Best Forza Horizon 6 Settings Quick Summary:
- Use native resolution and rely on upscaling instead of lowering resolution.
- Keep Fullscreen on and VSync off for better input response.
- DLSS Quality or DLAA are best for Nvidia GPUs. FSR Quality is the best general option for non-Nvidia GPUs.
- Avoid Frame Generation unless your base FPS stays above 60.
- Raytraced GI improves the image more than RT reflections. RT reflections look good in Tokyo, but cost a lot of FPS.
- Shadow Quality, Volumetric Fog, Shader Quality, and Car LOD are key FPS hitters.
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Best Forza Horizon 6 Video Settings
One of the most important parts of the game is, of course, its visual fidelity, and Forza Horizon 6 looks the best the series has ever looked. With the decision to release the game only on current-gen consoles, the developers had much more leeway to create a beautiful, immersive image, which they used to the full. The gorgeous night Tokyo races, the early-morning countryside drives, it all comes together to create one of the best-looking racing games ever. After Driveclub during stormy weather, of course. Let’s go over the best Forza Horizon 6 video settings:
|
Setting |
Best Option |
Explanation |
|
Resolution |
Native |
Never set lower than your native res. If you’re on a potato PC, it’s better to use image reconstruction technologies in performance mode. |
|
Frame rate |
Unlocked with VRR, capped if your PC struggles to maintain a high framerate |
If your PC has problems going above 60 fps, it’s better to cap it. This way, you’ll free up some power, and it’ll perform better. Just do it through RTSS or Nvidia Control Panel, not within the game itself. |
|
VSync |
Off |
You don’t want that in a racing game. |
|
Fullscreen |
On |
Better performance + lower input lag. |
|
Show FPS |
Up to preference |
Good for testing, though it lacks detail. |
|
Motion Blur |
Up to preference |
I feel that Forza lacks a feeling of speed, and motion blur adds a bit of it. |
|
Anti-Aliasing |
AMD FSR 3.1.5 AA: Quality |
If you’re not on an Nvidia GPU, this is the best image reconstruction technology. |
|
NVIDIA DLSS Technologies |
On: Quality / DLAA. Framegen: Off. Reflex: On. |
Let’s be honest, Nvidia’s image reconstruction is objectively the best. If you need better performance, leave it on Quality. If you want a sharper image, use DLAA, though it’s more taxing. Do not turn on Framegen unless you can go above 60 at all times, as it will tank your input lag. |
General video settings are usually preferential and don’t influence the performance that much, apart from image reconstruction tech. If you are confused about which quality preset to choose, here’s a very blunt guideline:
- 1080p: Quality
- 1440p: Balanced
- 4K: Performance
Note that DLAA upscaling is there only if you have enough juice in your system. It makes the image far cleaner and more accurate, surpassing even the native resolution quality. If you have a GPU that is too powerful for your resolution (like 5090 on a 1440p display), turn it on, as it’ll make the image pop so much more, and it also has the least amount of noise among all upscaling technologies.
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Best Forza Horizon 6 Graphics Settings
Let’s talk about the core settings that make Forza Horizon 6 look good. In this section, I’ll be giving the optimized Forza Horizon 6 graphics settings. They didn’t change much since Forza Horizon 5, but the quality leap is easily noticeable. While FH5 wasn’t a bad-looking game, FH6 just blows it out of the water. What’s cool is that Forza Horizon 6 has a built-in benchmark that helps you tailor the settings to your system perfectly. The settings I’ll list are only a point of reference, so don’t be afraid to drop or raise them if you feel like they don’t fit your system. Below are the best Forza Horizon 6 graphics settings:
|
Settings |
Best Option |
Explanation |
|
Car Level of Detail |
Ultra |
Extreme takes too much performance, but makes your cars look uh-mazing. Influences various details and car geometry of cars OTHER than yours. |
|
Environment Texture Quality |
Extreme |
Influences how much VRAM the textures occupy. If you see that your game starts dropping frames randomly, lower this setting first. |
|
Environment Geometry Quality |
High/Ultra |
Influences the draw distance and tesselation. I’m personally willing to sacrifice frames for more realistic geometry detail and less pop-in, but High is a great middle-ground. Bear in mind that this setting is usually CPU rather than GPU-bound. |
|
Car Reflection Quality |
Ultra |
Influences the quality of cubemaps. Doesn’t influence performance, but there’s no point in going higher than ultra. |
|
Screen Space Reflections Quality |
Extreme |
While SSR can be quite buggy in games of other genres, in racing, it's almost unnoticeable because of the way SSR works. Forza's SSR is quite good, and while it’s not even close to RT reflections, surprisingly enough, it consumes no performance at all. |
|
Raytraced Reflections Quality |
High or Off |
The main draw of RT reflections is the world reflections in the buildings. In the current release state, the setting feels kinda off. It has this grainy look to it, which could've been fixed by ray reconstruction, but it's nowhere to be found here. It also eats around 15-20% of your performance. |
|
Shadow Quality |
High or Ultra |
Shadows are quite taxing. High is enough to get rid of the fuzzy visuals while creating naturally softer shadows, while Ultra makes them sharper and a bit unrealistic, while eating around 15% performance. |
|
Night Shadows |
Medium or Off |
This setting in Forza traditionally eats a lot of FPS. Night shadows let the headlights cast shadows on objects. For instance, a civilian car driving past you will cast a shadow behind it with this setting turned on. If you want that little bit of immersion, turn it to medium, but I'd recommend it off. |
|
Screen Space GI Quality |
High or Ultra |
Basically, ambient occlusion. The only way you'll see the difference is by switching between High and Ultra, where it seems that the resolution of occlusion increases and the corner shadows become more accurate. |
|
Raytraced GI Quality |
Medium or High |
Makes the world feel deeper with foliage casting shadows and overall a more believable volumetric light diffusion, especially during dusk and dawn. It also eats around 20% of your performance on High. While High has the cleanest visuals, Medium offers much better performance, taking only around 5-7% of your fps, with some minor draws like foliage shadows looking smudgy. |
|
Shader Quality |
Ultra |
Very large umbrella setting that includes a ton of various effects that make the world seem more real and less plastic. It can be framerate-hungry, but I don’t recommend setting it any lower than High. |
|
Deformable Terrain Quality |
Extreme |
No performance cost, makes snow and sand look more realistic when being deformed by tires. |
|
Particle Effects Quality |
Ultra |
Increases the particle resolution, with no performance cost. |
|
Volumetric Fog Quality |
High or Ultra |
Influences the fog resolution. IIRC, it also makes the clouds look better. |
|
Lens Effects |
Ultra |
Creates a nice effect of looking through the camera lens. |
|
Motion Blur Quality |
Extreme |
Honestly didn’t notice any visual or performance difference. |
As I said, I recommend using these settings as the base. Continue tweaking your graphics til you are satisfied with the results.
Most Expensive Graphics Settings in Forza Horizon 6
Forza is pretty well optimized, but despite that, there are some pretty taxing settings that you want to lower first when optimizing your game. While you're in the process of optimizing, I recommend using the built-in benchmark. The benchmark tool provides some good graphs if you can read them, but only at the end of the test. Try using RivaTuner + RTSS to track the performance better. It’ll help you understand where the frame dips were and what caused them. Here are the most expensive graphics settings in Forza Horizon 6:
- Raytraced Global Illumination: Costs the most but makes the game look 10 times better, especially on High.
- Raytraced Reflections Quality: The second most impactful setting that will eat your FPS. The biggest difference is that you get actual reflections in the windows of Tokyo’s buildings.
- Shadow Quality: They’re always expensive, though not to the degree of RT. They eat around 15% of your performance at the highest setting, according to my tests.
- Volumetric Fog Quality: Can eat 10% of your performance on the highest setting while not looking that much better. High is a good option if you can’t tolerate the pixelated look of the fog.
- Shader Quality: Since it’s a setting that fits multiple other settings inside it, the higher it goes, the more FPS you lose. Considering putting it on High or Ultra, though I’d even suggest going for Medium if you really need that extra FPS.
- Car Level of Detail: The Extreme option is surprisingly taxing while not really looking that much better than Ultra, so don’t go for it.
Though GI is so taxing on your hardware, if you have enough power, I suggest turning it on over RT Reflections. Reflections are good and all, but most of the time you won’t be seeing them cause you’ll be blazing through the streets at far beyond the speed limit. GI is making the image richer, deeper, and more immersive, really pushing the envelope.
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F.A.Q
What are the best Forza Horizon 6 settings for FPS?
Use Fullscreen, turn VSync off, cap FPS externally, keep shadows below Extreme, lower Volumetric Fog, and avoid ray tracing if your GPU struggles.
Should I use DLSS in Forza Horizon 6?
You absolutely should. DLSS in quality mode is often the same, if not better than, native resolution. If you have the power for that, I recommend DLAA.
Should I turn on Frame Generation in Forza Horizon 6?
It depends on one factor. Can your PC hold above 60 fps at all times? You can, but not too heavy, 2x should be enough. If your PC can hold well above 60 fps, say around 90-100, you can turn on 4x framegen and see your FPS skyrocket.
What graphics settings hurt FPS the most in Forza Horizon 6?
Raytraced GI, raytraced reflections, shadow quality, volumetric fog, shader quality, and extreme car level of detail are the biggest performance hits.























