Hearthstone Laptop Benchmarks

Enjoyable card game. Even though Hearthstone has low system requirements, there are still laptops out there that cannot run the game smoothly. In our performance analysis we try to find out what the absolute minimum system requirements are.

Klaus Hinum (translated by Stanislav Kokhanyuk), Published 03/30/2020 🇩🇪

Hearthstone is an online digital collectible card game from Blizzard, which was originally released in 2014 and has since been continually updated. As a free-to-play title, it can be downloaded without any upfront payment. However, it relies on microtransactions to make money. It is available for Windows, macOS X, iOS and Android.

The card game offers three graphics presets: low, medium and high. There is not a lot of difference between these presets in terms of the visuals. We were able to observe slight changes only when switching between the high and the medium presets. On the highest settings, the image looks somewhat more plasticky. All in all, the graphics presets, in and of themselves, have very little impact on the overall gameplay experience.

The low and medium presets offer the exact same level of performance. Interestingly enough, both these presets seem to cap the frame rate at 30 FPS. However, the frame rate on the highest preset is only limited by the refresh rate of the monitor (with VSync, it’s usually 60 FPS). Vertical synchronisation cannot be disabled in the settings menu. The Windows version of Hearthstone does not offer many graphics settings.

Benchmark

As the benchmark we decided to use the first level in the single-player campaign, which is known as "Glakrond's Awakening". Here we play as a member of the "League of E.V.I.L." against "Sir Finley". We utilise Fraps to record the frame rate. We chose to run the game at 1080p even on the lowest settings, because we were not always able to select 720p on certain laptops. We decided against 1024x768, because at this resolution the text appears quite fuzzy.

In general, one does not need a high frame rate to fully enjoy Hearthstone. However, once the frame rate drops below 25 FPS, the game starts to feel quite stuttery and the card drawing takes up a bit more time. In our testing, the Teclast Tbook 16 Power offered the worst gaming experience.

Results

Low and Medium

As was previously mentioned, the frame rate here is capped at 30 FPS. Only the least capable modern CPUs such as the Atom Z8750 and the Celeron N3350 struggle here. Any chip with the UHD Graphics 600 or better is well-equipped to handle Hearthstone on these settings.

Hearthstone
1920x1080 low 1920x1080 medium
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M Apple MacBook Pro 16 2019 i9 5500M, i9-9880H	33.2 (28^min) fps ∼54% 32 (28^min) fps ∼52%
Intel UHD Graphics 605 Topjoy Falcon, Pentium N5000	31.1 (26^min) fps ∼51%
Qualcomm Adreno 630 Lenovo Yoga C630 (Snapdragon), SD 850	29.3 (20^min) fps ∼48%
Intel UHD Graphics 600 BMAX MaxBook Y11 H1M6, Celeron N4100	29 (12^min) fps ∼48% 28.9 (18^min) fps ∼47%
Intel HD Graphics 500 Jumper EZbook 3, Celeron N3350	23.9 (11^min) fps ∼39% 24 (15^min) fps ∼39%
Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell) Teclast Tbook 16 Power, Z8750	17.8 (6^min) fps ∼29% 18 (5^min) fps ∼29%
Intel HD Graphics 615 Eve-Tech Eve V i7, i7-7Y75	27.6 (0^min) fps ∼45%

Maximum settings at 1080p

You will need a powerful integrated GPU or an entry-level dedicated graphics card to run Hearthstone on the highest settings at 1080p. The old Intel HD Graphics 5500 is the cut-off point here. The Snapdragon 850 in the Yoga C630 is also capable of achieving playable frame rates on the maximum settings. A few months ago that was not the case, because the 32-bit emulator for ARM-based Windows devices did not work very well.

Hearthstone
1920x1080 high
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q Asus Zephyrus GX501, i7-7700HQ	119 (107^min) fps ∼39%
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 Intel NUC8i7BE, i7-8559U	59.8 (56^min) fps ∼20%
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M Apple MacBook Pro 16 2019 i9 5500M, i9-9880H	59.7 (47^min) fps ∼20%
Intel HD Graphics 5500 Intel NUC5i3RYK, 5010U	29.3 (19^min) fps ∼10%
Qualcomm Adreno 630 Lenovo Yoga C630 (Snapdragon), SD 850	27.8 (10^min) fps ∼9%
Intel HD Graphics 615 Eve-Tech Eve V i7, i7-7Y75	19 (1^min) fps ∼6%
Intel UHD Graphics 600 BMAX MaxBook Y11 H1M6, Celeron N4100	14.9 (10^min) fps ∼5%
Intel HD Graphics 500 Jumper EZbook 3, Celeron N3350	11.2 (8^min) fps ∼4%
Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell) Teclast Tbook 16 Power, Z8750	9.91 (6^min) fps ∼3%

Maximum settings at 2160p

To achieve playable frame rates in 4K you will need a dedicated GPU. The Radeon Pro 560X in the 15-inch MacBook Pro gets within spitting distance of an ideal 60 FPS. The Asus Zephyrus GX501 features a 120 Hz screen and therefore can achieve up to 120 FPS with the VSync enabled.

Hearthstone
3840x2160 high
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q Asus Zephyrus GX501, i7-7700HQ	119 (102^min) fps ∼84%
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M Apple MacBook Pro 16 2019 i9 5500M, i9-9880H	59.6 (49^min) fps ∼42%
AMD Radeon Pro 560X Apple MacBook Pro 15 2018 (2.6 GHz, 560X), i7-8850H	58.3 (30^min) fps ∼41%
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 Intel NUC8i7BE, i7-8559U	27.2 (20^min) fps ∼19%
Intel HD Graphics 615 Eve-Tech Eve V i7, i7-7Y75	7.99 (0^min) fps ∼6%

Overview

Benchmarked devices

4K Monitore
Asus PB287Q, Philips Brilliance 329P9H

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Hearthstone Laptop Benchmarks

Klaus Hinum, 2020-03-30 (Update: 2021-03-12)

Legend
5	Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
	May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
	May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
?	Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
	Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.