Halo 5 Forge To Require 16GB Of RAM For 4K Game Play At 60 FPS, 12GB At 1080p

Developer 343 Industries is wrapping up work on Halo 5: Forge, the free version of Halo 5's map editing tool that's scheduled to release for Windows 10 next month. If you're planning on using it to build maps and play custom games on your PC, you'll need to bring some relatively high end hardware to the party, especially to play at a 4K resolution at 60 frames per second.

343 Industries announced the different system requirements for Halo 5: Forge. The Minimum specs required aren't too steep—it calls for the following:

• CPU: Intel Core i5 at 2.3GHz or AMD equivalent
• GPU: GeForce GTX 650 Ti
• VRAM: 2GB
• RAM: 8GB of RAM
• 40GB of storage space

It's when you bump up to the Recommended specs to play at 1080p at 60 frames per second that the hardware requirements call for a decidedly burlier build. Here's a look:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K at 3.4GHz or AMD equivalent
• GPU: GeForce GTX 970
• VRAM: 4GB
• RAM: 12GB
• HDD: 40GB

Note that 343 Industries recommends 12GB of system memory to play at 1080p. That's a bit of an odd one, as most modern setups are configured with 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of RAM. Having 12GB was more popular in the days of tri-channel memory when you could fill three slots with 4GB modules.

In any event, here are the Ultra requirements for running Halo 5: Forge at 4K:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K at 3.4GHz or AMD equivalent
• GPU: GeForce GTX 980 Ti
• VRAM: 6GB
• RAM: 16GB
• HDD: 40GB

The other requirement that applies across the board is Windows 10 with the Anniversary Update. You won't be able to run Halo 5: Forge on earlier versions of Windows because it's a DirectX 12 title, and DX12 is exclusive to Windows 10.

"Halo 5: Forge is primed to bring Halo 5’s entire Forge level-creation experience to Windows 10 PCs, along with a suite of great new features, including full mouse and keyboard support, 4k resolution display capability, a brand new content browser to makes showcasing and sharing your creations easier than ever before, and the ability play your creations with friends online through custom games," 343 Industries says.

Publisher Microsoft Studies plans to release Halo 5: Forge to PC on September 8, 2016. It won't cost users anything, though it doesn't come with the single-player campaign found in Halo 5: Guardians for Xbox One. The stock maps from the console version also won't be available in Halo 5: Forge.