Halo: Campaign Evolved performance preview finds Xbox superior to mid-range PC

The Xbox Games Showcase confirmed a Halo: Campaign Evolved release date on July 28th. Fans are now seeing early performance impressions of the anticipated Combat Evolved remake. In the Digital Foundry preview, the site surprisingly revealed how the Xbox version had an edge over modest PC configs.

A mostly successful transition to UE5

On both platforms, Digital Foundry noted dramatic improvements over the 2011 Anniversary Edition. Unreal Engine 5 introduces updated lighting effects, like Lumen global illumination, that make outdoor environments feel more natural. Reflections are also convincing as Master Chief traverses a sun-drenched coastline.

The Halo: Campaign Evolved preview includes two missions, The Silent Cartographer and Assault on the Control Room. Xbox Series X players can expect a 60 fps performance mode, which was the only option available in the demo. The final build should offer a 30 fps quality preset with improved image quality.

Digital Foundry praised the shooter's performance on the Series X console. Dynamic Resolution Scaling (DRS) settles at around 1080p, but Unreal Engine 5 perks like ray tracing remain enabled. Most importantly, frame rates met the 60 fps target with minimal or no stuttering.

The Halo: Campaign Evolved demo currently lacks Series S optimization, so the site turned its attention to the PC version. At 4K and max settings, an RTX 5090 configuration kept GPU utilization near 50%. Frame rates easily held at 60 fps with a cap applied.

A win for console warriors?

Unfortunately, mid-range and lower-end gaming rigs may encounter some limitations. A machine with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and an RTX 4060 produced mixed results at 1440p. DLSS balanced mode wasn’t enough to keep the fps counter at a consistent 60. CPU throttling is the likely culprit, particularly when many enemies are on the screen.

Less capable hardware could raise even more concerns. The ROG Xbox Ally X gaming handheld struggled to stay at 30 fps using TSR upscaling. Digital Foundry suspects that the Combat Evolved remake will fare even worse on the Steam Deck.

The Halo: Campaign Evolved performance preview also exposed common Unreal Engine 5 drawbacks. Temporal noise can manifest through flickering, detracting from overall image quality.

Even with some shortcomings, the benchmarkers were largely impressed by the shooter. Still, ahead of its release date, the Xbox Series X console produces smoother visuals than all but the most powerful PCs.