Gears of War E Day Beta Shows Strong Unreal Engine 5 Visuals on Xbox Series X and Series S

Gears of War: E Day is shaping up as one of the more technically ambitious Unreal Engine 5 games on Xbox, with an early multiplayer beta showing strong visual quality across both Series X and Series S.

The beta included three graphics modes on Xbox Series X: Performance at 60 FPS, Quality at 30 FPS, and Balanced at 40 FPS. Series S uses a similar setup but runs at much lower internal resolutions and makes additional cuts to lighting, shadows, textures and reflections.

The important detail is that this analysis is based on an early beta build rather than the finished game, so performance and image quality may still change before launch on October 6, 2026.

Gears of War E Day graphics modes on Xbox

Console	Mode	Internal resolution	Target frame rate
Xbox Series X	Performance	Around 1000p	60 FPS
Xbox Series X	Balanced	1080p	40 FPS
Xbox Series X	Quality	1224p	30 FPS
Xbox Series S	Performance	Around 576p	60 FPS
Xbox Series S	Balanced	Around 576p	40 FPS
Xbox Series S	Quality	Around 720p	30 FPS

These figures refer to internal rendering resolutions rather than final output resolution.

Series X delivers the strongest presentation

Xbox Series X offers the most complete visual package.

Quality mode uses the highest internal resolution at around 1224p and also provides slightly better defined lighting.

Balanced mode drops to 1080p while increasing the frame rate target to 40 FPS, while Performance mode reduces the internal resolution further to roughly 1000p in exchange for 60 FPS.

The differences between these modes are reportedly fairly subtle in normal gameplay.

That gives players room to choose higher frame rates without losing a large amount of visual detail.

Series S makes bigger compromises

The Series S version follows the same general structure but requires more aggressive reductions.

Performance and Balanced modes render internally at around 576p, while Quality mode rises to about 720p.

Texture quality is reduced, variable rate shading is more aggressive, and Performance mode also simplifies shadows and foliage animation.

Ray traced reflections are replaced by screen space reflections in some situations.

Even with those cuts, the overall frame rate profile reportedly remains similar to Series X.

Performance is strong in Versus but less stable in Horde Siege

Performance mode holds 60 FPS well during Versus multiplayer on Series S, according to the beta analysis.

Horde Siege is more demanding.

Dense encounters can cause dips into the 50 FPS range, and both Xbox consoles can show small performance hitches when many enemies are on screen.

That suggests the heavier PvE scenarios are currently more demanding than standard competitive multiplayer.

Chromatic aberration and film grain reduce image clarity

One criticism applies across multiple modes.

Chromatic aberration and film grain are reportedly forced on and cannot be disabled in the beta.

These effects can make the image look softer or slightly distorted, reducing some of the benefit of the higher resolution modes.

Whether The Coalition adds toggles for these effects in the final release remains unknown.

The beta leaves a strong technical first impression

The early build appears to show Unreal Engine 5 being used effectively, particularly through the game’s lighting and art direction.

There are still performance issues to address, especially during dense Horde Siege encounters, and Series S relies on very low internal resolutions to maintain its targets.

Still, the underlying technical foundation appears solid.

With nearly two months remaining before the October 6 launch, The Coalition still has time to improve performance, image reconstruction and other presentation details before the final version reaches Xbox Series X|S and PC.