Gears of War: E-Day PC Requirements Need a Ray-Tracing GPU and a 115GB SSD, With Pre-Install on September 29

The Gears of War: E-Day PC requirements are now final: every tier needs a graphics card with hardware ray tracing and 115GB of free space on an SSD. The Coalition published the full spec sheet on September 17, the same day it confirmed the game has gone gold, and pre-install opens on September 29 at 8am Pacific (15:00 UTC).

That pre-install window covers Xbox Series X|S, the Xbox app on PC and Steam. Anyone with the $99.99 Premium Edition can start playing on October 1, and everyone else, including Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members, gets in at the worldwide launch on October 6.

Gears of War: E-Day PC requirements at each tier

The studio lists three tiers, each tied to a graphics preset and a performance target. Upscaling is part of every target: DLSS, FSR, TSR or XeSS.

• Minimum (Medium preset, 1080p at 60fps): GeForce RTX 5050 or RTX 2060, or Radeon RX 6600 or RX 9060; AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i5-10400; 6GB of VRAM; 12GB of RAM.
• Recommended (High preset, 1440p at 60fps or more): GeForce RTX 5060 or RTX 3060 Ti, or Radeon RX 6700 XT or RX 9060 XT; AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or Intel Core i5-11600K; 8GB of VRAM; 16GB of RAM.
• Ultra (Ultra preset, 4K at 60fps or more): GeForce RTX 5070 Ti or Radeon RX 7900 XT; AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D or Intel Core i7-14700K; 12GB of VRAM; 16GB of RAM.
• Storage at every tier: 115GB, and an SSD is required.

The Intel chip listed next to the Ryzen 5 2600X at the minimum tier is misprinted on the official chart, so the Core i5-10400 is the reliable Intel reference there.

Will Gears of War: E-Day run on an older graphics card?

Only if the card supports hardware ray tracing. The spec sheet says plainly that graphics cards without dedicated ray-tracing hardware are not supported. That rules out older cards such as the GTX 10 and GTX 16 series and AMD's RX 5000 range, even where their raw performance might otherwise be close to an RTX 2060.

The 12GB RAM floor is also unusual. A lot of PCs still ship with 8GB, and those machines fall below the minimum no matter which GPU they have.

The PC version adds DLSS 4.5, FSR 4 and XeSS 3.0, ray-traced reflections, shadows and global illumination, HDR, ultrawide monitor support, and a built-in benchmark mode. The benchmark is the quickest way to see where your hardware lands once the game is installed. The Coalition says PC stability and performance have been reworked since the multiplayer beta. Our coverage of the E-Day open beta covers what players got to try then.

When is the Gears of War: E-Day pre-install and early access?

Here are all the confirmed times, all at 8am Pacific (15:00 UTC):

• September 29: pre-install opens on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC and Steam.
• October 1: Early Access starts for Premium Edition owners, up to five days early.
• October 6: worldwide launch, and day-one availability on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Pre-install applies to both pre-orders and Game Pass members, so subscribers can have the full download ready before October 6. At 115GB on PC, starting on September 29 is the practical choice for anyone on a slower connection. Microsoft has not published a download size for Xbox Series X|S.

What does going gold mean for the launch?

Going gold means the launch version is finished and locked for release, so a late delay is now unlikely. It does not rule out a day-one patch, and The Coalition has not said whether one is planned.

The Premium Edition costs $99.99 and includes the base game, up to five days of early access, the Bravo Squad Signature Weapon Pack, five seasonal customisation packs and 1,000 Iron, the in-game premium currency. Microsoft's post does not list a separate price for the standard edition.

If you're planning your first week, our list of all 55 Gears of War: E-Day achievements shows what the 1,000 Gamerscore involves. There is also a separate Never Fight Alone charity bundle for E-Day. For a comparison with another big autumn PC release, see the Silent Hill: Townfall PC requirements, which start at an RTX 2060 Super.