Updated 26 October 2026: the game has been out since 6 October, and the Steam listing now asks for 115 GB of SSD space in place of 130 GB. The page now gives the hardware ray tracing rule in place of the DirectX 12 Ultimate claim and labels the 1440p and 4K tiers as third-party estimates.
Gears of War: E-Day PC system requirements start with a graphics card that supports hardware ray tracing, 12 GB of RAM and 115 GB of space on an SSD. The ray tracing line decides who can play: Steam lists it as a requirement, so a GTX 1080 Ti or an RX 5700 XT cannot start the game at any setting. The lowest listed cards are the RTX 2060 and the RX 6600. The recommended column asks for an RTX 3060 Ti or an RX 6700 XT with 16 GB of RAM.
The game launched on 6 October 2026 on Xbox Series X|S, the Xbox PC app and Steam, and it is in Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Every figure below is from the official Steam store listing as it reads on 26 October 2026.
Official minimum and recommended specs
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit 22H2 (19045.7291) | Windows 11 64-bit 25H2 or newer |
| Processor | Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel i7-6850K / i5-10400 | Ryzen 5 5600 / Intel i5-11600K |
| Memory | 12 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | Hardware ray tracing GPU required: RTX 5050 / RTX 2060 / RX 6600 / RX 9060 | RTX 5060 / RTX 3060 Ti / RX 6700 XT / RX 9060 XT |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 115 GB, SSD required | 115 GB, SSD required |
| Network | Broadband | Broadband |
The Steam sheet gives no resolution or frame rate for either column and no VRAM figure. A guide that promises “1080p at 60 fps on recommended” adds a number that the listing does not state. Before launch the listing asked for 130 GB; the current figure is 115 GB.
Why hardware ray tracing is a hard requirement
E-Day runs on Unreal Engine 5 and uses Lumen for global illumination and ray-traced shadows, and these systems run on dedicated ray tracing hardware. A card without RT cores has no software path to fall back on, so lower settings do not help. This is the one line of the sheet that decides whether the game starts at all.
Which graphics cards can run Gears of War: E-Day?
The GPU generation decides. On NVIDIA, the RTX 20 series and newer qualify; the GTX 10 and GTX 16 series, including the 1080 Ti, do not. On AMD, the RX 6000 series and newer qualify; RX 5000 cards (RDNA 1) do not. The Steam listing names NVIDIA and AMD cards only; Intel Arc models appear in some third-party spec summaries but not on the Steam page.
This is why a card that still runs most 2026 shooters well can fail here. An RTX 2060 from 2019 meets the requirement. A much faster GTX 1080 Ti has no ray tracing hardware, so it cannot. The same applies to an RX 5700 XT.
Where the 1440p and 4K tiers come from
Tables with 1440p and 4K “requirements” that name an RTX 5090 and a Ryzen 7 9800X3D started as one hardware site’s own projections, labelled at the source as forecasts from its benchmarks. Copies dropped that label. The Coalition and Xbox publish two tiers only: minimum and recommended. Treat the higher tables as estimates.
Upscaling and the SSD requirement
Upscaling support is broad. NVIDIA confirmed DLSS 4.5 with Dynamic Multi Frame Generation and Reflex, and The Coalition lists AMD FSR, Intel XeSS and Unreal Engine TSR as supported. On a minimum-spec card, expect upscaling to do real work.
The SSD line is a requirement in both columns. UE5 streams assets at this scale, and a hard drive causes texture pop-in and traversal stutter. Plan the 115 GB before you install.
Release date, price and platforms
E-Day released on 6 October 2026, and Premium Edition buyers had up to five days of early access from 1 October. On Steam the Standard Edition is $ 69.99. The Xbox store lists the Standard Edition at $ 69.99 and the Premium Edition at $ 99.99, and the game is included in Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Xbox Play Anywhere links progress between the PC and console versions.
Xbox released E-Day on Xbox consoles, PC and Steam. A PlayStation 5 version has not been announced.
Frequently asked questions
Can I run Gears of War: E-Day on a GTX 1080 Ti?
No. The minimum specification requires a GPU with hardware ray tracing, and the GTX 10 series has none. Raw speed does not replace it, so the card cannot run the game at any setting. The oldest NVIDIA card that qualifies is the RTX 2060.
How much VRAM does Gears of War: E-Day need?
The Steam listing gives no VRAM minimum; it lists card models only. The lowest listed NVIDIA card, the RTX 2060, has 6 GB in its base version, which is the practical floor that the sheet implies.
What does “a video card supporting hardware ray tracing is required” mean?
The game shows this message and exits when the graphics card has no ray tracing hardware. It appears on GTX 10 and GTX 16 cards and on RX 5000 cards; driver updates or lower settings do not change it, because the requirement is the hardware itself.
Does Gears of War: E-Day need an SSD?
Yes. Both the minimum and the recommended columns state that a solid-state drive is required, with 115 GB of free space.
Sources
- Steam store listing, Gears of War: E-Day (app 3010850), read 26 October 2026
- Xbox store, Gears of War: E-Day, read 26 October 2026
- NVIDIA GeForce News, E-Day DLSS 4.5 and ray tracing, 14 July 2026
Prepared by the GamerMarkt editorial team, with some help from AI tools; some images may be AI-generated.
