Last week, Microsoft released Gears of War: Reloaded on PC. Powered by a heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 3, it’s time now to benchmark it and see how it performs on PC.
For our benchmarks, I used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, AMD’s Radeon RX 6900XT, RX 7900XTX, RX 9070XT, as well as NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 4090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090. I also used Windows 10 64-bit, the GeForce 581.15, and the Radeon Adrenalin Edition 25.8.1 drivers.
Gears of War: Reloaded does have a built-in benchmark tool, which is exactly what I used for our benchmarks. It comes with a few graphics settings, and it also supports AMD FSR 3.1 and NVIDIA DLSS 3.5.
At 1080p/Max Settings, all of our GPUs were able to push framerates over 150FPS. Even our NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti had no trouble at all running the game. Same goes for 1440p/Max Settings. None of our GPUs had any trouble running it.
Things get a bit more interesting at 4K/Max Settings. At Native 4K, the NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti is unable to offer a constant 60FPS experience. The AMD Radeon RX 6900XT falls behind the NVIDIA RTX 3080. The AMD Radeon RX 9070XT is also slower than the RX 7900XTX, which is also slower than the NVIDIA RTX 5080. Plus, the NVIDIA RTX 5080 seems to be able to match the performance of the RTX 4090 at 4K.
I should note that Gears of War: Reloaded currently suffers from major issues on the RTX-50 series GPUs. As you can see, our minimum framerate is really low on both the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090. Right now, the game suffers from major texture streaming issues on the RTX-50 series GPUs. Due to these streaming issues, the game also suffers from some stuttering issues. These issues are exclusive to the RTX-50 series, and NVIDIA is fully aware of them. Sadly, we don’t have an ETA on when they will fix them.
What I find hilarious is that these texture streaming issues have been present since its beta phase. At the end of the article, you can find a video from the beta that highlights them. So, I don’t know why NVIDIA hasn’t addressed them. They were aware of them for over two months.
Due to these streaming issues, I don’t recommend getting GoW: Reloaded if you own an RTX-50 series GPU. You should wait until NVIDIA fixes these issues. If, on the other hand, you own an AMD GPU or another NVIDIA GPU, you will be able to enjoy the game the way it was meant to be.
Graphics-wise, Gears of War: Reloaded looks better than the Ultimate Edition. It also runs better than it. For instance, it does not suffer from the stuttering issues the Ultimate Edition had. Moreover, CPU utilization is better now. Thus, owners of weaker CPUs will be able to get a smoother gaming experience with the Reloaded Edition.
Do note that GoW: Reloaded is not a fully fledged remake or remaster. It retains the art style of the Ultimate Edition. This means that there are some artistic style changes compared to the original X360 version. So, if you hated the way the Ultimate Edition looked, you will also hate Reloaded.
All in all, Gears of War: Reloaded will run great on a wide range of PCs. Again, this is simply an enhanced version of the Ultimate Edition. So, make sure to temper your expectations. Yes, it does feature better Textures and better effects. However, it will not blow you away with its graphics. Also, you should stay away from it if you own an RTX-50 series GPU until NVIDIA fixes the issues I mentioned above.
Have fun!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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The performance fall-off from 1440p to 4K sure is interesting.
I was playing at 4K DLAA first, but switched over to DLSS Quality and suddenly the game ran so much better.
Yeah prolly related to how old UE3 is.
Maybe if your skull didn't contain farts instead of brains you'd realise that I was refering to a drop off way beyond what is typically seen from 1440P to 4K.
Oh the train wreck these 5000 series "AI" gpus are. I'm having a blast with the game it looks and runs flawlessly. Way better than the original.
Game is mostly great technically but shadows are kinda busted.
1. Game has multiple shadow types. Interior character shadows are very sharp. Sun character shadows are softer, but softness bias fluctuates during movement. It's distracting.
2. Using shadows on anything but Low has broken LODs for character shadow distance.
3. Certain enemies don't get properly shadowed on PC, but they do on consoles.
ALSO: a friend with with a 4080 laptop couldn't launch the game from the Xbox app to play with me (7900 XTX). If he launched the game from a shortcut created of the game's exe, WinGDK smth smth, the game would work flawlessly.
@John Papadopoulos, regarding the 1% lows on the 5000 series. I wonder if this is the same as, or related to old API's (like PhysX) being nurfed on 5000 series..? Another older tech that only works on the 4000 series and below..?
As I game as 3440*1440, my 4080 still has many years left in it.
Nope, it has nothing to do with it.
John what happened to no p*rn policy? this guy has posted AI p*rn of megadrive girl multiple times spams everyone's inbox with his accounts.
stop whining. john is taking care of his site. you will just have to deal with it for now until they get bored. but stop being childish and going crying to daddy you piec of sh#t filth mongrel pile of puke and bloody guts
that dont prove anything. dagoat isnt weak. hes a worthles piece of sh#t but hes not weak
i dont beleive he will do it. hes angry and hurting right now and lashing out at evrybody like a wounded animal.
even sh#t for brains like dagoat have feelings that can be hurt
Anyone who regularly trolls people on this site and blocks someone for trolling them is weak and a coward as well. Like a little kid holding his hands over his ears saying I can't hear you. Only problem is that everyone else can and they laugh at you for being so childish and silly. As the old saying goes:
"If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen."
You’re upset that I’m going to block your last account? 🙂 spam my inbox again and I’ll block this one too.
The requirements aren't that high compared to modern games, but the framerate on my PC fluctuates significantly depending on the location. The opening acts run at around 110–120 fps at 4K native DLAA, but Act III runs at 70 fps with the same settings (I'm guessing rain rendering is tanking performance). However, reducing the SSR quality from 'Epic' to 'High' increases the frame rate by around 20 fps with no noticeable loss of quality. DLSS quality also drastically improves the framerate in this game (by 70–80%), so it's possible to achieve around 180 fps. DLSS Ultra Quality (77 resolution scale forced through Nvidia drivers) is also an effective way of boosting the framerate while maintaining a comparable image quality to DLAA (standard DLSS quality blur fine details on the textures a little bit compared to DLAA).
I'm not a fan of "Reloaded aesthethic" though, so I will always prefer playing the original game.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81a7dc4ba2a2235e8c65d521d99eec03784a6e9f03c1f861511bc1afc530643e.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b6f878dd23e79d7a0e20aacea4dfd2203de75e70eec90a27607f99fb5ebee208.jpg
However, user "TGO" from the neogaf forums found out that Reloaded can look much better with a simple contrast adjustment in the game. I tested his advice and was blown away by the difference it made. The default contrast settings make even dark areas bright (especially in HDR), but tweaking the contrast to 80% or even 90% gives the same scenes a totally different feel, and Reloaded starts to resemble the original game's dark atmosphere.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/183a3bebf5d992fbf2597824e6bd21e3e8d13b8226114cdec6d12377b13a328e.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2495cd482c2025a9bcbf73dad2eb56959835bb518a2dfa53c6b00b517b7a6105.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47a04c90bcd9eea350f2543dc30d4d642a253825bc0c77873802644e31343c15.jpg
Yup, agree. It actually comes from the 2015 remaster of the game. It completely loses the dark, and dirty/grimy look of the game for more cleaner brighter aesthetic which ruins the atmosphere!
Developers should use UE3 again instead of UE5.
At least there wouldn't be any performance or stuttering issues, and the graphics would only be slightly weaker than in a UE5 title. 🙂
Many of the assets in Reloaded look outdated. Textures appear blurry up close, and objects such as the monitors on the desk are basic squares. The original version often looks better because it was using "detail textures", POM and shaders to mask low resolution textures and low poly models. UE5 games absolutely slaughter GOW Reloaded when it comes to polycounts and texture quality. For example in Hellblade 2's ground surface has an insane number of polygons, with even the tiniest rocks fully rendered. In Gears of War: Reloaded, the ground surface is essentially flat. The Gears of War E-Day build on the UE5 will make Reloaded look like joke.
Also, not every game with UE5 has stuttering issues. MGSD on PC doesn't have them, as confirmed by Digital Foundry, and UE5 runs quite well on decent hardware like mine. Right now I'm playing MGS Delta at 4K DLSS balance (67% res scale, so it's acutally DLSS quality equivalent in every other game) and this game runs between 75-90fps. With DLSS FGx2 around 140fps
UE5 games don’t look good enough to warrant such high system requirements.
Mafia and MGSD look awful even at native resolution.
It's funny how the sequels going xbox exclusive somehow prevented microsoft of milking it to death like they are doing with the original right now. A simple port would be enough for many, but alas.
John, how much would you want to sell this site to me? I would keep you on and pay you weekly for writing articles and the tech wizzard Metal Messiah. This could be a great PC gaming site if run properly. Hell, the only real competition is PCGamer.
what would you do. ban evryone?
If this were my site I would ban anyone that comes here just to start sh*t. About 1/4 of the regular commenters would have to go including you. I don't think I've ever seen a comment from you about PC gaming. Just about how you hate dagoat. No one gives d*mn what you think about dagoat. Are you even aware that this is a PC gaming site that you are on?
btw your alias suits you well Dr. Stupid.
A communist utopia? Really? Well, you are a melodramatic little runny nose brat. There is nothing communist about taking out the trash so that others don't have to smell you.
Ask yourself. What purpose do you serve here? All that you are interested in is promoting your fantasy of being an edge lord but you are to weak to even manage that. You're a joke. Useless to anyone that isn't a fellow social misfit.