrive at these specs.

[araxiecbl]

So will matching or exceeding these specs eliminate the lag we see in the ettenmoors when 24 players are skill-locking or slide showing or rubber banding at the same time?

matching those specs will allow to create a new character smoothly :O

[Snowlock]

matching those specs will allow to create a new character smoothly :O

I don't mean this facetiously. I would find it helpful, if I were to invest in say a better graphics card than the one I have now, if I knew what it would do for me in LOTRO terms. I have a GTX 650 right now, but I haven't upgraded because LOTRO seems to run ultra high at least as well as anyone else I know. But if Turbine can tell me that this will improve pvmp experience, I would be down for a change, and tell my kinsman that they may want to check into this which might cause them to return to LOTRO.

[araxiecbl]

You can trust that I have, in fact, read the second post.

The question, again, was: did your testing include running these mininum specs for visiting the new Bree, Rohan and the like (ie: regions that have been reported to be problematic for 32bit OSs and low/medium amounts of memory?)
Would the answer to this question be a Yes, a No or a Maybe?


SNy

not only 64bits, my little brothers C2D E8400@3.6GHZ+GTX 560TI@1GHZ+8GB RAM Still have Tons of problems in windows 7 64bits.. with only High settings nor very high or ultra settings..

To the best of my knowledge it would be a yes. There were a very large number of system configurations tested to arrive at these specs.

Hardly believe, even my secondary(*work*) machine are way better specs than you, and have Tons of problems with the game maxed (i7 2600@4.2GHZ+16GB Corsair 1600mhz RAM 9-9-9-24-1T + GTX 660TI@1300mhz/7GHZmemory) in the mentioned Areas, Bree, rohan etc...

I guess and recommend a really running the whole game, for a very long time to explore really the game behavior.