Gears of War: Reloaded System Requirements and Recommended Specs

If you’re of the generation that grew up in the Xbox 360 era, then the Gears of War franchise needs no introduction. It was a bona fide system-seller for Microsoft’s then-dominant console brand.

In those days, however, exclusive titles were the name of the game, so those who chose the PS3 during this generation were out of luck. Additionally, while the game did receive a PC port, reception was less than stellar, largely due to the universally disliked Games for Windows integration.

Happily, both PlayStation loyalists and PC gamers today can rest easy, as the first game in the franchise has been remade and is finally available on PS5 and PC in a less problematic fashion. So, let’s take a look at the Gears of War: Reloaded system requirements and specs.

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit (Update 22H2 or newer, or Windows 11 Update 24H2 or newer)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 (Hexa-core) or Intel Core i5 Coffee Lake
• RAM: 8 GB
• GPU: AMD RX 5600 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 / GTX 1660 Ti / RTX 2070
• Direct Version: 12.0
• Network: Broadband Internet Required
• Storage: 70 GB

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit (Update 19H2 or newer)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 (Quad-core) or Intel Core i5 Skylake
• RAM: 8 GB
• GPU: AMD RX 480 / RX 5300 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 / 1050 Ti / Intel(R) Arc A380
• Direct Version: 12
• Network: Broadband Internet Required
• Storage: 70 GB

Gears of War: Reloaded looks like it’s going to be a beautiful, though apocalyptic-looking, game with an emphasis on photoreal graphics, giga-shouldered characters notwithstanding. Despite this, the system requirements are fairly attainable, with even the recommended specs not looking too expensive. This gives us hope that Gears of War: Reloaded will be a well-optimized game.

Annoyingly, instead of giving us specific examples of the minimum CPUs on the Gears of War: Reloaded Steam Store Page, they’ve kept it a bit vague, opting for the processor codenames in the case of Intel, which is odd. To make life easier, we’ll break it down.

• For the minimum specs, an “i5 Skylake” CPU is needed, which means an Intel Core i5-6400 or better.
• For the recommended specs, they call for an “i5 Coffee Lake” CPU, which translates as an Intel Core i5 8400T or better.

For AMD CPUs, they’ve at least given us a core count in addition to the processor series, so as long as your CPU adheres to or is better than what they’ve listed, and is at least somewhat modern (around six years older or newer), you’ll be alright.

In terms of potential upgrades, despite the specs calling for 8 GB of RAM, we’d recommend upgrading to 16 GB at the very least, and preferably 32 GB. RAM doesn’t have to be expensive these days, and choosing DDR5 over DDR4 doesn’t incur much of a price premium anymore. 16 GB of VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 is good starting point, with 32 GB of DOMINATOR TITANIUM being a better choice if your budget allows for it.

Additionally, it’s always worth considering an upgrade to your cooling solution if you’d like to enjoy the delightful noise of carving aliens into two or more pieces without being bothered by a loud PC. The iCUE LINK TITAN 360 RX will keep your PC cool and quiet with considerable ease. Alternatively, the NAUTILUS 360 RS ARGB will do much the same, but at a lower price while requiring a little more cable management for the installation.

While the majority of readers will already be familiar with this franchise (and can therefore skip this section and just enjoy the pretty screenshots,) we can explain for the rest of you.

Gears of War: Reloaded follows the original Gear of War storyline, with the same gameplay. This comprises third-person shooting with an emphasis on taking cover to avoid damage and, interestingly, reloading with a correctly timed additional tap of a button to get a damage boost in a now-infamous mechanic known as "Active Reload." All the while, you'll be mowing down hordes of Locusts. You also can chop them in half with the chainsaw mounted to the barrel of your gun if you prefer a more expedient, albeit messy, solution.

You control the character of Dom, a former soldier who re-joins the military unit known as the COGs (nice play on words there) to help eradicate those pesky locusts in order to save civilization from a continued downfall.

The game is set not on Earth but on Sera, a planet colonized by humans long before the events of this game, so the environments you’ll fight through are a mixture of foreign alien landscapes and more familiar post-Earth human architecture. Not that much of it is particularly visible after you and the boys have splattered it with Locust innards.