Gears of War: E-Day Launches Tomorrow on PC: Start Time, Cloud and the GPU You Need
Gears of War: E-Day launches October 6 at 15:00 UTC on Steam and Windows PC, with early access live since October 1. Official requirements, which GPUs clear the minimum and recommended, Steam Deck status and the cloud option.
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Gears of War: E-Day launches tomorrow, October 6, at 8:00 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC) on Steam and Windows PC. If you bought the Premium Edition or have Game Pass with the Premium Upgrade, you can already play it: The Coalition confirmed on Xbox Wire that early access went live worldwide on October 1. If your PC is borderline, the announcement also has good news: the game will be in the cloud through Game Pass Ultimate and GeForce NOW.
On September 29 we told you that pre-load had opened and that the game requires a GPU with hardware ray tracing. That has not changed. Below is how your card holds up, based on our data.
Gears of War: E-Day PC requirements
These are the official requirements from the Steam page:
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| GPU | RTX 5050, RTX 2060, RX 6600 or RX 9060 (hardware ray tracing required) | RTX 5060, RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT or RX 9060 XT |
| CPU | Ryzen 5 2600X, i7-6850K or i5-10400 | Ryzen 5 5600 or i5-11600K |
| RAM | 12 GB | 16 GB |
| Storage | 115 GB on SSD | 115 GB on SSD |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit 22H 19045.7291 | Windows 11 64-bit (25H2) or newer |
The game needs DirectX 12 and a broadband connection. An SSD is required at both the minimum and the recommended spec.
Which GPU you need, according to canirun
Our grades measure each card against the recommended requirement and assume 16 GB of RAM:
- Clear the recommended: the RTX 4070 and the RX 9070 XT grade B (Solid), and the RTX 5080 reaches A (Smooth).
- Clear the minimum, not the recommended: the RTX 4060 and the RTX 3070 grade C (Tight). The RTX 2060, the RTX 3060 and the RX 6600 XT grade D (Struggles). They run the game, but with little headroom against the recommended.
- Miss the minimum: the GTX 1660 Super, the GTX 1060 6GB and the RX 580 grade F (Won’t run).
If you planned to play on the couch with a friend, note that two-player split-screen is console only. On PC, co-op is online, with up to four players across Campaign, Horde Siege and Versus.
What about Steam Deck?
Valve has not verified it yet. Our spec-based estimate gives it an F and has it falling short of the minimum, but that is only an estimate from the specs. You can see the details on the game’s Steam Deck page. If your Deck or your PC is not up to it, the official alternative is the cloud through Game Pass Ultimate or GeForce NOW.
Can your PC run Gears of War: E-Day?
Here is how your setup grades against E-Day and two other demanding shooters in the catalog:
| Game | Rec. GPU score | Rec. RAM | Min. RAM | Your PC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gears of War: E-Day | 25,500 | 16 GB | 12 GB | ? |
 Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 | 24,750 | 16 GB | 8 GB | ? |
 Borderlands 4 | 25,040 | 32 GB | 16 GB | ? |
For your exact grade and the upgrade that helps most, open the full Gears of War: E-Day page.
Sources: Xbox Wire: early access and launch, Steam announcement, Gears of War: E-Day on Steam
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