Ray tracing, 115 GB, two tiers
PC specifications
PC specifications for Gears of War: E-Day are a two-row table: Minimum and Recommended. Both rows demand an SSD with 115 GB free, DirectX 12, and a GPU that can do the lighting the game ships with. Minimum adds a hard requirement for hardware ray tracing and names the RTX 5050, RTX 2060, RX 6600, and RX 9060 as the graphics floor. Memory at that tier is 12 GB. The operating system line is Windows 10 64-bit, version 22H, build 19045.7291. Processors start at a Ryzen 5 2600X, a Core i7-6850K, or a Core i5-10400. Broadband is part of the minimum extras, not an optional note.
Recommended moves the OS to Windows 11 64-bit, 25H2 or newer, the CPU to a Ryzen 5 5600 or a Core i5-11600K, and memory to 16 GB. Graphics examples are the RTX 5060, RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT, and RX 9060 XT. The extras line adds HDR10, NVIDIA DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR Redstone, and optional frame generation on hardware that supports it. A Steam announcement places RTX Mega Geometry beside DLSS 4.5 and ray tracing, and it names Kate Rayner and Mike Perzel. The launch specification graphic was corrected on September 28, 2026, so the rows below follow the corrected card rather than the first image.
Minimum and recommended, cell by cell
Read the table across, not as a single hero GPU. A machine can clear the Ryzen 5 2600X and still miss ray tracing. A machine can have 16 GB and still be on a hard drive, and a hard drive fails the storage cell at both tiers. The Open Beta weekend 2 note already told PC players that an SSD was required and that HDDs were unsupported. The shipping spec agrees. There is no HDD fallback and no streaming-install size smaller than 115 GB in the printed cells. DirectX 12 is the API on both rows. A DX11 mode is not offered.
Frame generation is marked optional and limited to supported hardware. It is not a recommended-tier requirement, and it is not a minimum-tier feature. DLSS 4.5 and FSR Redstone sit on the recommended extras line as the upscalers The Coalition is willing to name. The minimum row does not repeat them, so a minimum card is not promised an upscaler preset. HDR10 is likewise a recommended extra. Players on the minimum OS, Windows 10, should not assume the HDR toggle from the Windows 11 row. The September 28 correction is a reminder that a graphic can be wrong for eleven days and then get fixed. The table is the text that survived that fix.
| Tier | OS | Processor | Memory | Graphics | Storage | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Windows 10 64-bit 22H 19045.7291 | AMD Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel i7-6850K / i5-10400 | 12 GB | Hardware ray tracing required. RTX 5050 / RTX 2060 / RX 6600 / RX 9060 | 115 GB available space on an SSD | DirectX 12 and a broadband connection. |
| Recommended | Windows 11 64bit (25H2) or newer | AMD Ryzen 5 5600 / Intel i5-11600K | 16 GB | RTX 5060 / RTX 3060 Ti / RX 6700 XT / RX 9060 XT | 115 GB available space on an SSD | DirectX 12, HDR10, DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR Redstone, and optional frame generation on supported hardware. |
Steam Deck and the named handhelds
The store page names handheld play on Steam Deck, Xbox Ally X, and Xbox Ally. It does not print a resolution, a frame-time cap, or a verified preset for any of the three. Deck owners often want a number. The honest reading of the listing is that the devices are supported targets, and the PC tiers above are still the only performance brackets with parts in them. An Ally is an Xbox handheld in that sentence, not a fourth GPU example on the recommended row. Docked play, external GPUs, and VRAM minimums beyond the named cards are not discussed.
Controller support on the Steam app is full, which matters on a Deck and on a gamepad at a desk. The spec sheet does not split quality presets into a Deck profile and a desktop profile. Storage is the practical Deck question: 115 GB free on an SSD, on top of the operating system and other games. A 64 GB Deck without a large card will not satisfy the cell. The same 115 GB figure is why the pre-install date matters. Pre-install opens September 29 at 15:00 UTC, which is the window to discover that the drive is short before Premium access on October 1 or the wide launch on October 6.
Which build these numbers describe
Mike Crump's September 17 gold note is the build these requirements belong to. The note also says PC work continued after the Multiplayer Open Beta in July, so beta framerates are not a certificate for the gold master. The specification graphic's September 28 correction is the last public edit of the picture before pre-install. Players comparing a screenshot of the graphic from mid-September against this table should trust the table when they disagree. The processors and GPUs are examples of a class, written with slashes, not an exhaustive certified list. A faster chip in the same family is the usual reading, and an unnamed older card is left off the certified list.
Unreal Engine 5 is the engine on the store page, which is why hardware ray tracing shows up as a minimum rather than as a toggle for enthusiasts only. HDR10, DLSS, and FSR are the PC features named next to that engine. Xbox Series X|S has its own platform row and does not use this table. Game Pass on PC still runs the Windows build, so a PC Game Pass install on October 6 faces the same 115 GB and the same GPU floor. The edition you buy does not change the spec. Premium does not unlock a lighter executable. The early access day and the launch day run the gold build these two rows describe.
Related pages
Sources
The PC board is two tiers, a required SSD of 115 GB, hardware ray tracing, and named handhelds without a printed frame rate.