System Requirements For 'Gears of War 4' Revealed, Windows 10 Anniversary Update Required

Two months before Gears of War 4 hits store shelves, The Coalition, the studio behind the latest chapter in the series, showed off more gameplay footage at this year’s Gamescom. In addition, we now know of the game’s system requirements for PCs.

The 10 minute gameplay video, which is playable up to 4K resolution, featured the game’s protagonists — JD,  Kait and Del — as they make their way through a series of old buildings. Along the way, the trio encounter an evolved version of the standard Drone soldier as well as the Pouncer, a new and terrifying creature that shoots piercing quills from its tail.

As for the PC version of the game, the studio promised to deliver “comprehensive video settings” for Windows 10 players. Additional features include increased texture resolutions and up to 4K resolution support.

The Coalition displayed the system requirements in an unusual way. It’s split into three categories: Minimum, Recommended and Ideal. On top of that, each category was further split into Nvidia and AMD-based systems.

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Gears of War 4 System RequirementsMinimumRecommendedIdeal
AMDNvidiaAMDNvidiaAMDNvidia
CPUAMD FX-6300 (Vishera, 3.5 GHz)Intel i5-3470 (Ivy Bridge, 3.2 GHz)AMD FX-8350 (Vishera, 4.0 GHz)Intel i5-4690 (Haswell, 3.5 GHz)AMD FX-9590 (Vishera, 4.7 GHz)Intel i7-4790 (Haswell, 3.6 GHz)
GPURadeon R7 260XGeForce GTX 750 TiRadeon R9  290X or Radeon RX 480GeForce GTX 970 or  GeForce GTX 1060Radeon R9 Fury XGeForce 980 Ti or GeForce GTX 1080
RAM8 GB8 GB8 GB8 GB16 GB16 GB
Storage80 GB80 GB80 GB80 GB80 GB (SSD)80 GB (SSD)
OSWindows 10 (Anniversary Update)Windows 10 (Anniversary Update)Windows 10 (Anniversary Update)Windows 10 (Anniversary Update)Windows 10 (Anniversary Update)Windows 10 (Anniversary Update)

The most notable part of the requirements is the OS. Not only do you have to own Windows 10, but it also needs to be on the Anniversary Update, which came out a few weeks ago. Microsoft’s push for the Windows 10 platform continues to be strong, even if the window (no pun intended) for a free upgrade has passed.

With the PC specs out, The Coalition seems to be on the home stretch of development. In addition to a release on the Xbox One, Gears of War 4 will be one of the first titles on the Xbox One S to support high dynamic range (HDR). The game is also a part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program, which means that if you buy the game on PC or Xbox One, you get the other version for free. As an added bonus, Gears of War 4 supports cross-play so you can play with your friends whether they’re playing on the Xbox One or PC.

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NameGears of War 4
TypeShooter, Action/Adventure
DeveloperThe Coalition
PublisherMicrosoft Studios
PlatformsPC, Xbox One
Where To BuyXbox StoreAmazonBest BuyTargetWalmartGameStop
Release DateOctober 11, 2016
  • thinkspeak
    980 ti for ideal? Well this should be interesting
    Reply
  • sillynilly
    Update required? Deal killer. I tried to do the update and was told I had video and music files with older DRM that would not be available to me after the update. Of course, the files were not listed nor was there some output file to check which ones or how many would be affected. So I have no idea if I would lose my Two Live Crew catalog or if it was just Bobby Brown.

    Of course for those of you that haven't updated to Windows 10 you can still do the accessibility update. I did that on an older laptop I had forgotten about.

    Sucks since this looked like a fun title and I have my 1080 all ready to go!
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    How are they handling press kits with this one? Do the press only get the xbox one copy? Will the PC version be available for early review? Is there a review embargo? If so, when does it end (days or hours before release)?

    Lately, it feels like the answers to these questions can be more telling about the enjoyment and quality of titles.

    I don't feel like a significant amount of time has passed since the last major (still a whimper on the grander scale) release on the Windows store. It'll be pretty interesting to follow the progress, to try to gauge how serious they are about providing quality content on the PC side of things.

    I haven't watched the video yet, but I'm interested to find out how much they've differentiated this title from past Gears of War games. It could just be more of the same. I'm interested in finding out.
    Reply
  • Jeff Fx
    18453411 said:
    Update required? Deal killer. I tried to do the update and was told I had video and music files with older DRM that would not be available to me after the update. Of course, the files were not listed nor was there some output file to check which ones or how many would be affected. So I have no idea if I would lose my Two Live Crew catalog or if it was just Bobby Brown.

    The problem is that you have files with DRM on your system. That's a problem you're going to have to deal with eventually, so you might as well fix the problem now so you can try Gears in 4K. Staying locked into an OS version because you didn't get around to stripping DRM is not a good long-term solution

    Reply
  • jaber2
    I only made it to recommended :(
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    Those ideal requirements, though. I've never seen a game require, like, a $1,500 computer before.
    Reply
  • sillynilly
    18453491 said:
    18453411 said:
    Update required? Deal killer. I tried to do the update and was told I had video and music files with older DRM that would not be available to me after the update. Of course, the files were not listed nor was there some output file to check which ones or how many would be affected. So I have no idea if I would lose my Two Live Crew catalog or if it was just Bobby Brown.

    The problem is that you have files with DRM on your system. That's a problem you're going to have to deal with eventually, so you might as well fix the problem now so you can try Gears in 4K. Staying locked into an OS version because you didn't get around to stripping DRM is not a good long-term solution

    I have Windows 10 - just not the recent update that kills off whatever it wants to kill off.

    Reply
  • wifiburger
    yeah I'll pass, don't care about your Windows 10,
    i'm sure others will pass too and you'll release it on Steam but who cares anyway that franchise is already on it's last legs,
    Reply
  • danwat1234
    Needs 80GB of space? Finally, a game that takes more space than GTA 5!. Needing anniversary update, doubt it really needs it to be compatible. Licensing.
    Reply
  • danwat1234
    Finally a game that take more space than GTA 5! I doubt it really needs the anniversary update, ..
    Reply