Gears of War: E-Day
PC hardware build guide for Gears of War: E-Day — recession, budget, mid-range, and high-end rigs for The Coalition's Unreal Engine 5 prequel, launching October 6, 2026.
Official System Requirements
Source: Steam store page (https://store.steampowered.com/app/3010850/) — full minimum and recommended requirements officially published; re-verified 2026-07-31 against the Steam appdetails API after both tiers removed their Intel GPU alternatives and the minimum added an explicit hardware-ray-tracing requirement. Developer The Coalition, publisher Xbox Game Studios. (July 2026)
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit (22H2) | Windows 11 64-bit (25H2 or newer) |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel Core i7-6850K / i5-10400 | AMD Ryzen 5 5600 / Intel Core i5-11600K |
| GPU | Hardware ray tracing capable GPU required: NVIDIA RTX 5050 / RTX 2060 / AMD RX 6600 / RX 9060 | NVIDIA RTX 5060 / RTX 3060 Ti / AMD RX 6700 XT / RX 9060 XT |
| RAM | 12 GB | 16 GB |
| Storage | 130 GB SSD (SSD required) | 130 GB SSD (SSD required) |
Requirements revision history 1 revision
The publisher changed these requirements after first publishing them. The tables above show the current official values; this is what they replaced. Dates are when we verified the change against the primary source — publishers revise spec sheets silently, so the change itself may have landed earlier.
Change verified July 31, 2026
- GPU (minimum): NVIDIA RTX 5050 / RTX 2060 / AMD RX 6600 / RX 9060 / Intel Arc A580 → Hardware ray tracing capable GPU required: NVIDIA RTX 5050 / RTX 2060 / AMD RX 6600 / RX 9060
- GPU (recommended): NVIDIA RTX 5060 / RTX 3060 Ti / AMD RX 6700 XT / RX 9060 XT / Intel B580 → NVIDIA RTX 5060 / RTX 3060 Ti / AMD RX 6700 XT / RX 9060 XT
Recommended Builds
The cautious floor. The Coalition removed the Arc A580 from its July minimum update and now explicitly requires a hardware-ray-tracing-capable GPU. The A580 has ray-tracing hardware and supports DirectX 12, but it is no longer a developer-named minimum card, so treat 1080p Low with XeSS and a 30-60 FPS range as the honest target. The build's 16 GB of DDR5 still clears the recommended memory spec.
| Component | Part | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Thermaltake S100 TG | $70 | $70 at Newegg |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 7500F | $175 | $175 at Amazon |
| GPU | Intel Arc A580 8GB | $185 | $185 at Amazon |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte B650M DS3H | $130 | $130 at Amazon |
| PSU | Corsair RM750e 750W 80+ Gold | $72 | $72 at Amazon |
| RAM | G.Skill Flare X5 16GB DDR5-6000 (2x8GB) | $235 | $235 at Newegg |
| Storage | Patriot P300 256GB NVMe SSD | $53 | $53 at Amazon |
Budget Build — June 2026
~$11891080p / High-Ultra / 60+ FPS (with DLSS) — sits on the official recommended GPU
The comfortable tier, and like the Recession floor it is named directly — the RTX 5060 is the first card in the official recommended GPU line. This is the rare game where the Budget build runs the exact card the developer tuned the recommended preset around, so 1080p High-Ultra at 60-plus with DLSS is the experience The Coalition designed for, not an estimate.
| Component | Part | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Thermaltake S100 TG | $70 | $70 at Newegg |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 7600 | $175 | $175 at Newegg |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 8GB | $350 | $350 at Amazon |
| Motherboard | ASRock B650M PG Riptide WiFi | $130 | $130 at Amazon |
| PSU | Corsair RM750e 750W 80+ Gold | $72 | $72 at Amazon |
| RAM | G.Skill Flare X5 16GB DDR5-6000 (2x8GB) | $235 | $235 at Newegg |
| Storage | Kingston NV2 1TB NVMe SSD | $157 | $157 at Amazon |
Over Budget: the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB steps past the recommended RTX 5060 / RTX 3060 Ti into 1440p High with DLSS, and 32 GB of RAM doubles the recommended ask. Cover-shooter arenas are lighter on the GPU than a dense open world, so this tier stretches comfortably past its usual 1440p ceiling.
| Component | Part | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Fractal Design Pop Mini Air | $100 | $100 at Amazon |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 7600 | $175 | $175 at Newegg |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB | $430 | $430 at Amazon |
| Motherboard | MSI MAG B650 TOMAHAWK WiFi | $176 | $176 at Amazon |
| PSU | Corsair RM750e 750W 80+ Gold | $72 | $72 at Amazon |
| RAM | G.Skill Flare X5 32GB DDR5-6000 (2x16GB) | $459 | $459 at Newegg |
| Storage | Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB NVMe SSD | $235 | $235 at Newegg |
Over Mid: the RTX 5070 leaves the recommended tier well behind — native 1440p Ultra, or 4K with DLSS — and the Ryzen 7 9800X3D buries a CPU floor that was modest to begin with.
| Component | Part | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Fractal Design North | $155 | $155 at Amazon |
| Cooler | Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 | $35 | $35 at Amazon |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D | $425 | $425 at Amazon |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 12GB | $580 | $580 at Amazon |
| Motherboard | ASUS TUF Gaming B650-PLUS WiFi | $117 | $117 at Amazon |
| PSU | Corsair RM750e 750W 80+ Gold | $72 | $72 at Amazon |
| RAM | G.Skill Flare X5 32GB DDR5-6000 (2x16GB) | $459 | $459 at Newegg |
| Storage | Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB NVMe SSD | $358 | $358 at Newegg |
Over High: the RTX 5090 runs native 4K Ultra at whatever frame rate the panel can show.
| Component | Part | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO | $125 | $125 at Amazon |
| Cooler | Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 | $77 | $77 at Amazon |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D | $657 | $657 at Amazon |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 32GB | $4330 | $4330 at Amazon |
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming WiFi | $440 | $440 at Amazon |
| PSU | Corsair RM1200x Shift 1200W 80+ Gold | $170 | $170 at Amazon |
| RAM | G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 64GB DDR5-6000 (2x32GB) | $910 | $910 at Amazon |
| Storage | Samsung 990 Pro 4TB NVMe SSD | $725 | $725 at Newegg |
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What to Upgrade First
Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel built by The Coalition on Unreal Engine 5. The recommended GPU line opens with the RTX 5060 — the Budget build’s card. The July revision removed the Intel Arc A580 and B580 alternatives from both tiers and now explicitly says the minimum GPU must support hardware ray tracing. That leaves the Recession build’s Arc A580 outside the named minimum list even though the card has hardware ray tracing; the Budget tier remains the first exact match.
That makes the buying advice short. If you want the experience The Coalition designed E-Day around, the Budget tier’s RTX 5060 is the recommended card by name — 1080p High-to-Ultra at 60-plus with DLSS, no guessing. The Recession Arc A580 should be treated as a below-minimum experiment: start at 1080p Low with XeSS and expect a wider 30-60 FPS range until benchmarks settle it. Its 16 GB of DDR5 still clears the recommended memory spec. Above the Budget recommended line, the ladder is pure resolution headroom: the RTX 5060 Ti reaches 1440p, the RTX 5070 unlocks 4K with DLSS, and the RTX 5090 runs native 4K Ultra.
The CPU never enters the conversation. The minimum is a Ryzen 5 2600X / i5-10400 and the recommended only a Ryzen 5 5600 / i5-11600K — both lapped by every chip on this site, down to the Recession tier’s Ryzen 5 7500F. The one hard line to respect is storage: 130 GB, and the spec sheet lists the SSD as required, not suggested, at both the minimum and recommended tiers. That makes the Recession build’s 256 GB drive a one-game-at-a-time proposition for this title. Recommended specs are fully published, so the figures above are anchored to a complete official sheet; this is a pre-release page, so expect them to firm up against real benchmarks once E-Day ships on October 6.