Gears of War E-Day beta specs show a demanding, ray-traced game
The Coalition has a couple of beta weekends planned for Gears of War: E-Day happening this month. Ahead of it, the studio has now shared more details about its contents and what kind of rig PC players will need to jump in and have a smooth experience.
The studio says that the following hardware requirements are only for the multiplayer beta and that the complete specifications for the full game will be shared later:
| MINIMUM | RECOMMENDED | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel i7-6850K / i5-10400 |
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 / Intel i5-11600K |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 / RTX 2060 AMD Radeon RX 5600 / RX 6600 |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 / RTX 3060 Ti AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT / 6700 XT |
| RAM | 12 GB | 16 GB |
| STORAGE | 80 GB (SSD REQUIRED) | 80 GB (SSD REQUIRED) |
| WINDOWS VERSION | Windows 10 / 11 (Minimum 22H2) |
Windows 10 / 11 (Minimum 22H2) |
| GRAPHIC PRESET | Medium | High |
| PERFORMANCE SPECS | 1080 60 FPS Super Resolution: DLSS / FSR / TSR / XeSS |
1440p 60 FPS Super Resolution: DLSS / FSR / TSR / XeSS |
Reflections, shadows, and global illumination will sport hardware ray-traced effects, so the GPU will need built-in support for it. It doesn't look like older-generation graphics cards will be able to play the game very well, or at all.
PC-specific graphics features are to be included here as well. In the upscaling front, Nvidia DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 3.0 will be available. HDR and ultra-wide monitor support are confirmed too.
As for what The Coalition will be opening up to players, the new 12-player Horde Siege mode up to level 10 and the 4v4 Versus mode with two maps and two modes will be available to all players. A 50-level cap has been confirmed, but all classes and weapons from the full game will be in stock to try out.
The Xbox and PC beta will kick off with access to those who pre-ordered the game (and Game Pass subscribers) on August 6 at 12 pm PT, with it running until August 10. The second weekend is open to all players on those platforms, whether they pre-ordered or not, which begins on August 13 at 12pm PT and ends on August 17.
The following rewards are up for grabs for beta participants too, which will be usable in the full game:
- Epic Blast Damage Mags Character Skin – Hit Player Level 20
- Rare Crush the Bug Weapon Skin Set – Extract from Horde Siege 8 Times on Infantry difficulty or higher.
- Crush the Bug Banner – Get 25 Headshots
- Crush the Bug Emblem – Perform 10 Revives
- Crush the Bug Icon – Perform 5 Prototype Lancer Chainsaw Executions
- Open Beta Medal & First in the Fight Title – Launch the Multiplayer Beta
Gears of War: E-Day is releasing on Xbox Series X|S and PC on October 6. It will also be a part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on day one. Microsoft has confirmed this as an Xbox platform exclusive, as there are no plans to bring it to PlayStation or Switch.