Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6, and The Coalition has finally put its system requirements out in the open. The numbers are mostly friendly, but there is one demand that stands out: you need a GPU capable of ray tracing to play at all.
The game’s minimum specs are pretty forgiving. Most systems built in the past few years will hit playable performance on medium settings, and the studio says you can swing it on a lower-end card with some assistance from upscaling. But if you want to see the Ultra preset in action at 4K, the bar gets considerably higher.
Ray Tracing Is Not Optional
The biggest surprise is that ray tracing is not a recommendation here. It is a requirement. The devs explicitly say so on the new system requirements table:
“A hardware ray tracing capable graphics card is required. Graphics cards without dedicated hardware ray tracing support are not support.”
You cannot ask for it to be clearer than that. The game comes with ray-traced reflections, shadows, and global illumination baked in, and the devs have made it absolutely explicit that you cannot run it without a GPU that can handle it.
What You Need for 4K Ultra
If you want to run Gears of War: E-Day at 4K with the Ultra preset enabled, the numbers get serious fast. An RTX 5070 Ti or RX 7900 XT will be required, and the target is a steady 60 fps.
The table also notes 12 GB of VRAM. That suggests a lower-end card might be able to manage the load with upscaling assistance, but The Coalition has not confirmed that path publicly. It is worth noting that the Ultra preset is the only setting where GPU demands seem to ramp up significantly.
| Setting | GPU Required | Target FPS |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | RTX 2060 / RX 6600 | N/A |
| Recommended | RTX 3060 Ti / 6700 XT | N/A |
| 4K Ultra | RTX 5070 Ti / RX 7900 XT | 60 fps |
The game supports DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 3.0 at launch, so there are plenty of ways to eke out performance if your rig falls short on paper. The Coalition has also listed a set of best-case build components, which we will look at later.
The CPU Numbers Are Wide Open
The CPU demands are the most generous part of the spec sheet. The minimum is a Ryzen 5 2600X, and the recommended setup moves up to a Ryzen 5 5600. For 4K Ultra, the studio recommends eight cores or more, plus a 3D V-Cache chip: the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
Intel users are not left out. The studio also suggests an Intel Core i7 14700K. I’d assume newer Arrow Lake chips would suffice despite their slightly weaker performance at times, according to the report.
The wide range of acceptable CPUs means almost any modern mid-range processor should hold up, provided you are not pushing the Ultra preset at 4K.
RAM and Storage Are Modest
RAM requirements are modest across the board. The game asks for 16 GB at 4K, but only 12 GB are required to play at all. That is a relief for anyone building a budget machine.
Storage is another matter. You will need 115 GB of free space on an SSD, and the devs are explicit about that: it must be a solid state drive.
The Build Recommendations
The Coalition has published a list of its preferred components for a premium experience. Here is what they recommend:
- Best CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- Best motherboard: MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi
- Best RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB DDR5-7200
- Best SSD: WD_Black SN7100
- Best graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 9070
These are high-end parts, and they are aimed at the Ultra preset at 4K. Anyone building to that standard should expect a substantial investment.
Launch Schedule and Early Access
Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6. Early access is available before then, though the full game is reserved for that date.
What We Make of It
The most striking thing about these requirements is how direct they are. The devs wrote a sentence that reads like a warning label.
That is a bold move. It tells players exactly what they need before they buy, and it cuts through the usual marketing fog. If you own an RTX 2060 or RX 6600, you will get a playable game on medium settings. If you want Ultra at 4K, you need a card with hardware ray tracing support.
The CPU numbers are the other pleasant surprise. The minimum is a Ryzen 5 2600X, and the recommended setup moves up to a Ryzen 5 5600. Eight cores are recommended for 4K Ultra, and the range of acceptable processors is wide. That means almost anyone with a recent mid-range processor can play without upgrading, provided they are not pushing the Ultra preset.
The storage requirement is the only real pain point. 115 GB is a lot of space, and an SSD is not optional. That is a genuine cost for players who have filled their drives with other games.
Overall, the requirements are more reasonable than they could have been. The minimums are forgiving, the upscaling options are plentiful, and the best-case build is well documented. The ray tracing requirement is the only real hurdle, and it is one The Coalition has made very clear.
For anyone who owns a modern mid-range PC, the message is simple: you can play Gears of War: E-Day. Just don’t expect Ultra at 4K on a card that lacks hardware ray tracing support.
Source material: “Gears of War: E-Day system requirements require ray tracing-capable graphics card to play, alongside 115 GB of free space on an SSD,” PC Gamer.
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