Windows Central Insider
One of this year's biggest new games for Microsoft and Xbox is Halo: Campaign Evolved — a full-fledged remake of the first game, 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved, that features new gameplay additions, expanded replayability, and an Unreal Engine 5-powered graphical makeover.
It's headed to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 late next month, with Xbox confirming its long-rumored release date of July 28 during the Xbox Games Showcase. Notably, you can jump in on July 23, five days early, if you purchase the Premium Edition; I imagine that's incentivized many players to preorder, leading to the game climbing the Steam sales chart.
Now that the Halo remake is just over a month away from its full launch, something PC players in particular have been wanting to know is what the game's system requirements and recommended specs are.
Thankfully, they've now been announced by Xbox and developer Halo Studios, and I've included them in the below image and table for your convenience:
Settings | Low (Minimum), 1080p @ 60 FPS | Medium, 1440p @ 60 FPS | High (Recommended), 4K @ 60 FPS | Ultra, 4K @ 60 FPS |
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 / Intel Core i7-10700K | AMD Ryzen 7 5700X / Intel Core i5-12600K | AMD Ryzen 7 7700 / Intel Core i7-12700K | AMD Ryzen 9 7900X / Intel Core i9-13900K |
GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super / AMD Radeon RX 6600 / Intel ARC A580 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 / AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 9070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 |
RAM | 16GB | 16GB | 32GB | 32GB |
VRAM | 8GB | 8GB | 12GB | 16GB |
OS | Windows 11 22H2 64-bit (ReBAR recommended) | Windows 11 22H2 64-bit (ReBAR recommended) | Windows 11 22H2 64-bit (ReBAR recommended) | Windows 11 22H2 64-bit (ReBAR recommended) |
Storage | SSD with 100GB available space | SSD with 100GB available space | SSD with 100GB available space | SSD with 100GB available space |
All in all, for an Unreal Engine 5 title that's aiming to deliver peak visual fidelity, Halo: Campaign Evolved's CPU, GPU, and VRAM requirements aren't too bad at all. Targeting a 1440p / 4K resolution with 60 FPS and Medium or High settings can be done with hardware that's five to six years old, which is likely what many gaming rigs are equipped with.
The memory and storage requirements, though, are a bit harsher. Demanding 16GB of memory for the lower quality levels at 1080p and 1440p is fine — most players have that much — but the requirement for 32GB if you want to push higher is a little debilitating, especially during the ongoing RAM crisis.
Campaign Evolved requires a steep 100GB of SSD space, too, which is quite a lot for a campaign-only FPS game. You'll need to uninstall a game or two if your gaming hard drive doesn't have triple-digit room available.
Something worth noting is that it's unclear if these requirements were determined with or without performance-enhancing technologies like Super Resolution and Frame Generation factored in. What we do know, though, is that Campaign Evolved supports their use, alongside things like NVIDIA Reflex and other anti-latency tools. These will make taking advantage of the game's uncapped framerate easier.
Ultimately, the 100GB requirement aside? I'd say it sounds like the Halo remake has been optimized fairly well, and should run well on most PCs with optimal settings chosen. I can't say that for sure until the game is out, though.
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