Gears of War: E-Day beta performance analysis on Xbox Series X and S

The Gears of War: E-Day beta demonstrates strong visual fidelity on Xbox Series X, utilizing Unreal Engine 5 with hardware-accelerated global illumination and reflections. The game offers three distinct modes: Performance (60 FPS), Quality (30 FPS), and Balanced (40 FPS). While the Performance mode maintains a consistent 60 FPS in most scenarios, it experiences occasional frame-time hitches and dips during intense horde mode encounters. The Quality mode provides a more stable 30 FPS, though it also exhibits minor, infrequent frame-time fluctuations. The Xbox Series S version shares similar visual features but with reduced texture resolution, simplified shadows, and the absence of hardware-accelerated ray-traced reflections, relying instead on screen-space reflections. The beta code is currently a work in progress, and developers have indicated that performance optimizations are ongoing. The game's art style, characterized by dusty, war-torn environments with diffuse metals, limits the visual impact of ray-traced reflections compared to more glossy, high-spec environments.

Gears of War: E-Day utilizes Unreal Engine 5 with hardware-accelerated global illumination and reflections on Xbox Series X. The game features three distinct modes: Performance at 60 FPS, Quality at 30 FPS, and Balanced at 40 FPS.

Performance mode on Series X maintains 60 FPS but experiences occasional frame-time hitches during intense horde mode encounters. Xbox Series S versions feature reduced texture resolution, simplified shadows, and rely on screen-space reflections instead of ray tracing.

The beta code is a work in progress, with developers confirming that performance optimizations are still being implemented. The game's art style, featuring dusty, war-torn environments, limits the visual impact of ray-traced reflections.