The last Halo game to make it to PC was Halo 2 all the way back in 2004, back when Windows Vista was still the current operating system. Ever since then, if you wanted to take part in one of the best shooter franchises of all time, you needed an Xbox 360 or Xbox One console – until now.
Microsoft and 343 Industries have finally decided to move the Halo Master Chief collection to the PC, starting with the 2010 entry, Halo: Reach. By all intents and purposes, on PC the game still looks like an Xbox 360 game, just at a higher resolution, and with some improved visuals. But, this is simply an upscaled PC port, it’s not a radical remake by any stretch of the imagination.
So, the game should be pretty easy to run for pretty much anyone, something that was definitely backed up by the very modest system requirements. Still, we figured we’d put it to the test to see exactly what kind of performance you can expect from the game.
Halo: Reach PC performance
Test system specs
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X (16-core, up to 4.7GHz)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62
RAM: 32GB HyperX Predator RGB @ 3,000MHz
Motherboard: X570 Aorus Master
SSD: Samsung 860 QVO 1TB
Power Supply: Phanteks Revolt X 1200
Case: Praxis Wetbench
Because the game has such light system requirements, we opted to test on some low-to-mid-level graphics cards. We paired these affordable graphics cards with some high-end equipment, like an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X and 32GB of RAM, not because the game needs it, but because we’re testing the graphics cards here, and wanted to remove any bottlenecks.
Our test run was essentially a 90 second slice of the second mission “Winter Contingency” at the start of Rally Point: Bravo. From there, we would get in a truck, drive for about 30 seconds, through several loading points to a big house full of Covenant. Then we get out of the truck, shoot the aliens and then…
