This week during the Gamescom gaming convention in Germany, Microsoft showcased Gears of War 4 running on a Windows 10 machine at 4K resolution. The company also revealed the game’s system requirements, which demand that Windows 10 customers have the new Anniversary Update already installed before loading up the new Gears of War installment.
The listed system requirements are rather intense, providing three categories that are broken down into AMD and Nvidia variants each: Minimum, Recommended, and Ideal. Based on this chart, Microsoft and The Coalition are suggesting that if PC gamers have an AMD processor, then they should use an AMD graphics card as well. Otherwise, Intel processors seem to work best with Nvidia’s graphics chips.
If you root for team AMD, Gears of War 4 needs an AMD FX-6300 processor at the least. However, the recommended spec lists the AMD FX-8350, whereas the ideal setup relies on the AMD FX-9590 processor. On the GPU front, they list the Radeon R7 260X (2GB), the Radeon R9 290X or Radeon RX 480 (4GB), and the Radeon R9 Fury X (4GB), respectively.
For Intel-based machines, Gears of War 4 requires the Core i5-3470 processor at the very least, but PC gamers would do better with the recommended Core i5-4690 or the “ideal” Core i7-4790 processor. On that note, the game demands the GeForce 750 Ti (2GB) graphics chip at the very least, but will perform better with the recommended GeForce 970 or GeForce GTX 1060 (4GB). The “ideal” setup consists of the GeForce 980 Ti or the new GeForce GTX 1080 powerhouse (+6GB).
Finally, Gears of War 4 needs 8GB of system memory, while the “ideal” amount is 16GB. PC gamers will also need 80GB of free space on their hard drive, although the ideal specs suggest using an SSD instead for faster load times and better overall performance.
As seen in the video embedded above, the gameplay demo displayed during the convention takes place within the “Rescue” chapter where JD, Kait, and Del are seen chasing a large enemy through an old COG fort until they come across two new Swarm enemies — Drones and Pouncers. Obviously, the only way forward is through these two new beasts.
“Gears of War 4 is powered by a completely new rendering engine, with the Windows 10 version supporting comprehensive video settings, increased texture resolutions, dynamic resolution support up to 4K and more,” reports Adam Fletcher from The Coalition. He added that the gameplay demo displayed during the show was provided at a 4K resolution.
Gears of War 4 is slated to arrive on October 11. Xbox One customers can pre-order the upcoming shooter now for $60 and reel in the Brothers to the End Elite Gear Pack that includes three unique characters (Tomorrow Anya, Old Man Marcus, and Zombie Dom), the Gold Wave Lancer, and the Gold Wave Gnasher. These latter two items are updated versions of the gold weapon skins previously dished out to day-one players of previous installments.
If that’s not enough to sink $60 now, Xbox One customers who pre-order Gears of War 4 will also get free copies of the entire Gears of War collection previously released on the Xbox 360 for the Xbox One console.
As for Windows 10 gamers, they can pre-order Gears of War 4 for $60 by hitting Microsoft’s online store here or though the built-in Windows Store app. Remember, if you purchase the digital version on either platform, it’s yours to play on both the Xbox One and Windows 10.
