No GTX Cards: Gears of War E-Day PC Requirements, the RTX 2060 Minimum and What Laptops Need
Gears of War: E-Day only runs on a PC whose graphics card has hardware ray tracing. The minimum is an RTX 2060, RTX 5050, RX 6600 or RX 9060, with 12GB of RAM and 115GB free on an SSD, for 1080p at 60fps on Medium with upscaling switched on. Every GeForce GTX card, including the GTX 1660, and AMD cards up to the RX 5000 series will not start it at all. Premium Edition early access opened on 1 October, and the full launch followed on 6 October.
Find your setup:
- GTX 1060, 1660 or 1080, RX 580 or 5700 XTNo, it will not start. Why, and what to upgrade
- RTX 2060, RX 6600 or anything newerYes, at least at the minimum tier. The full chart
- Gaming laptopCheck the video memory, not just the name. The laptop check
- Hard drive, or a nearly full SSDYou need 115GB free on an SSD. Storage
- Steam Deck or ROG Xbox AllySkip it on a Steam Deck. Windows handhelds cope better. Handhelds
- Mac, Chromebook or PS5There is no version for you. Where it runs
- Gears of War: E-Day system requirements: minimum, recommended and ultra
- Why Gears of War: E-Day will not start on a GTX 1060, GTX 1660 or RX 580
- Gears of War: E-Day on a gaming laptop: check the video memory, not the name
- Gears of War: E-Day size: 115GB, and it has to be an SSD
- Gears of War: E-Day minimum requirements for RAM, processor and Windows
- Gears of War: E-Day on Steam Deck and ROG Xbox Ally
- Gears of War: E-Day on Steam, Game Pass or Xbox: price, crossplay and PS5
- Gears of War: E-Day early access, release date and pre-install times
- What we would actually do
- Quick answers
Gears of War: E-Day system requirements: minimum, recommended and ultra
Microsoft published the final Gears of War: E-Day PC requirements on 17 September, the day the game went gold, which means the launch version was finished. There are three tiers, and every one of them assumes you switch on an upscaler: DLSS, FSR, XeSS or Unreal Engine’s own TSR. Those tools render the game at a lower resolution and rebuild a sharper image, so the frame rates below are not at native resolution.
| Part | Minimum | Recommended | Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | 1080p, 60fps, Medium | 1440p, 60fps+, High | 4K, 60fps+, Ultra |
| Graphics card | RTX 2060, RTX 5050, RX 6600 or RX 9060 | RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 5060, RX 6700 XT or RX 9060 XT | RTX 5070 Ti or RX 7900 XT |
| Video memory | 6GB | 8GB | 12GB |
| Processor | Ryzen 5 2600X, Core i5-10400 or Core i7-6850K | Ryzen 5 5600 or Core i5-11600K | Ryzen 7 7800X3D or Core i7-14700K |
| RAM | 12GB | 16GB | 16GB |
| Storage | 115GB on an SSD | 115GB on an SSD | 115GB on an SSD |
Three lines in that chart decide most cases. The first is the footnote: graphics cards without dedicated hardware ray tracing are not supported. The second is video memory, 6GB, 8GB or 12GB, which is where gaming laptops trip up. The third is the storage, which has to be an SSD.
You may have seen other numbers. Corsair’s requirements guide, one of the top results for this search, still says the game takes 130GB and lists Intel’s Arc A580 and B580 cards. Those figures come from earlier lists: the first one, in June, asked for 130GB. The final chart asks for 115GB and names no Intel graphics card at any tier.
The processor line is the easy one. A six-core Ryzen 5 2600X from 2018 covers the minimum, so on most gaming PCs the graphics card, not the processor, decides whether you can play. The chart also promises a built-in benchmark, HDR and ultrawide monitor support, so once it is installed you can test your own PC before you play.
What the finished game needs in practice. TechSpot published its benchmark of 44 graphics cards on launch day, using the game’s built-in benchmark. On the Ultra preset at native 1080p, an RX 9060 XT, RTX 5060 Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 4070 or RX 7800 XT averages around 60fps. On Medium at native 1080p, older cards such as the RTX 3060 Ti and RX 6750 XT manage 60fps. For 60fps at native 1440p on Ultra you need about an RX 9070 or RTX 4080, but with Balanced upscaling even an 8GB RTX 4060 Ti gets close to 60fps. TechSpot found 8GB of video memory was not a bottleneck at most settings; it only held cards back at native 4K on Ultra. Intel Arc cards ran very poorly, with the Arc B580 often behind AMD’s entry-level RX 9050.
Why Gears of War: E-Day will not start on a GTX 1060, GTX 1660 or RX 580
Ray tracing draws light by following the paths that rays of light would take, so reflections, shadows and bounced light behave the way they do in real life. Most games treat it as an optional extra. E-Day does not. Microsoft’s chart lists ray-traced reflections, shadows and global illumination, the light that bounces off walls and floors, and says cards without dedicated ray tracing hardware are not supported. Players in the August beta also found no setting to turn ray tracing off.
That rules out every GeForce GTX card. It includes the GTX 1660 Ti, which is built on the same Turing design as the RTX 2060 on the minimum list, but without the ray tracing cores. It also rules out AMD Radeon cards up to the RX 5000 series. GameGPU reported during the beta that owners of these cards got a critical error at launch, telling them a graphics card with hardware ray tracing is required.
How many people does that hit? We added up the graphics chips in Valve’s Steam hardware survey for August 2026 that have no ray tracing hardware. Separate GTX and older Radeon cards alone come to at least 13.7% of Steam PCs. Add older built-in graphics, Intel HD, UHD and Iris Xe and AMD Vega, which came out before either company added ray tracing hardware to its chips, and it reaches about 19%, nearly one in five. The 13.7% is a floor: another 12% of the survey is listed only as “Other” or as unnamed AMD and Intel graphics, and we did not count any of it. The 19% is rougher, because Steam can report a laptop’s built-in Intel chip even when the laptop also has an RTX card.
| Graphics card, as Steam names it | Share of Steam PCs, August 2026 |
|---|---|
| GeForce GTX 1650 | 2.49% |
| GeForce GTX 1060 | 1.50% |
| GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER | 1.47% |
| GeForce GTX 1050 Ti | 1.16% |
| Radeon RX 580 (two entries) | 1.13% |
| GeForce GTX 1660 Ti | 0.87% |
| GeForce GTX 1070 | 0.61% |
| All separate cards with no ray tracing | 13.7% |
| Including older built-in graphics | 19.1% |
If your card is on that list, no setting or driver will change it. The fix is a new graphics card. The newest cards on Microsoft’s minimum line are the RTX 5050 and the RX 9060, and the RTX 5060 and RX 9060 XT sit on the recommended line. Check your power supply before you order: NVIDIA lists a 550W system power supply for an RTX 5060, and our power supply guide covers how many watts you need.
Gears of War: E-Day on a gaming laptop: check the video memory, not the name
Laptop graphics chips share names with desktop cards, but they are cut down to fit the power and heat a laptop can handle. NVIDIA’s spec pages show the gap. The desktop RTX 5070 has 12GB of video memory and a 250W power rating. NVIDIA’s detailed table for the laptop RTX 5070 lists 8GB and 50 to 100W. The desktop RTX 5060 is rated at 145W, the laptop version at 45 to 100W.
So a laptop sold as an RTX 5070 usually clears E-Day’s 8GB recommended line but not the 12GB Ultra line, and it will not keep up with a desktop RTX 5070. All 15 laptop RTX 5070s in our catalogue list 8GB. For Ultra-level video memory, look for a laptop RTX 5070 Ti or above, which NVIDIA lists with 12GB or more.
We sorted every laptop in our catalogue that has a full spec sheet against the chart, 602 of the 1,001 we list.
Of the 78 laptops with a separate graphics chip, two have only 4GB, under the 6GB minimum. Sixteen have 6GB: the RTX 4050, the 6GB RTX 3050 and the RTX PRO 500 workstation chip. They clear the minimum line, but each sits at the bottom of its range, so treat them as minimum-spec machines. Forty-seven have 8GB, which matches the recommended line, and 13 have 12GB or more.
The other 394 Windows laptops rely on graphics built into the processor. Microsoft does not name built-in graphics at any tier, but that does not always mean the game will refuse to start. Some newer built-in chips, such as AMD’s Radeon 800M series and Intel’s Arc graphics, have ray tracing hardware, and the beta did start on a Steam Deck, which also uses built-in AMD graphics. Older built-in graphics without ray tracing hardware will not start it at all, as the chart’s footnote makes clear. If you are buying a laptop for this game, buy one with a separate graphics chip; our gaming laptop guide explains what each RTX tier gets you.
One laptop problem came up in the beta. In an r/GearsOfWar thread, a player with an RTX 4070 found the game running on the Intel graphics built into the processor instead of the RTX card. Before you touch anything else, try Windows’ own setting: open Settings, System, Display, Graphics, pick the game and set it to High performance. One commenter in that thread fixed it by switching off Hybrid Graphics, which some makers call Advanced Optimus, in the laptop’s BIOS.
Gears of War: E-Day size: 115GB, and it has to be an SSD
The install is 115GB at every tier, and the chart says an SSD is required. That is not a polite suggestion. The official beta FAQ warned that hard drives are not supported and may cause severe loading issues, missing assets, stuttering and crashes. The small print on Steam adds that future updates may need more space, so 115GB is the day-one figure, not the ceiling. Rockstar does the same: GTA V Enhanced already lists an SSD as its minimum, which is the best clue to the GTA 6 PC requirements until Rockstar publishes them.
Leave yourself room. Microsoft says Windows 11 itself needs a drive of at least 64GB, so a 128GB laptop cannot hold the game next to Windows, and a 256GB one will be close to full once your other apps are on it. In our spec data, 10 Windows laptops have 128GB or less and 73 have 256GB.
If you are short of space, a second NVMe SSD is the simplest fix on a desktop, and some laptops have a spare M.2 slot, so check your manual before you buy one. A PCIe 4.0 drive is plenty for this; our SSD guide for gaming covers whether PCIe 5.0 is worth paying extra for. If you pre-install while you play something else and the game you are playing starts to stutter, the download can slow your SSD down.
Gears of War: E-Day minimum requirements for RAM, processor and Windows
RAM. A 12GB minimum is unusual, and it means an 8GB machine fails even if its graphics card passes. In our spec data, 55 of the 472 Windows laptops with Intel or AMD chips have 8GB or less. On 22 of those the memory is soldered to the board and cannot be upgraded; 25 use standard SO-DIMM slots, so you can add memory. On a desktop, 16GB of DDR5 or DDR4 gets you to the recommended line, depending on which your motherboard takes.
Processor. The minimum is a six-core chip: a Ryzen 5 2600X, Core i5-10400 or Core i7-6850K. The Ultra tier asks for a Ryzen 7 7800X3D or Core i7-14700K. If you are choosing between the two makers for an upgrade, our AMD vs Intel comparison and gaming CPU guide cover it.
Windows. The minimum is a fully updated Windows 10 22H2, build 19045.7291 or later. Microsoft recommends Windows 11 25H2 or newer, and Windows 11 26H2, out since 29 September, counts.
Drivers and small print. During the beta, the game would not launch on NVIDIA drivers older than 610.74, and Microsoft listed AMD 26.7.1 and Intel 101.8864 as the minimums. For the finished game, install NVIDIA’s Game Ready driver 617.14 or AMD’s Adrenalin 26.9.2, or anything newer; both list Gears of War: E-Day support.
Radeon RX 6000 cards. If you have one, such as the RX 6600 or RX 6700 XT on Microsoft’s chart, watch for crashes. GameGPU reported on 2 October that the game crashed on its RX 6000 cards with Adrenalin 26.9.2. It ran normally once GameGPU switched to AMD’s PRO Edition 26.Q3 driver. If your card crashes at launch, try that driver until AMD fixes its regular one.
TechSpot’s launch-day benchmarks include an RX 6800 and an RX 6750 XT, tested on the older Adrenalin 26.8.1 driver. AMD had not released anything newer than 26.9.2 by midday on 6 October, so if your RX 6000 card crashes on 26.9.2, rolling back to 26.8.1 is worth trying before the PRO driver.
The beta FAQ also flagged three things worth knowing. Intel Arc A580 and B580 cards could lose a lot of performance with Resizable BAR switched off in the BIOS. Norton and Comodo antivirus could block the game from starting. And frame generation was switched off in the beta; NVIDIA’s launch driver notes list DLSS Dynamic Multi Frame Generation for the finished game.
Gears of War: E-Day on Steam Deck and ROG Xbox Ally
Microsoft’s Steam page says the game is “fully optimized for handheld play on Steam Deck, Xbox Ally X, and Xbox Ally devices.” Valve has still not rated it. On launch day, 6 October, the Steam Deck compatibility rating was still Unknown.
The first reviews of the finished game, published on 1 October, do not back up that claim on the Steam Deck. In TechPowerUp’s handheld tests, the Deck averaged under 20fps on the Low preset, even with upscaling set to Ultra Performance. Steam Deck HQ played it on the lowest settings with a 30fps cap and still saw regular drops below 30fps, and scored its Steam Deck performance 2 out of 5. That is in line with the August beta, where players on r/GearsOfWar reported 25 to 30fps on low.
Windows handhelds did better. In TechPowerUp’s tests an Asus ROG Ally X beat the Deck, and MSI’s Claw 8 EX AI+ was the fastest of the group.
So if a Steam Deck is your only gaming PC, do not buy E-Day for it. A Windows handheld is the better bet for playing away from a desk, but expect to turn settings down, and for the competitive Versus mode a desktop, a gaming laptop or an Xbox is the better place. If you are still deciding whether a handheld is worth it, our Steam Deck vs ROG Ally comparison goes through the trade-offs.
Gears of War: E-Day on Steam, Game Pass or Xbox: price, crossplay and PS5
Where it runs. Gears of War: E-Day is on PC through Steam and the Xbox app, and on Xbox Series X and S. It is in Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one. IGN’s report of Microsoft’s June announcement also lists cloud play, which is the only way to reach it from a Mac or Chromebook.
Price. Xbox lists the Standard Edition at $69.99 and the Premium Edition at $99.99, with a $30 upgrade from Standard to Premium. On Steam in the UK, the two were £59.99 and £89.99 in late September. Premium adds up to five days of early access, a weapon pack, five seasonal cosmetic packs and 1,000 Iron, the in-game currency.
Which store. Buying on the Xbox store includes Xbox Play Anywhere, so one purchase covers both your Xbox and your PC. The Steam copy is for PC. If you are not sure your PC can run it, PC Game Pass is the cheap way to find out on launch day before you buy it outright.
Crossplay. Yes. Steam lists cross-platform multiplayer: online co-op for two to four players and competitive matches for up to eight across supported platforms. On Steam you do not need a Microsoft account to play, but you have to link one to send cross-platform invites. On Xbox consoles, online play needs a Game Pass tier that includes online multiplayer, as with other Xbox games.
PS5. No. Microsoft confirmed on 7 June 2026 that E-Day is an Xbox console exclusive, although a PEGI age rating published that day had listed a PS5 version.
Gears of War: E-Day early access, release date and pre-install times
The Gears of War: E-Day release date was Tuesday 6 October 2026, and Microsoft set one global time for every step: 15:00 UTC. In the UK that is 4pm, because British Summer Time runs until 25 October.
| Step | Date | UK (BST) | US Eastern | US Pacific |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-install | Tuesday 29 September | 4pm | 11am | 8am |
| Early access, Premium Edition | Thursday 1 October | 4pm | 11am | 8am |
| Full launch and Game Pass | Tuesday 6 October | 4pm | 11am | 8am |
Pre-install opened on 29 September and covers Xbox Series X and S, the Xbox app on PC and Steam, for both pre-orders and Game Pass members. Early access was a Premium Edition perk that opened on 1 October; Game Pass members got the game at the full launch on 6 October. If you have not downloaded the game yet, do it now, so the 115GB download is out of the way before the launch rush.
What we would actually do
- If you have a GTX card or an RX 580, do not buy the PC version until you have upgraded. For this game, we would go straight to a card on the recommended line rather than the minimum one, because the minimum means 1080p on Medium with upscaling. Our graphics card guide explains why we would buy 12GB or more for games beyond this one, and our graphics card range shows the current cards.
- If you are buying a gaming laptop for it, read the video memory on the spec sheet, not the GPU name. 8GB gets you the recommended line. 12GB is what the Ultra tier asks for, and NVIDIA lists that on the laptop RTX 5070 Ti and above.
- If the game will sit on a hard drive, add an SSD before you install it. It is the cheapest upgrade on this list, and without it the game may not load properly at all.
- If you have 8GB of RAM, check whether it is soldered before you plan an upgrade. If it is, the laptop cannot meet the minimum.
- If you are not sure, play it on PC Game Pass on launch day, run the built-in benchmark, and only then buy it outright. For a new build, our gaming PC buying guide covers the rest of the machine.
Quick answers
Only if your graphics card has hardware ray tracing. The minimum is an RTX 2060, RTX 5050, RX 6600 or RX 9060 with 6GB of video memory, plus 12GB of RAM, a six-core processor such as a Ryzen 5 2600X or Core i5-10400, and 115GB free on an SSD. Any GeForce GTX card, including the GTX 1660, will not start it.
115GB on PC, at every graphics tier, and it must be installed on an SSD. Older guides still say 130GB, which was the figure in Microsoft’s first list in June. Future updates may need more space.
Yes. It launched on Steam on 6 October 2026, at the same time as the Xbox app on PC and Xbox Series X and S. Premium Edition owners got early access from 1 October. On Steam in the UK the Standard Edition is £59.99 and the Premium Edition £89.99 (early October 2026).
Yes, from day one, 6 October 2026, on both PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate. Game Pass members do not get the early access that comes with the Premium Edition.
Yes. Steam lists cross-platform multiplayer, with online co-op for two to four players and competitive matches for up to eight across Xbox and PC. On Steam you can play without a Microsoft account, but you need to link one to send cross-platform invites.
On consoles, yes, so Gears of War: E-Day is not coming to PS5. Microsoft confirmed on 7 June 2026 that it is an Xbox console exclusive. On PC it is on Steam as well as the Xbox app.
Yes, if you buy the Premium Edition or the upgrade to it. Early access started on Thursday 1 October 2026 at 15:00 UTC, 4pm in the UK, five days before the full launch on 6 October. Now the game is out, everyone who owns it can play.
The full launch was on Tuesday 6 October 2026 at 15:00 UTC: 4pm in the UK, 11am US Eastern and 8am US Pacific. Game Pass access starts at the same time.
It starts, but it does not run well. Microsoft says it is optimised for Steam Deck and the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds, but Valve’s Steam Deck rating was still Unknown on launch day, 6 October. In TechPowerUp’s tests the Deck averaged under 20fps on the Low preset, and Steam Deck HQ saw regular drops below 30fps on the lowest settings. Windows handhelds did better.
Not installed on it. There is no macOS or ChromeOS version. IGN’s report of Microsoft’s announcement lists cloud play, which streams the game to a browser, so that is the only route on those machines.
Its reflections, shadows and bounced lighting are ray traced, and Microsoft’s chart says cards without dedicated ray tracing hardware are not supported. Players in the beta found no option to turn it off, so a card without ray tracing hardware cannot run the game at any setting.
Yes. There is online campaign co-op for up to four players, Horde Siege, a wave-survival mode for four-player squads, and Versus, a four-against-four competitive mode. Two-player split-screen is only on Xbox consoles.
Sources
- Gears of War: E-Day GPU Benchmark: 44 GPUs Tested, TechSpot, 6 October 2026. Launch-day frame rates by card and preset, the 8GB finding, Intel Arc performance and the Adrenalin 26.8.1 test driver.
- Gears of War: E-Day Has Gone Gold, Pre-Install Begins September 29, Xbox Wire, 17 September 2026. The pre-install, early access and launch times, the platforms, and the launch PC spec chart with its three tiers and ray tracing footnote.
- Gears of War: E-Day on Steam, read 28 September and 3 October 2026. The minimum and recommended specs, Windows versions, UK prices, the handheld claim, crossplay and the Unknown Steam Deck rating.
- Gears of War: E-Day, Xbox.com. The US edition prices, the $30 upgrade, what the Premium Edition adds, Xbox Play Anywhere and Game Pass.
- E-Day Open Beta Details and FAQ, Gears of War, 3 August 2026. The hard drive warning, minimum drivers, the Intel Arc and antivirus issues, frame generation, and account linking for cross-platform invites.
- CONTROL Resonant, Gears E-Day, Witcher 3 and AION 2 Game Ready, NVIDIA, 22 September 2026. Game Ready driver 617.14, the early access and launch dates, and DLSS Dynamic Multi Frame Generation in the finished game.
- AMD Software Adrenalin 26.9.2 WHQL Drivers Released, TechPowerUp, 29 September 2026. AMD’s driver with Gears of War: E-Day support.
- Radeon RX 6000 work in Gears of War E-Day only after switching to AMD PRO 26.Q3, GameGPU, 2 October 2026. The crashes on RX 6000 cards and the PRO driver workaround.
- Gears of War E-Day benchmarks for handhelds reveal Steam Deck performance really isn’t good enough, PC Guide, 1 October 2026. TechPowerUp’s handheld results for the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally X and MSI Claw 8 EX AI+.
- Gears of War: E-Day Review + Steam Deck Performance, Steam Deck HQ, 1 October 2026. Frame rates on the lowest settings and the 2 out of 5 Steam Deck score.
- Steam Hardware and Software Survey: video cards, Valve, August 2026. The share of each graphics card that we added up.
- GeForce RTX 50 Series laptops, NVIDIA. Video memory and power range for each laptop chip.
- GeForce RTX 5070 family and RTX 5060 family, NVIDIA. Desktop video memory, power ratings and the 550W system power figure.
- GeForce 16 series, Wikipedia. The GTX 16 cards share the Turing design but have no hardware ray tracing.
- What Is Ray Tracing and How Does It Work with Intel Arc?, Intel. Arc is the Intel graphics family with ray tracing units, which the older HD, UHD and Iris Xe graphics came before.
- Gears of War E-Day does not start on GeForce GTX 1000, Radeon RX 5000, Vega and Polaris, GameGPU, August 2026. The error message older cards showed in the beta.
- Gears of War: E-Day PS5 placeholder listing, IGN, updated 7 June 2026. Microsoft’s confirmation that there is no PS5 version, and the cloud listing.
- Gears of War: E-Day Recommended System Requirements, Corsair, read 28 September 2026. Still shows the June list with 130GB and Intel Arc cards.
- Windows 11 specifications, Microsoft. The 64GB minimum drive size.
- It runs on steam deck!, r/GearsOfWar, 6 August 2026. Beta frame rates on Steam Deck and ROG Xbox Ally X.
- E-Day Beta uses Intel graphics as GPU instead of RTX4070, r/GearsOfWar, 6 August 2026. The laptop graphics problem and the BIOS fix.
- Anyone feel that Mandatory Ray Tracing and no FOV slider is going to be a problem?, r/GearsOfWar, 7 August 2026. No option to turn ray tracing off in the beta.
- Laptop counts: supplier spec sheets for the 602 laptops with one in the Hardvance catalogue, counted 28 September 2026.
- Images: game screenshots by Xbox Game Studios and The Coalition, from the Steam store page. GeForce GTX 1660 Ti photo by Chi Ho Chan, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped to 16:9 by us.
