SAW – The SAW deals a relatively light amount of damage per round, only 30, but makes up for it with it’s blazing fast 925 RPM. It’s other advantage is it’s speedy reload, a full three seconds faster than the other LMGs. As you can probably see the main problem with the SAW comes down to damage, on non-Hardcore game types this means you need a full 4 hits to take down an enemy. With Stopping Power it becomes 3 hits which is somewhat more manageable. The high RPM is nice but the recoil of a LMG means you will be using burst fire most of the time anyway. The only way to possibly justify using the SAW is if you use a Grip so you can actually harness the power of it’s high RPM, otherwise it is just a suboptimal choice. On Hardcore the world is turned upside down, 30 damage suddenly means a one hit kill. The higher damage weapons like the RPD can still be useful for wall penetration on Hardcore.

RPD – The RPD strikes a middle ground between the M60 and the SAW. It does 40 damage per hit, which means Stopping Power it has a freakin insanely broken two shot kill on something that shoots 700 RPM and basically never has to reload. This means you can spray a couple dozen rounds in the direction of the enemy and as long as just two hit you have a kill. Using the Grip on this weapon makes it even more dirty, no more burst firing, you can just go full auto and still maintain your aim. The lengthy reload time rarely matters because of the 100 round capacity it has. Put all these together and this makes the RPD the best LMG.

M60E4 – The M60 has only one advantage over the other two LMG, it’s damage is 40-50. This means in rare situations you can two shot kill at close range with Stopping Power. The damage point is moot however because you have to use Stopping Power anyway to get two hit kills on medium-long range shots. Essentially the damage benefit is non-existent. For that non existent benefit you have to sacrifice range, RPM and the god given right of decent iron sights.

The bottom line: Among LMGs the RPD is best for normal matches, and the SAW and RPD are best for Hardcore matches.