Forza Horizon 5: Best Graphics Settings Guide

In this Forza Horizon 5 best graphics settings guide, I will be showing the best graphics settings and tweaks you can do for FH5. Now, The Forza Franchise is back in the game once again with its latest addition.

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Forza Horizon 5 Best Graphics Settings Guide

Kindly take note of What PC Specs I have so that you are in the know of things. Also, I highly recommend that you meet the minimum or the mid-end requirements for the game.

Contents:-

• Forza Horizon 5 Best Graphics settings in-game
  • Video Settings
  • FH5 Graphics Settings
• Forza Horizon 5 system settings and specs
• Best vs Very Low vs Extreme Settings
• Benchmark Test Settings And Results
• System Specs Used To Test Forza Horizon 5
• Tips and Tweaks To Increase FPS

Forza Horizon 5 Best Graphics Settings⇓

These are the main FH5 Graphics Settings you need to do to get a decent-looking experience and good Framerates.

VIDEO SETTINGS⇓

This section is for Video Settings of FH5:

• HDR – OFF – If you are using a compatible display, this will turn on and get detected by default, otherwise this should not be used
• RESOLUTION – 1920 x 1080 – This will determine the setting at which the resolution will be rendered. I keep this setting at its native to avoid issues.
• FRAME RATE – 144 – 144Hz is the default Refresh Rate for my monitor. I would advise that you set this to your default values to get the best possible output.
• RESOLUTION SCALING – OFF – Turning this ON will mess up your resolution textures most time. It is best to keep this one OFF.
• V-SYNC – OFF – Turn this ON only if you facing Screen Tearing or high fluctuations in FPS.
• SHOW FPS – OFF – I use other software to record the FPS for my setup. if you want to track your FPS in-game, you should turn this ON.
• MOTION BLUR – OFF – I do not recommend that you use Motion Blur unless you are a sucker for it. This tends to hamper some amount of FPS.
• USER INTERFACE SCALE – 100 – Use this to adjust the size of the UI for yourself. Ideally, keep this at 100 to get the most UI space.
• CAM FOV SETTINGS: Here, we will see the Camera FOV values and settings that you can adjust for best view – 

You can set these, and adjust further, as per your liking and preference.

GRAPHICS SETTINGS⇓

This is the main FH5 graphics setting section where you would make the main tweaks and changes:

PRESET

CUSTOM – You can use any Pre-sets given, but if you want to fine-tune the FPS, set this to custom and do the rest of the settings.

ANISOTROPIC FILTERING

HIGH – This improves the clarity of textures in the game. If you want a decent-looking and clear texture, set this to High.

SHADOW QUALITY

LOW – Shadows tend to hog a lot of FPS. If you want this high, you can do that by all means but take note that it will bring down some of your valuable FPS.

NIGHT SHADOWS

OFF – I keep this Off. If you happen to use this, this will enable shadows for headlights and street lights during nighttime. This is a cool feature in the game, but I find this somewhat FPS-Hogging. Not too much but enough to turn this off.

MOTION BLUR QUALITY

LOW – Since you won’t be using motion blur, there is no need to ramp this up to High or anything else. Simply keeping this low will serve the purpose.

ENVIRONMENT TEXTURE QUALITY

HIGH – To experience the vast expansion and world textures of Forza Horizon 5, I highly recommend that you keep this High. This will take up some FPS, but the game will look great!

ENVIRONMENT GEOMETRY QUALITY

HIGH – This was high even on my benchmark, hence I kept it the same to get the best visual experience. This is the render quality of world geometries.

MSAA

2X – This setting stands for Multisampling Anti-aliasing. Increasing this will smoothen out the edges but at the cost of a few Frame Rates. I keep 2X to get just the enough smoothness I need. If you tend to use any RTX Cards, you can ramp this up to HIGH.

FXAA

ON – You will see that in the image I kept this OFF. But I tend to use this in FH5 to get even clearer textures. This setting eliminates Jagged Edges if you are having any. I highly recommend this setting if you have enough VRAM and CPU for it.

SSAO QUALITY

HIGH – This is the indirect lighting from different sources and their quality. Since I am not using Ray Tracing Settings, I use this setting to make the game look cool and picturesque!

REFLECTION QUALITY

MEDIUM/HIGH (NEW!) – Since this setting takes up a lot of VRAM and CPU Usage, I use a medium setting for it. You can always increase this if you are using a high CPU and GPU. I tested further and noticed that you can get decent visuals without hampering FPS if you set this to “High”.

WORLD CAR LEVEL OF DETAIL

HIGH – Forza Horizon 5 is all about the detailing of the vehicles. Keeping this High will ensure that you are getting the best textures for your Cars.

DEFORMABLE TERRAIN QUALITY

MEDIUM – This adjusts the detail of deformable terrains in the game.

SSR QUALITY

MEDIUM – This will impact the reflection quality of water and roads. I kept this at medium since this takes a lot of GPU Memory and power.

LENS EFFECTS

MEDIUM – This setting is not that significant for me. Keeping this medium did not hurt my overall visual experience as well as FPS

SHADER QUALITY

HIGH – Adjusts the visual fidelity of reflections and lighting.

PARTICLE EFFECTS QUALITY

HIGH – Adjusts the quality and details of particles and volumetric elements.

RAY TRACING QUALITY

OFF – Use this setting only if you have top-end systems like R9/I9/I7 and an RTX Card from the 30 series. Otherwise, I would not recommend that you turn this ON.

Forza Horizon 5 System Settings⇓

Just make sure you are meeting the minimum system requirements for Forza Horizon 5. This is divided into Minimum, Recommended, and Ideal settings as officially released by the developers:

Minimum System Settings⇓

• CPU : Intel i5-4460 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200
• RAM: 8GB RAM
• GPU / Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon RX 470
• Storage: 110 GB HDD space
• Operating System: Windows 10 version 15063.0 or later (64-bit)

Recommended System Settings⇓

• CPU : Intel i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
• RAM: 16 GB RAM
• GPU / Video Card: GeForce GTX 1070 / AMD Radeon RX 590
• Storage: 110 GB SSD space
• Operating System: Windows 10 version 15063.0 or later (64-bit)

Ideal Spec System Settings⇓

• CPU : Intel i7-10700K / AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
• RAM: 16 GB RAM
• GPU / Video Card: GeForce RTX 3080 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
• Storage: 110 GB SSD space
• Operating System: Windows 10 version 15063.0 or later (64-bit)

Ideally, you should look for something in-between if you do not have a high-end system as listed above. Also, do not worry if you have a low-end system. You can still run the game in a decent FPS. I will show you how to do that as well.

Also, read –

• Forza Horizon 5 Photo Mode Settings, Controls, and Guide
• Forza Horizon 5 (FH5) Launch Control and Wheelie Guide

Best vs Very Low vs Extreme Graphics Settings⇓

I have recorded a video testing the game for my best settings, Very low settings, and Extreme settings. If you want to, you can also do such tests to check the limits of your system. Check the FPS Counter on the top left to get an idea of the FPS difference I was getting: [LINK]

Benchmark Mode Settings and Results⇓

If you happen to use Forza Horizon 5’s benchmark mode, then you can get the right results for your entire system.

They will show you a lot of data related to the Max FPS for GPU and CPU, overall ratings, and the average best Frame Rates you managed to achieve. This will further enhance your graphics settings for FH5.

I recommend that you do this at least once before changing settings. This way, you will know how much to change in your in-game graphics settings to get the best results. Here are my benchmark mode results:

If you wish to share yours as well, do not forget to leave a link to your shared screenshot or image in the comments below. As you can see I got an average of 83 FPS with my current rig. I then proceeded to change the settings to my liking.

My System Settings Used To Test⇓

Make sure to check this section for my system specs so that you have a better idea of how it may run on your system as well.

Also, read –

• Forza Horizon 5 Photo Mode Settings, Controls, and Guide
• Forza Horizon 5 (FH5) Launch Control and Wheelie Guide

Tips and Tweaks to Increase FPS⇓

I tried the game on best vs Very Low vs Extreme Settings, and to my surprise, It did not disappoint me on any of these settings. I will share the Stats so that you know what you will be getting into once you decide to push the game to the max and test it out:

As you can see from the above results, the best settings fetched me around 100 FPS, and the rest two are already shown. The game is very well optimized given it is graphically intense for most parts. For Medium and Entry-Level systems:

• Expect slightly lower FPS if you want to play this on entry-level systems like GTX 1050, 1650, or 1060.
• These combined with the processors namely, i3 8100, and i5 10th gen, should be the entry-level systems to play Forza Horizon 5.
• For the systems listed above expected FPS is 60 if you use my settings.
• Dial down high settings for FH5 to medium for entry-level systems

Assuming you have a high-end rig like an RTX 30 Series card and i7/i9/R7/R9 processor:

• Expect well beyond 120FPS on Ultra given that you have optimized it well.
• If you use my graphics settings, you will get a decent boost to that and can play at a locked Frame Rate.

If you face any issues during the setup or after you are done with it, let me know in the comments below. I will try to help you out as soon as I can.

Also, take note that a lot of factors matter outside of the in-game settings so make sure you do that. Some of them are quite obvious, still I will list them below.

These are some settings to improve FH5 Crashes, Lags, and Stutters⇓

• Change NVIDIA Panel settings to “Let The 3D application Decide” or “Performance”
• Turn off Application overlays such as Steam, XBOX APP, Epic, etc.
• Turn off Game Bar if you are not recording using that.
• Clean the cache files for the entire system using CCleaner [not promoted] or similar software.
• Exclude “Forza Horizon 5” in anti-virus settings.
• Set the Priority of FH5 to high from the Task Manager.

Also, read –

• Forza Horizon 5 Photo Mode Settings, Controls, and Guide
• Forza Horizon 5 (FH5) Launch Control and Wheelie Guide

That is all I am sharing in this comprehensive guide on the best graphics settings to tweak for Forza Horizon 5. Let me know how you are enjoying the game. You can also add me in FH5 and we can play together as well. Do comment down your IDs if you wish to do so.

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Last Updated on January 12, 2024

Zoid

A computer science graduate by qualification, Zoid loves to keep himself updated with the latest gaming content related to PC, Android, and other platforms as well. Likes to keep his diet and health in check from time to time!