Best Forza Horizon 5 Settings For FPS And Performance

When it comes to optimization, Forza Horizon 5 runs very well on a wide range of computers. The game has a lot of different graphics settings that you can choose from. However, a lot of the settings will require you to restart the game for the changes to apply, so it can become really frustrating to identify the differences between all of the settings.

In my Forza Horizon 5 Best Settings Guide, we walk through all of the important settings and compare the differences between them so that you can choose the correct settings. 

Best Forza Horizon 5 Graphics Settings

Here, we’ll examine every Graphics Settings Forza Horizon 5 has to provide. We will evaluate the settings with screenshots to give you an understanding of the effects each setting has and assist you in selecting the best choice for a better experience when you play Forza Horizon 5.

Summary of Graphics Settings

Anisotropic Filtering – Medium

Anisotropic filtering gives clarity to distant surface textures that are seen at an angle. You can choose from 3 different options for this setting: Low, Medium, and High. You wouldn’t notice a big change in the visuals or performance by changing this setting. Medium will give you a 1% performance boost so we recommend keeping this setting on Medium.

Shadow Quality – High

The difference between these settings isn’t very big, you can hardly tell the differences between the Extreme and the High Settings. Dropping down the Shadow Quality from Extreme to High will give you a huge performance boost of up to 7.5%.  Turning Shadows Off will give you a 13.5% performance boost but it isn’t recommended because it completely turns off all the shadows in the game which makes it look very bad. 

Night Shadows – On

This setting controls the Shadows formed by the lights at night time. This includes the car lights, street lights, and all the other lights that turn on after it gets dark. Turning this setting Off will give you a small boost of 2% performance. We recommend leaving this setting On for impressive visuals, also because the performance boost with the setting turned off isn’t worth it.

Motion Blur Quality – High

This Setting adjusts the quality of the Motion Blur Setting that you have applied in the Video Settings of the game. It doesn’t change the amount of Motion Blur. Low looks worse than the other settings as it makes the blur appear grainy. You can change this setting to High for a very small 0.5% performance boost.

Environmental Texture Quality – Ultra

The Environmental Texture Quality can be dropped down to Ultra for some extra FPS boost, but lower than that isn’t recommended. Turning this setting to High will also automatically change the Environmental Geometry Quality to High. Leave Environmental Texture Quality on Ultra for a 2% FPS boost.

Environmental Geometry Quality – Ultra

The Environmental Geometry Quality controls the quantity/density of objects in the game. It doesn’t affect the visual quality of those objects.

You’ll see less amount of grass on the ground in the lower setting, and some of the plants will also be missing. Here, the Ultra setting looks decent and will give you a 6% increase in performance.

Anti-Aliasing MSAA – 2x

Turning Anti-Aliasing off isn’t recommended because it makes the vegetation look very grainy. 2x is the perfect option as it does a very good job of removing the jagged edges. Anything above 2x is unnecessary and will take a huge chunk out of your performance. We also recommend turning FXAA on with 2x MSAA for a much smoother-looking image.

FXAA – On

FXAA is another Anti-Aliasing method used in Forza Horizon 5.  It has 2 settings, On and Off. It has a minimal effect as compared to the MSAA and it tends to blur the edges of the objects to achieve a smoother image. We recommend turning this on along with MSAA for an even smoother-looking image and taking grip of Best Forza Horizon 5 Settings. 

SSAO Quality – Ultra

Screen Spaced Ambient Occlusion controls cast shadows over objects in the game. It mostly affects the ambient environmental shadows in the game. SSAO doesn’t really give you any huge performance boost until you turn it completely off, which doesn’t look very good. We recommend leaving this setting on Ultra.

Reflection Quality – Ultra or Medium

Reflection Quality setting only affects the reflections on the body of the cars. High, Ultra, and Extreme settings look very identical to each other. The quality of the reflections starts getting worse when you go below the High setting. To see a decent FPS boost you have to go down to Low.

World Car Level of Detail – High

World Car Level of Detail sets the detail level of your car and all the other cars in the game. This setting has 5 options: Extreme, Ultra, High, Medium, and Low.

The differences between these options are very minimal. The Low setting looks just as good as the higher settings with a very small difference like the car badges appearing to be less detailed. We recommend changing this setting to High for a 3.5% performance boost.

Screen Space Reflection Quality – High

This setting only affects the quality of reflections that are formed in the rivers, water puddles, and wet roads after rain. There are 5 options for this setting: Ultra, High, Medium, Low, and Off.

Honestly, you won’t be able to tell a difference between the Ultra and High setting, and you’ll get 4.5% higher FPS at High.

Lens Effects – High

This setting controls the various dirt and water droplets effects that can appear on the screen when you’re driving through the mud or while it’s raining. It’s worth changing this setting to High at almost no visual cost. If you don’t like these effects, you can turn them completely off. Turning this setting down to High will give you a 2% more FPS.

Shader Quality – High

You can turn this setting down to Low or Medium for a 19-21% increase in FPS performance. We recommend keeping this setting on High as it looks a lot better than the lower settings and it can give you a 3.5% increase in performance.

Deformable Terrain – Extreme

The Extreme setting has the most pronounced visual effect. Turning this setting Off removes the effect altogether. It’s difficult to benchmark the performance hit between the different options accurately. We recommend leaving this setting on Extreme if your PC isn’t struggling to run the game.

Particle Effects – Medium

You can set the Particle Effects to Medium without noticing any big difference. Don’t go all the way down to Very Low or the Sandstorms in your game will vanish. Unless you want the sandstorm to disappear, keep this setting about Very Low. Without affecting the game’s graphic quality, you can easily adjust this level to Medium for 1.5% greater performance than Ultra.

Ray Tracing – RTX – Optional

The Ray Tracing option in Forza Horizon 5 only works in the Forzavista mode that can be toggled in the garage which lets you take a closer look at your car. Ray Tracing is not applied at any other point in the game. We tested all three modes for Ray Tracing and couldn’t find any big difference between them. You can choose any of the three options as it doesn’t make a big difference to the performance or the visual quality of the game.

Frame Rate – Unlocked(Variable)

This Forza Horizon 5 setting allows you to put a limit on the frame rate of the game. This setting comes down to personal preference. if you want your FPS to be at a constant 30 or 60, you have the option to do that with this setting. In this guide, we were looking to squeeze as much performance from the game as possible so we kept the frame rate Unlocked.

Verticle Synchronization – Off

VSYNC is a feature allowing frame synchronization of Forza Horizon 5 with the gaming monitor’s refresh rate. It is recommended to turn this feature off.

Motion Blur Type – Short

Having motion blur on could improve the experience by enhancing the sense of speed when driving at high speeds. We recommend changing this setting to Short. 

Resolution Scaling – Off

Resolution Scaling should be turned off, as any setting that you apply in the game will lower the graphics in-game and then scale it up. This setting is somewhat similar to Nvidia’s DLSS, but it doesn’t use the same technology.

Nvidia Settings For Forza Horizon 5

You can squeeze more performance from Your Nvidia Graphics Card by making adjustments within the Nvidia Control Panel. Follow the instructions in this article to maximize Forza Horizon 5 for your Nvidia Graphics Card.

Overview of Nvidia Settings

Windows 10 Optimizations For Forza Horizon 5

If you wish to make sure your system is playing the game at its maximum potential, there are a few Windows 10 optimizations that will optimize your PC even further for Forza Horizon 5.

• Update Windows and Your Drivers
• Enable Ultimate Performance Power Plan
• Disable Hardware Acceleration
• Terminate All Unnecessary Applications Running In The Background
• Clear Temp Folder
• Forza Horizon 5 Benchmarks On Optimized Settings

Accessing Forza Horizon 5’s Optimization

When I applied all the best Forza Horizon 5 graphics settings as well as other optimizations mentioned above, I conducted a final benchmark (Video Attached below) to assess performance

I saw a staggering 30% improvement in FPS performance, while still keeping the high quality of the visuals.

Here is a 4-minute benchmark video that shows the difference between our Forza Horizon 5 optimized settings and the game’s Ultra Settings.

After having followed the Forza Horizon 5 Best Settings guide and implementing all the required Windows 10 and Nvidia Optimizations, you should see a massive improvement in the FPS speed.

I spent a great deal in testing the setting to determine which offered the highest performance, while still maintaining good visuals. This guide will allow you to improve the overall experience of gaming.

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