Can I Run Half-Life: Alyx?
Released in 2020, Half-Life: Alyx is an action adventure game built by Valve. The game supports a single player campaign. Its 6 years mean the stated figures describe machines that were current then, not now. Windows is the only supported platform, which is what the figures below describe. Its Steam review count passes 92 thousand, a large enough sample that odd hardware behaviour would be known by now. Critics scored it 93 on Metacritic. It is localised into 28 languages according to the store listing. It carries 42 achievements. Workshop content is supported, so the published requirements describe the unmodded game only.
Can your PC run it? →System requirements
Minimum requirements
| CPU | Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600 |
|---|---|
| GPU | GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM |
| VRAM | 6 GB |
| RAM | 12 GB |
| OS | Windows 10 |
Single source, verify with the publisher source
Scores are deterministic, computed by fixed rules and benchmark tables, not written by an AI. How we score. Maintained by Farhad Ali. Spotted a wrong specification? Tell us.
Setting and environment
Half-Life: Alyx places its action in a horror setting, and the player works through combat arenas. The publisher supplies 12 storefront screenshots of these environments. The view is from a first person view.
Why Half-Life: Alyx is demanding
The graphics requirement for Half-Life: Alyx is light. Hardware around GTX 1060 / RX 580 is enough, so Half-Life: Alyx runs on machines never bought for gaming. Video memory is not the constraint here, at 6 GB. Half-Life: Alyx needs only 12 GB of RAM.
This reading comes from the published requirements and our own benchmark tables, not from the store listing.
Can you run Half-Life: Alyx?
Older hardware holds up here: Half-Life: Alyx runs on modest graphics, with GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM enough to meet the minimum. Add 12 GB of RAM and a mid-range CPU and a PC several years old will play it fine.
Bottleneck: GPU
Projected by resolution
| Resolution | Projection | Headroom |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p | Comfortable | 1.89x |
| 1440p | Borderline | 1.06x |
| 4K | Below the bar | 0.47x |
A projection, not a measurement. We scale the published GPU requirement by pixel count, since 1440p draws 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p and 4K draws 4 times as many, then compare against RTX 3060 / Ryzen 5 build. The publisher did not state a target resolution, so 1080p is assumed as the baseline. We hold no frame rate data, so no FPS figure is claimed. Headroom above 1 means the reference machine has room to spare at that resolution.
Common GPUs
| Graphics card | Verdict |
|---|---|
| GTX 1060 6 GB | Runs great |
| GTX 1060 Laptop | Runs great |
| GTX 1650 4 GB | Playable |
| GTX 1650 Laptop | Playable |
| RTX 2060 6 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 2060 Laptop | Runs great |
| RTX 3060 12 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 3060 Laptop | Runs great |
| RTX 4060 8 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 4060 Laptop | Runs great |
| RTX 3070 8 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 3070 Laptop | Runs great |
| RTX 4070 12 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 4070 Laptop | Runs great |
| RX 6600 8 GB | Runs great |
Each card is compared against Half-Life: Alyx's published GPU requirement, assuming an otherwise-capable PC. Laptop rows use the real mobile chip's benchmark, a mobile GPU is always slower than its desktop namesake.
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Frequently asked questions
Can my PC run Half-Life: Alyx?
Upload your DxDiag file to Idxdiag's free checker and get a component by component compatibility verdict for Half-Life: Alyx in seconds. No install required.
What are the minimum system requirements for Half-Life: Alyx?
The minimum requirements are CPU: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600; GPU: GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM; 12 GB RAM; OS: Windows 10.
Can an RTX 3060 run Half-Life: Alyx?
The RTX 3060 runs Half-Life: Alyx comfortably, clearing the title's GPU requirement with room to spare.
What is the bottleneck for Half-Life: Alyx?
On a typical modern PC (Ryzen 5 5600, RTX 3060, 16 GB RAM), the tightest component for Half-Life: Alyx is the GPU.