How to improve FPS in Halo Infinite (PC)
Halo Infinite runs on Slipspace, 343 Industries' proprietary engine built to combine Zeta Halo's semi-open-world campaign with a free-to-play competitive multiplayer that must sustain a stable 60 FPS even on modest hardware. The engine mainly demands memory bandwidth and VRAM due to its texture streaming system and the ring's dynamic geometry, while CPU load spikes in Big Team Battle from the number of players, vehicles, and simultaneous physics on screen. It's relatively lenient on GPU compared to other modern shooters, since the game was originally built to run on Xbox One. This guide covers the settings that actually move the needle in Arena and BTB, the real state of upscaling support (FSR 2.0 yes, DLSS not officially), and known technical issues with the PC port, like shader compilation stuttering.
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Calculations based on our FPS model combined with the % gain of each setting (measured in public benchmarks).
1. Quick wins (no visual loss)
Start here. Each one adds a little, but together they give +23% free FPS.
Motion Blur
Motion blur in Slipspace has a non-negligible rendering cost and in competitive multiplayer also hurts visual tracking of enemies in Arena and BTB.
Effects Quality
Controls particles for explosions, plasma fire, and vehicle effects like the Wraith or Banshee; on Medium it keeps weapon-combo readability without Ultra's particle overload.
Reflections
Screen-space reflections on metallic surfaces of the Zeta Halo ring and the Spartan's armor have low practical visual impact but a relatively high GPU cost at high resolutions.
Volumetric Fog
Volumetric fog on campaign maps like Riven Gate or in BTB outdoor areas (Behemoth, Highpower) is one of the settings that frees the most FPS per point of quality reduced.
Depth of Field
Depth of field blur only adds cinematic value in campaign sequences and has no use in multiplayer, where it actually makes it harder to spot enemies at medium range.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Shadow Quality
Dynamic shadows from vegetation and structures on large maps like Fragmentation or Deadlock are among the game's most GPU-expensive settings; dropping from Ultra to Medium is usually the single biggest FPS jump available.
Geometry Quality
Controls the detail level of terrain and structure meshes on the ring; dropping from Ultra to High keeps cover silhouettes recognizable in Arena with barely any perceptible visual cost in combat.
Texture Quality
On GPUs with less than 6 GB of VRAM, Ultra can trigger aggressive texture streaming and micro-stutter; dropping to Medium reduces VRAM consumption and stabilizes frametime in BTB.
Render Scale
Manually fixing render scale at 90% instead of leaving automatic dynamic resolution gives more predictable frametime control during high-load moments, like the start of a 24-player BTB round.
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient occlusion affects contrast indoors like Recharge or Live Fire; on Low some visual depth is lost in corners but a notable GPU margin is freed up at 1440p/4K.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
AMD FSR 2.0
+28% FPSAdded in Season 3 (May 2022), several months after launch, following strong community criticism. Works on any GPU (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel) and in Balanced mode offers a good balance between sharpness and FPS gained in campaign at 1440p/4K.
Dynamic Resolution Scaling
+15% FPSNative mechanism present since launch that automatically adjusts internal resolution to maintain the target framerate; it's not an image-reconstruction upscaler like FSR, so in demanding BTB scenes some sharpness loss can be noticeable.
NVIDIA DLSS
+0% FPSNot officially supported as of today. 343 Industries never implemented DLSS despite constant community requests since 2021; RTX users wanting image reconstruction depend on FSR 2.0 or unofficial DLL swaps, which are neither recommended nor supported.
Intel XeSS
+0% FPSAlso not implemented. Arc GPUs likewise depend on FSR 2.0 as the only in-game upscaling option with image reconstruction.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable Reflex-like low latency via the NVIDIA panel (Low Latency Mode: Ultra) from the Control Panel, since Halo Infinite doesn't include native NVIDIA Reflex.
- •Use FSR 2.0 in Quality mode on RTX 20/30 cards at 1440p+ to compensate for the lack of DLSS without sacrificing too much sharpness.
- •Keep Game Ready drivers updated: 343 Industries has released performance patches coordinated with specific drivers across several seasons.
AMD
- •Radeon RX 6000/7000 GPUs make the best use of FSR 2.0, being the game's only native upscaling technology, with no penalty for being "another vendor's" GPU.
- •Enable Radeon Anti-Lag from Adrenalin to reduce input latency in Arena, especially relevant in 4v4 modes.
- •On chiplet-based Ryzen CPUs, force affinity to the CCD with 3D cache (if you have an X3D model) to minimize the impact of inter-chiplet latency in BTB scenes with many actors.
Intel
- •On Arc GPUs, use FSR 2.0 in Balanced mode; native performance without upscaling tends to lag behind equivalent RTX/RDNA cards on this engine.
- •On hybrid-architecture CPUs (12th gen onward), check in Task Manager that the game isn't scheduling critical threads on E-cores, a known cause of frametime drops in BTB.
- •Update to the latest Arc drivers: early versions had notably higher CPU overhead on Slipspace than on other engines.
Sistema
- •If you suffer audio crackling or dropouts, check that Hyper-Threading/SMT is enabled and update to the latest build: 343 Industries patched an audio bug tied to CPU thread count after launch.
- •Install the game on an SSD (preferably NVMe): texture streaming for Zeta Halo's open world and large BTB maps depends heavily on read speed to avoid pop-in.
- •Disable third-party overlays (Discord, GeForce Experience, MSI Afterburner) if you notice drops or crashes when starting a match: Easy Anti-Cheat is especially sensitive to overlay hooks and DLL injection.
5. Known game issues
Shader compilation stuttering after updates
Every season or major patch forces a shader recompilation that causes noticeable micro-stutters during the first minutes of play, especially obvious in the first Arena matches after an update.
Estado: Partially mitigated since Season 4, without being fully eliminated
Lack of DLSS and late FSR support
The game launched in November 2021 with no image-reconstruction upscaling technology at all; FSR 2.0 didn't arrive until May 2022 and DLSS was never implemented, leaving RTX users without the market's best-quality-image option.
Audio crackling tied to CPU thread count
At launch, certain CPU configurations (especially with SMT disabled or atypical core counts) suffered distorted or dropped audio during combat.
Estado: Patched in early updates from December 2021 / January 2022
6. Frequently asked questions
What are the best settings to play competitively in Arena and BTB?▾
Does Halo Infinite support DLSS?▾
Why does the game have micro-stutters right after an update?▾
What GPU and CPU do I need for a stable 60 FPS in Big Team Battle at 1080p?▾
Want to know exactly how many FPS YOUR PC will get?
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Calculate FPS for Halo Infinite →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →