Gears of War: E-Day - RTX 5090 struggles in 4K, here is the PC config you need

26 FPS. That's what comes out of a RTX 5090 in 4K Ludicrous native in the Gears of War: E-Day beta. The map at 2300 bucks. Twenty-six images per second. Even with DLSS 4.5 Quality, we go up to 45 FPS in Ludicrous and 67 FPS in Ultra. Let's calm down for a moment and see what that means for you, your setup, and your wallet.

The Coalition launched its open beta on August 13, and the first benchmarks are in. The verdict is clear: it's the most demanding game of 2026 . Unreal Engine 5.8, Lumen, MegaLights, Nanite — the entire next-gen UE5 package is here, and it comes at a cost in FPS.

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But before panicking, look closely: the "Ludicrous" settings are made for hardware masochists. In Ultra with DLSS, the situation is bearable. And with the right tweaks, even an RTX 3060 can run the thing in 1080p. We dissect everything.

The Coalition has published the specs but without specifying the resolution, preset, or target framerate. Classic. Here's what we know:

130 GB SSD required. No HDD, not even as a secondary - Nanite and UE5 texture streaming require constant throughput. If you have an old hard drive, it's time to buy a 1TB NVMe SSD (available for 60 euros).

The numbers come from the closed beta (end of July) and the first days of the open beta. Gears of War: E-Day includes a in-house benchmarking tool — first time in a Gears. It makes comparisons easier, but keep in mind that this is a beta: final performance in October could vary by 5 to 15%.

The game supports DLSS 4.5, FSR 4 and XeSS , but no Frame Generation at the moment. None of the three. The FPS below are real rendering, not inflated by frame gen.

Several YouTubers (Elegant Egotist, among others) ran the built-in benchmark on Ryzen 7 9800X3D + RTX 5090. The results are painful:

• 4K Ludicrous native: 26 FPS. The card draws 464W at 98% usage. A slideshow.
• 4K Ludicrous + DLSS 4.5 Quality: 45 FPS on average. Already more livable.
• 4K Ultra + DLSS 4.5 Quality : 67 FPS, the counter does not drop below 60.

67 FPS in 4K Ultra with DLSS, that's decent for a card at this price. The Ludicrous mode at 45 FPS is a good candidate for Frame Gen x2 when it arrives — that would give smooth 90 FPS. But in native without upscaler, even the 5090 gets crushed.

Ariel Combo (X/Twitter) tested on RTX 5080 in 4K Ultra/Max:

• 4K Ultra (with DLSS): 40-50 FPS, peaks at 60 in quiet scenes

It's tight in 4K. Native, it should run around 25-35 FPS. DLSS is clearly mandatory. But at 1440p, the RTX 5080 should be very comfortable — probably 80+ FPS in Ultra with DLSS Quality.

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On RTX 5070, we observe 54 FPS with DLSS 4.5 and a frametime of 19 ms. This is in Horde mode with action scenes, not an empty hallway. At 1440p with DLSS Quality, this card should hit 60-70 FPS on Ultra. This is the sweet spot if you're aiming for 1440p without breaking the bank.

SpacesFPS played in 4K Ludicrous with DLSS 4 Ultra Performance on RTX 5070 Ti:

• 4K Ludicrous + DLSS Ultra Performance: 40 FPS
• 4K Native (Dynamic DLSS switches to native): 12 FPS

12 FPS in native 4K on a 5070 Ti. It shows how Ludicrous is a showcase preset, not a game preset. In Ultra 1440p with DLSS Quality, count on 65-75 FPS instead.

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The good news: the RTX 5060 (the GPU recommended by The Coalition) is coming out 97 FPS in 1080p with 54 at 1% low. It's an i5-12600K next to it. The GPU is running at 96% — it's working, but it's doing fine. For 1080p Ultra, it's smooth and comfortable.

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And there, the real surprise. The RTX 3060 12GB - a 2021 card - comes out 85 FPS on average in 1080p with 63 in 1% low and a frametime of 13 ms. The GPU is at 99%, it gives everything it has. But it's playable and rather enjoyable. If you have a 3060, no need to change to play E-Day in 1080p.

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This screenshot says it all. All CPU cores are at 98-100%, the GPU is maxed out, and it still only gets 48 FPS with drops to 24 at 1% low. UE5.8 with MegaLights and Lumen is a steamroller. The game demands raw power on both fronts — a good CPU is as important as a good GPU here.

Moreover, the RAM also suffers: 17 GB used in this example. If you only have 12 GB (the minimum), it will be tight. 16 GB is the strict minimum for comfort, 32 GB to be at ease.

Objective: 1080p 60 FPS in High/Ultra. The RTX 3060 Ti or the RX 6700 XT used ones still do the job. New, aim for the RTX 5060 or the RX 9060 XT . Stick it with a Ryzen 5 5600 and 16GB of DDR4, and you're good to go. Benchmarks prove it: the 3060 delivers 85 FPS in 1080p.

And don't forget the mandatory 130GB SSD. The game won't even launch on an HDD.

Goal: 1440p 60+ FPS on Ultra. That's where the RTX 5070 or the RX 9070 XT shine. With a Ryzen 7 7800X3D or an i5-14600K, 32 GB DDR5, and an NVMe Gen4 SSD, you are all set. DLSS Quality or FSR 4 Quality is there for you — the image remains sharp and you gain 30-40% FPS.

Objective: 4K 60+ FPS in Ultra. The RTX 5080 does the job in 1440p/4K depending on the scenes, the RTX 5090 ensure constant 4K at 67 FPS. Ryzen 9 9950X3D or 9800X3D, 32-64 GB DDR5 6000 MHz, SSD Gen5.

The Ludicrous is beautiful, it's undeniable. But the difference with Ultra doesn't justify dividing your FPS by 1.5. Stay in Ultra, enable DLSS Quality, enjoy the game. You can switch back to Ludicrous in two years when GPUs have doubled in power again.

The Coalition has not yet fully documented everything, but the feedback from the beta and the experience of previous UE5 games provide good leads:

• Shadows — switches from Ludicrous/Ultra to High. It's still the first lever in UE5. Estimated gain: 10-15%.
• Volumetric effects — lower by one notch. Fog and dust are pretty but costly, especially with active Lumen.
• MegaLights — the big piece. Hundreds of dynamic lights with shadows. Reducing the quality of light shadows or the number of light sources makes a big difference.
• Ray Tracing / Hardware Lumen — in recent UE5 games (Silent Hill 2 Remake, Stalker 2), cutting hardware RT while keeping Software Lumen gains 20-30% for minimal visual loss.
• Post-process — motion blur off (always). Depth of field on low. Not a huge gain but it helps.
• Dynamic resolution — Dynamic DLSS mode adjusts the internal resolution in real time to maintain a target framerate. If you want a stable 60 FPS without any hassle, this is the ideal option.

The Ludicrous preset, The Coalition said it themselves: it's a showcase preset. It's there to show what the engine can do, not to play every day. A bit like the "Insane" preset from Crysis back in the day — made for the future, not for today.

The three are supported in the beta. The rundown:

• DLSS 4.5 (NVIDIA) — the best if you have an RTX. The Quality mode is almost indistinguishable from native 4K. When the Frame Gen X4 arrives, NVIDIA will be the first to benefit.
• FSR 4 (AMD) — significant improvement compared to FSR 3. Works on everything — NVIDIA, AMD, Intel. The Quality is clean, the Balanced acceptable in 4K.
• XeSS (Intel) — for the Arc A580/B580. Quality close to FSR 4, sufficient in 1080p/1440p.

RTX = DLSS. Radeon = FSR. Arc = XeSS. It's not more complicated. The Frame Gen is not there for now, but at the launch in October, DLSS 4.5 should support Multi Frame Gen (x2, x3, x4) if NVIDIA keeps its promises.

Yes. Stalker 2 was running at ~50 FPS in 4K Ultra on RTX 4090. Gears E-Day does the same on RTX 5090 in Ludicrous mode. It's the heaviest benchmark of 2026 on PC. But in Ultra (not Ludicrous), the two are roughly equivalent.

Yes, and quite well. At 1080p benchmarks show 85 FPS on average on RTX 3060 12GB. It's a TPS, not a competitive FPS - 60 FPS is more than enough for it to be smooth and enjoyable. You can even go up to High/Ultra without any issues.

October 6, 2026 The open beta has been available since August 13th. Performance should improve by 5-15% with post-beta optimizations and day-one drivers from NVIDIA and AMD.

Most likely at launch or in a post-launch patch. The beta doesn't support it, but DLSS 4.5 is already there — just missing the Frame Gen activation. It could double (x2) or even triple (x3) the framerate. 45 FPS in Ludicrous with Frame Gen x2 = 90 FPS.

NVIDIA and AMD release Game Ready / Adrenalin drivers for each major launch. Wait until October 6 to install the optimized driver — it gives an easy 5-10% gain, especially on Radeon where FSR support is fine-tuned at the last moment.