Halo Infinite now blocks graphics cards with under 4GB VRAM

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Are you a Halo Infinite fan with an ageing graphics card? You might have to now upgrade your GPU to play, as the game seemingly won’t run with less than 4GB VRAM. While Halo Infinite system requirements haven’t necessarily changed, you’ll now be blocked from launching the game without meeting minimum memory specs.

Halo Infinite isn’t graphically demanding, as I’ve personally sunk many hours into the FPS game using my trusty old Nvidia GTX 970. That particular classic card meets the minimum bar set by 343 Industries, and you can hit 60fps with lowered settings. Prior to the release of Season 3, players claim that it’d also run just fine on something like the GTX 1060 3GB model, but it appears that this is no longer the case.

Highlighted by DSOGaming, the latest Halo Infinite patch effectively locks players with a 3GB graphics card out of the game. Again, that means if you’ve got a GTX 1060, you’ll technically have to downgrade to something like the GTX 1050 Ti to meet memory requirements, even though the former is technically a higher-spec card.

Over on Reddit, a collective of Halo Infinite players are expressing their dismay over the runtime lockout, with comments stating that the game ran fine on 3GB graphics cards. One commenter speculates that 343 Industries likely won’t respond to the concerns, as the decision is in line with the developer’s minimum requirements. Another points out that since they’re using a laptop, they physically can’t upgrade their GPU to get the game running, which naturally means they’ll need completely new hardware.

While you won’t have to pick up the best graphics card on the market to play Halo Infinite, having to change GPU based solely on VRAM could drive players away. Of course, if you’re using a card that can handle it, Halo Infinite ray tracing is now a thing, but that doesn’t soften the blow to the budget PC community at large.