On December 8, 2021, the much-anticipated Halo Infinite campaign was released to the public. For a good gaming experience, make sure you have the right hardware.
Graphics card
It’s one of the most important parts of your computer when it comes to gaming. Especially with the current supply chain issues, getting a new graphics card can be difficult, expensive, or both. The recommended specifications call for an AMD 5700 XT or an Nvidia RTX 2070, which cost upwards of 1000$. Fortunately, the minimum requirement is more lenient, requiring either an AMD RX 570, an Nvidia 1050 Ti, or equivalent.
Halo Infinite, like many recent games, requires 4GB of VRAM at the minimum. You might need to prepare for an upgrade if you want higher graphical fidelity than the lowest texture setting, which is what VRAM is primarily used for.
Another important thing to note is the drivers for your graphics card. It is important to run the latest version, as manufacturers often make optimizations for recent game releases. So, update your graphics card drivers. An important note for AMD users in Halo Infinite is that older driver versions contain a bug that severely affects performance. Sadly, some of AMD’s older GPU releases no longer receive driver updates. If your GPU is part of the 300 series or earlier, you will probably be unable to play Halo Infinite, and a GPU upgrade is in order. Here are some options, depending on availability:
CPU
The CPU situation is far better than the GPU one. The recommended parts for Halo Infinite are the AMD Ryzen 3700X or the Intel i7 9700K, which are far more affordable and available than any GPU. Still, if you’re stuck using an older part, the minimum requirements are the AMD Ryzen 5 1600, and the Intel i5 4440.
Memory
For RAM, like most other games, 8 GB is the minimum amount, and 16 GB is the recommended one. However, you’re unlikely to hit memory limitations before hitting either a CPU or a GPU bottleneck.
Storage
As for storage, the Halo Infinite campaign requires over 50 GB of disk space. Compared with other games of this generation, such as Call of Duty’s ridiculous 100 GB, it is a reasonably small amount for a major AAA release. You can even separately install or uninstall HD textures. If you don’t use them, you can safely uninstall them to reclaim some disk space. Make sure there’s enough empty space on your hard drive. If not, free up some disk space. If your PC doesn’t have an SSD, using one to replace your hard disk will improve loading times, both in booting the game and loading new levels while you play.
If you already have a gaming PC and you’re not able to play Halo Infinite you can try the following tweaks:
Overclock your computer
You have to check your CPU and/or GPU specifications and double-check if they support overclocking. If the answer is yes, nudge up the speed of your CPU and/or GPU. You can manually control how much overclocking you wish to apply using specific apps. For the processors’ Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, AMD Ryzen Master, and for the GPU’s MSI Afterburner and Nvidia Inspector.
Use an optimization software package
This type of apps allows you to stop any unnecessary programs or applications so that your computer focuses its GPU, RAM, CPU, and other resources on running the game you are playing. I recommend using: Razer Cortex and Wise Game Booster. They are free and two of the best.
Conclusion
Upgrading your graphic card or processor can certainly go a long way, but basic software maintenance tasks, like updating your graphics card drivers or freeing up some disk space can squeeze better performance out of your computer. If you’ve concluded that optimizing or upgrading isn’t a solution for you and you consider buying a new PC, you should be on the lookout for a prebuilt gaming PC ready for the latest games.