I think we can all safely agree The Creative Assembly is a dab hand at real-time strategy games. When the team isn't busy expanding Total War: Warhammer, CA has also been putting the final touches to Halo Wars 2, a full-blown RTS set within the Halo universe. Build bases, amass an army and get stuck into a campaign set after the events of Halo 5: Guardians. It's a Microsoft-published RTS which is reason enough to get excited for AoE fans. Before you pre-purchase on the notoriously finnicky Windows Store, check out the Halo Wars 2 official PC system requirements to ensure you can run it.
Halo Wars 2 Minimum System Requirements
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 3.3 GHz or AMD FX-4350 4.2 GHz
- RAM: 6 GB System Memory
- GPU RAM: 2GB Video Memory
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 2GB or AMD Radeon HD 7750 2GB
- DX: DirectX 12
- HDD: 25 GB Installation Size
Halo Wars 2 Recommended System Requirements
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5 GHz or AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz
- RAM: 8 GB System Memory
- GPU RAM: 4 GB Video Memory
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB
- DX: DirectX 12
- HDD: 25 GB Installation Size
Halo Wars 2 is a first-party Microsoft published game available as part of the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative. You know the score by now - it means Halo Wars 2 is only available via the Windows Store, requires Windows 10 and a DirectX 12-capable graphics card.
Without that out of the way, what about the rest of Halo Wars 2's system specs? The first things to note is the massive disparity between the minimum and recommend system requirements for Halo Wars 2. Down at the low end you really don't need a very powerful gaming PC to get Halo Wars 2 up and running. In fact, Microsoft even suggests you can get away with an Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics, although you're probably going to experience some serious performance shortfalls. Your only real concern when it comes to graphics cards is that you've got a 2GB DX11 video card. If you've got that then you're gold - Halo Wars 2 will run fine on your system.
The jump to the recommended specs for Halo Wars 2 then is gigantic. With low graphics settings you can get away with an iGPU but if you want to crank Halo Wars 2 up to ultra then you're going to need some serious graphics card firepower. Both the GeForce GTX 1060 and the Radeon RX 480 are interchangeable in terms of performance. The GTX 1060 is a mid-range graphics card while the Radeon RX 480 is a high-end Polaris Radeon chip.
Lastly just another reminder that Halo Wars 2 is a Windows Store exclusive. You will need to be running Windows 10 to play Halo Wars 2. Fortunately it is just an RTS so fingers crossed the performance demands won't be too extreme, a notorious bug bear of Microsoft's Windows Store Xbox Play Anywhere titles.
As ever, remember you can always check out how well your PC can run the Halo Wars 2 System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the Halo Wars 2 GPU benchmark chart.
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PC Specs
lmao, I hate rts games but halo has been dead since reach.
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"It's a Microsoft-published RTS which is reason enough to get excited for AoE fans."
Have you seen actual gameplay? No, no it REALLY isn't. This game is nothing like AoE, ridiculously dumbed down, very little variation in gameplay, etc.
PC Specs
Also, it really doesn't feel or look like Creative Assembly had much imput either. There's no part of it that feels, looks, or even hints at being inspired by Total War. It looks just like the first one again.
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Nice share on your thoughts bro. I like getting a rounded perspective about an impending game. Cheers F
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wait, GTS 450 support DX 12? Don't you mean GTX then?
EDIT: Lol, such an old card support dx 12, nice. I didn't expect it.
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No such thing, no? THe card just needs to be the equivalent of a 7750, although tbf there are very few 2GB 450s. I will bump up to a 2GB 650 just to be safe.
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i just didnt expected gts 450 to support dx 12, thats all
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Any card that supports Dx11 can use Dx12 to a limited extent. nVidia's 400 series are Dx11 so...
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Let's make a protest of our own by NOT buying a copies of Halo Wars 2 and demand that we want the "actual" Halo games that we PC gamers have been denied for years.
It will make a powerful statement to Microsoft Studios.
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While I agree that we deserve all the Halo games on PC too,Halo Wars is an "actual" Halo game and it was designed for the fans of the series who want a strategy game.It's actually a good game and I enjoyed the first one a lot,even more than some of the traditional shooters.
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I gave Halo Wars a try and I hated it. Funny thing is that RTS games are my favorite, but the Halo Wars game really sucked for me. So I will have to agree with B9TRIBECA on this one.
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Lol no offence but that really isn't the greatest idea. I can see it now:
Microsoft: Let's test out Halo on PC with an RTS game, which many PC gamers are a fan of.
PC Gamers: Let's not buy it to protest!
Microsoft: Well, our test of Halo on PC was a failure. No point in trying to put Halo games on PC nobody buys them.
Sure that is EXACTLY the tactic we should use!
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At this point Microsoft can take their exclusive games and shove them up their @ss. I would love to play a traditional Halo game on PC, but it is never going to happen so they can f*ck off. I will never buy another d@mn game from them ever again. I have boycotted the Xbox One, I will boycott their next console, and I will continue boycotting their exclusive games that come to PC. The only way to break that cycle of mine is for Microsoft to make a change, and that has no chance in hell of ever happening.