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Gears of War: E-Day requires a graphics card with hardware ray tracing. Its published PC targets range from 1080p at 60 fps on Medium to 4K at 60+ fps on Ultra, but those figures are specifications—not independently verified results across real gameplay. The available independent performance testing covers CPUs, not a broad range of GPUs.
What the PC performance evidence can—and cannot—tell you
Gears of War: E-Day launched on PC and Xbox on October 6, 2026. The requirements below are the published targets and example hardware, reproduced by PC Gamer. They are useful for checking compatibility and estimating the intended performance tier, but they do not prove that every listed configuration reaches its target in every scene.
Independent testing cited here is narrower: Tom’s Hardware tested 25 CPUs and reported specific results for its test scene and configurations. The available sources do not establish performance across a broad set of graphics cards, or compare image quality among upscalers. So this is a requirements-and-evidence guide, not a hands-on GPU benchmark review.
What are the published PC requirements?
Each tier lists a 115 GB SSD requirement and calls for a hardware-ray-tracing-capable graphics card. The GPU and CPU entries are examples, not a guarantee that different models within a tier perform identically.
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| Tier | Published target | Example GPUs | Example CPUs | VRAM | System RAM | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 1080p, 60 fps, Medium; DLSS, FSR, TSR, or XeSS | RTX 5050, RTX 2060, RX 6600, RX 9060 | Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel i7-6850K, i5-10400 | 6 GB | 12 GB | 115 GB SSD |
| Recommended | 1440p, 60+ fps, High; DLSS, FSR, TSR, or XeSS | RTX 5060, RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT, RX 9060 XT | Ryzen 5 5600, Intel i5-11600K | 8 GB | 16 GB | 115 GB SSD |
| Ultra | 4K, 60+ fps, Ultra; DLSS, FSR, TSR, or XeSS | RTX 5070 Ti, RX 7900 XT | Ryzen 7 7800X3D, Intel i7-14700K | 12 GB | 16 GB | 115 GB SSD |
These figures come from the requirement table reproduced by PC Gamer’s October 1, 2026 report. The target frame rates are published claims, not independent measurements for each GPU, CPU, preset, and resolution combination.
Does E-Day require a ray-tracing-capable GPU?
Yes. The published requirements say that a hardware-ray-tracing-capable graphics card is required and that cards without dedicated hardware ray-tracing support are unsupported. The report also describes ray-traced reflections, shadows, and global illumination. Check the exact GPU model’s hardware features rather than judging compatibility by age or general performance class alone.
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Xbox’s PC technology overview also identifies hardware ray tracing among the supported technologies. A card’s raw speed does not override this stated compatibility requirement.
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The published tiers list DLSS, FSR, Unreal Engine TSR, and XeSS as upscaling options. PC Gamer reports launch support for DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 3.0; Xbox’s technology overview separately names FSR, TSR, and XeSS, as well as DirectX 12 and Unreal Engine 5. These are documented feature claims, not evidence that one upscaler is faster or looks better than another in E-Day.
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Xbox also says Advanced Shader Delivery provides precompiled shaders alongside the game on compatible systems, with the intended effect of reducing load times and eliminating first-run shader stutter. That is the platform and developer’s stated purpose; the sources cited here do not independently measure the effect.
What the independent CPU test found
Tom’s Hardware’s October 1, 2026 test examined 25 Intel and AMD CPUs. In its selected scene, enabling Low Core Mode reduced performance for every CPU in its 25-CPU table, with reported declines ranging from 12.1% to 31.7%. The publication also says 1% low performance did not improve in those tests. These findings describe that test configuration and scene, not every PC, game version, or workload.
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The specific dual-core exception
In a separate experiment, Tom’s Hardware disabled two cores on a Core i3-14100. It reported broken texture streaming and pause/reload interactions that hung for more than 30 seconds. In that particular two-core setup, Low Core Mode resolved the observed streaming and freezing problems and improved performance by 30%. Even so, reducing the chip from four cores to two cut average performance from 89 fps to 36 fps in the report.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe exception does not make Low Core Mode a general performance fix: the broad 25-CPU test found lower performance with it, while the two-core experiment addressed specific problems. Avoid treating either result as a prediction for your own system without comparable testing.
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How to judge whether your PC is a good fit
- Verify GPU support. Confirm that your exact graphics card supports hardware ray tracing. This is the stated compatibility gate.
- Compare the whole configuration. Check the GPU, CPU, VRAM, system RAM, and available SSD capacity against the published tier table; matching a GPU example alone is not enough.
- Set expectations by target. Use the listed resolution, preset, and frame-rate target as the intended tier, not a measured guarantee. The target also lists upscaling, so do not assume it represents native-resolution rendering.
- For real performance comparisons, require test context. Useful results identify the game patch and graphics driver, CPU and GPU, memory, resolution and preset, ray-tracing settings, upscaler and mode, average frame rate, 1% lows or frame times, and test scene. Without those details, a frame-rate number is difficult to apply to your PC.
Release and platform context
Xbox lists the release date as October 6, 2026, with PC availability through Steam and Microsoft Store as well as Xbox Series X|S. Its listing says the game is included with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass and supports Xbox Play Anywhere; subscription availability and terms can change. The story is set fourteen years before the original Gears of War, following Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago during the Locust invasion. Xbox lists a solo campaign, split-screen campaign co-op on console, online co-op for up to four players, Horde Siege, and Versus PvP. Online multiplayer requires a Game Pass subscription tier that includes online multiplayer. These mode details do not establish mode-specific PC performance.
In its September launch-spec post, Xbox said the final PC specifications followed continued work on stability and performance across a wide range of hardware after the July multiplayer beta. That development statement does not replace measured results on specific post-launch systems.
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