Gears of War: E-Day is demanding enough that the GPU you need changes sharply with resolution and settings. In Tom’s Hardware’s 43-card test, an RTX 5060 was the entry point for roughly a 60 FPS average at native 1080p Ultra, while native 4K Ultra exceeded that average only on an RTX 5090. The results below are findings from that publication’s October 1, 2026 test, not a guarantee for every PC or future game build.
How demanding is E-Day on PC?
Tom’s Hardware’s Jeffrey Kampman tested 43 graphics cards in Gears of War: E-Day, which the article describes as rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5. It identifies E-Day as the first shipping title to use UE5 MegaLights, a lighting system intended to let artists place hundreds of dynamic ray-traced light sources in a scene. The benchmark’s headline lesson is that resolution, preset, and rendering method matter more than any single universal GPU ranking.
The article says ray tracing is a required part of the game’s graphics approach. That makes E-Day a particularly heavy workload, but the results below should be read as the outcomes of Kampman’s tested scene and configuration; the article does not establish how every level, PC, or later game update will perform. Tom’s Hardware’s full 43-GPU test is the source for all performance and image-quality observations in this article.
Which GPU targets about 60 FPS at native Ultra?
These are Tom’s Hardware’s approximate recommendations from the tested build. “Native” means the game renders at the display resolution rather than relying on an upscaler. The recommendations refer to average frame rate, not a promise that every moment stays above the target.
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| Resolution and preset | Test result and GPU guidance |
|---|---|
| 1080p, native Ultra | RTX 5060 was identified as the minimum current-generation class for roughly a 60 FPS average. RX 9060 XT or RTX 5060 Ti were preferred for a smoother experience. RX 9070 GRE and RTX 5070 were suggested for higher refresh rates; RX 9070, RX 9070 XT, and RTX 5070 Ti averaged above 90 FPS in the test. |
| 1440p, native Ultra | RX 9070 GRE and RTX 5070 came close to, but just missed, a 60 FPS average. RX 9070, RX 9070 XT, and RTX 5070 Ti offered more margin. |
| 4K, native Ultra | RTX 5090 was the only tested GPU reported to average above 60 FPS. RTX 4090 came just short. |
The 1080p guidance is the most attainable native-Ultra target in the test; moving to 1440p pushes the approximate 60-FPS class upward, and 4K native Ultra is a much more exclusive target. If your GPU falls below the tier for your chosen resolution, reducing settings or using an upscaler is more practical than treating the table as a pass-or-fail buying rule.
Do AMD and Nvidia behave differently?
At 1080p, Tom’s Hardware found RTX 50-series cards held a slight average-FPS edge over RX 9000-series cards. In the same tested results, RX 9000-series cards had substantially better 1% lows. The article also notes more apparent hitches on Nvidia cards, particularly at lower resolution; that hitching observation is subjective, and variable-refresh-rate monitors made it less noticeable for the author.
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These are results and observations from one publication’s benchmark, not a general guarantee about all AMD or Nvidia systems. Average FPS describes overall throughput, while 1% lows help indicate slower moments; neither alone captures every aspect of perceived smoothness.
Which settings preserve image quality?
E-Day offers Low, Medium, High, Ultra, and Ludicrous presets. Kampman advises avoiding Low where possible: in the captured scene, it substantially reduced shadows and ambient occlusion, making some surfaces look like “cardboard cut-outs.” Medium retained considerably more visual richness. Changes from Medium through Ultra were described as subtler, including softer, more detailed foliage shadows, possible extra bounce light, and somewhat sharper textures.
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Low and Medium
Low can help a constrained GPU, but the author’s comparison shows a noticeable visual cost in shadowing and ambient occlusion. Medium is a more balanced starting point if Low looks too stark; it preserves much of the scene’s visual richness without requiring Ultra.
High, Ultra, and Ludicrous
The article characterizes the differences from Medium to Ultra as relatively subtle in its comparison. Ludicrous, by contrast, is an unusually expensive step: in the RTX 3060 scaling test, it cut performance roughly in half compared with Ultra. Kampman says most GPUs using Ludicrous will need upscaling and frame generation for a playable experience, where those features are supported.
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What can upscaling do for a slower GPU?
The tested build offered DLSS, FSR, XeSS, and Epic TSR upscaling, depending on GPU compatibility. Upscaling renders the game at a lower internal resolution and reconstructs the output, which can improve performance but may affect fine detail and stability in motion. In Kampman’s visual assessment, DLSS was the sharpest and most stable of the three vendor-specific options.
- DLSS: Judged sharpest and most stable among the vendor-specific upscalers in this test.
- FSR 4: On RX 9000- and RX 7000-series cards, it looked strong, though fine details in motion were slightly less stable than with DLSS.
- FSR fallback on RX 6000-series: The author found it visibly unstable in the tested comparison.
- XeSS: Looked better than FSR 2 or 3 in that comparison, but did not remove all image-quality issues.
- Epic TSR: Listed as an upscaling option; the article does not provide a comparative image-quality verdict for it in the supplied findings.
For an RTX 3060, the test found native Low still could not exceed a 60 FPS average. Kampman’s suggested balance was 1080p Medium with DLSS Quality, which cleared a 60 FPS average with reasonable 1% lows. He cautioned that more aggressive upscaling at 1080p made image-quality problems visible in the tested scene.
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What do frame generation and Mega Geometry change?
Frame generation and latency
Frame generation was available across the three major GPU vendors in the tested build, but support differed by generation. DLSS Multi Frame Generation worked as expected in the author’s test; AMD FSR ML Frame Generation appeared on RX 9000-series cards; and Intel XeSS 3.0 Multi Frame Generation was functional. The option was grayed out on RX 7000- and RX 6000-series cards, so the author could not verify whether frame generation was possible or working properly there.
Generated frames can raise the displayed frame rate, but they do not replace the responsiveness of the underlying rendered frames. The article recommends considering baseline latency and notes support for Nvidia Reflex and AMD Radeon Anti-Lag.
RTX Mega Geometry
RTX Mega Geometry is a toggle for more efficient ray tracing of complex meshes such as foliage. Although the article says the technology is technically compatible as far back as Turing, E-Day’s menu enabled it only on GPUs with at least 12 GB of VRAM. In the compatible cards Kampman tested, enabling it cost roughly 10% performance, with a similar drop across GPU generations. He did not test every compatible card, so that figure is not a universal estimate.
How to use these results for your PC
- Choose your target resolution first. Use the 1080p, 1440p, or 4K row above as a native-Ultra reference, not as a guarantee for every scene.
- Decide whether native rendering or upscaling matters more. If your card is below the relevant tier, try a suitable upscaler before dropping to Low; the RTX 3060 test favored Medium with DLSS Quality over native Low.
- Start at Medium if you need to cut settings. The tested comparison showed a bigger visual loss at Low than the subtler changes between Medium and Ultra.
- Enable frame generation only when supported and assess responsiveness. Availability varied by GPU generation in the tested build, and the article advises taking baseline latency into account.
- Use Mega Geometry selectively. The menu’s 12 GB VRAM threshold and the roughly 10% performance cost reported on tested compatible cards make it a detail-versus-performance choice, not an automatic upgrade.
Tom’s Hardware’s benchmark is useful for setting expectations, but it does not establish current GPU prices, availability, performance after later game updates, or results across every PC configuration. Those can change independently of the tested card ranking.
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