Best Forza Horizon 6 Settings for FPS on PC
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The best Forza Horizon 6 settings for FPS are the Extreme preset with ray tracing off and a handful of options dropped to Ultra, High or Medium — a tuning test of that mix measured about 15% more average FPS than Extreme with almost no visible difference. Ray tracing is the single biggest cost (roughly 14% of average FPS), textures are the setting that decides whether an 8 GB card runs smoothly, and upscaling (DLSS 4.5, FSR 3.1 or XeSS) is where the rest of the frames come from. If you are on a 4–6 core CPU, cap your frame rate.
Best Forza Horizon 6 settings (non-ray-traced)
These are the settings from a published optimized-settings test, applied on top of the Extreme preset. Against Extreme, they measured +15% average FPS, +4% 1% lows and +9% 0.1% lows.
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Anti-aliasing / Upscaling | DLSS, FSR or XeSS (Quality) | Upscaling is the largest single FPS gain — see below |
| Environment Texture Quality | Match to VRAM (Extreme on 12 GB+, High or Medium on 8 GB) | Textures cost VRAM, not much FPS, until VRAM runs out |
| Environment Geometry Quality | Extreme (High on weaker CPUs) | Adds streaming and CPU load in dense areas |
| Car Level of Detail | High | Other cars rarely need Extreme detail at speed |
| Shader Quality | Extreme | Kept at Extreme in the tested mix |
| Deformable Terrain Quality | Extreme | Kept at Extreme in the tested mix |
| Shadow Quality | Ultra | Extreme → Ultra is hard to see while driving |
| Night Shadows | Ultra | |
| Car Reflection Quality | Ultra | |
| Screen Space Reflections Quality | High | |
| Screen Space Global Illumination Quality | Medium | |
| Volumetric Fog Quality | High | |
| Particle Effects Quality | Ultra | |
| Lens Effects | Medium | Mostly cosmetic |
| Motion Blur Quality | Off or Low | Personal preference — off keeps the image clearer |
| Raytraced Reflections / Global Illumination | Off | The biggest single cost (see next section) |
Shadows and reflections are the two groups worth dropping first if you need more headroom: going from Extreme to Ultra is the change you notice least at racing speed.
Should you turn on ray tracing?
Turn ray tracing off unless you have a fast RTX or RX 9000-series card with 12 GB+ of VRAM. Forza Horizon 6 has two ray-traced options — Raytraced Global Illumination (RTGI) and Raytraced Reflections — and together they cost roughly 14% of average FPS compared with the screen-space versions in reviewer tuning tests.
If you do use ray tracing, the same tuning test found a lighter mix worth +23% average FPS over the Extreme + RT preset:
| Setting | Ray-traced mix |
|---|---|
| Raytraced Global Illumination Quality | Medium |
| Raytraced Reflections Quality | Low |
| Screen Space Reflections / Global Illumination | Off (replaced by the RT versions) |
| Everything else | Same as the non-RT table above |
Ray tracing also adds memory. TechSpot found the Extreme + RT preset needs around 12 GB of VRAM at 1440p, which is why 8 GB cards fall apart with it on.
Textures and VRAM: the 8 GB card problem
Environment Texture Quality is the setting that decides whether Forza Horizon 6 runs smoothly on an 8 GB graphics card. It costs little FPS until the textures stop fitting in VRAM, then the game starts pulling data from system memory and the frame rate drops sharply.
TechSpot’s 8 GB vs 16 GB test shows the scale: at 1440p with DLSS Balanced and the Extreme + RT preset, the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB averaged 61 FPS while the 8 GB version managed 33 FPS — the same GPU, held back only by memory.
| VRAM | Ray tracing | Environment Texture Quality |
|---|---|---|
| 8 GB | Off | Medium or High |
| 10–12 GB | Off, or RT Low/Medium at 1080p | High or Extreme |
| 16 GB+ | On if the GPU is fast enough | Extreme |
Check usage with an FPS overlay that shows VRAM on a fast drive through a city — if it sits at your card’s limit, drop textures one step.
Upscaling and frame generation
Forza Horizon 6 supports:
| GPU | Upscaling | Frame generation |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA RTX | DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution, DLAA | DLSS Frame Generation / Multi Frame Generation up to 4x |
| AMD Radeon | FSR 3.1 | Not supported at launch |
| Intel Arc | XeSS | Not supported at launch |
- Use the Quality mode first. Quality keeps the image sharp at racing speed; Balanced and Performance add frames with progressively softer detail at distance.
- On an RTX card, DLSS is the best-looking option. Use DLAA instead if you already have FPS to spare and want the cleanest anti-aliasing.
- Frame generation adds smoothness but also latency. It works best when the base frame rate is already around 60 FPS. Turn on Reflex, turn in-game V-Sync off, and read frame generation and input lag before using 4x for competitive racing.
- For how the upscalers compare in general, see DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS.
Cap your frame rate on 4–6 core CPUs
Forza Horizon 6 can use up to 10 CPU cores/threads. DSOGaming’s testing found a simulated quad-core CPU stuttered heavily at uncapped frame rates but ran smoothly with a 60 FPS cap. If your GPU sits well under 90% load while FPS jumps around, you are CPU-bound — cap the frame rate a little below what you hold in dense areas, or a few FPS under your refresh rate on a G-Sync or FreeSync monitor. Lowering Environment Geometry Quality and Car Level of Detail also eases CPU load.
Use the built-in benchmark to check your changes
Forza Horizon 6 has a built-in benchmark that reviewers use because it tracks real gameplay closely. Run it once on your starting preset, apply the settings above, and run it again — compare average FPS and the 1% lows, not just the average. A smaller gap between average and 1% lows means smoother driving.
Windows-side settings
- Update your GPU driver and let the game finish compiling shaders on first launch — see the Forza Horizon 6 stuttering fix for the shader and Advanced Shader Delivery details.
- Turn on Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling, which DLSS Frame Generation requires — see HAGS on or off.
- Enable XMP or EXPO so your RAM runs at its rated speed — it helps a CPU-heavy open world.
- For steadier frame delivery from Windows itself, see the timer resolution guide.
Summary
Start from Extreme with ray tracing off, drop Car Level of Detail, reflections, fog, global illumination and lens effects as in the table, and size Environment Texture Quality to your VRAM. Use DLSS, FSR or XeSS on Quality for the rest, and cap your frame rate on a 4–6 core CPU. Only turn ray tracing on with a fast GPU and 12 GB+ of VRAM, and use the lighter RT mix when you do.
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best Forza Horizon 6 settings for FPS?
Start from the Extreme preset with ray tracing off, then drop Car Level of Detail, Screen Space Reflections and Volumetric Fog to High, Screen Space Global Illumination and Lens Effects to Medium, and Shadows, Car Reflections, Night Shadows and Particle Effects to Ultra. A tuning test of that mix measured about 15% higher average FPS than the Extreme preset with almost no visible loss. Then add DLSS, FSR or XeSS on Quality if you need more.
How much FPS does ray tracing cost in Forza Horizon 6?
Turning on ray-traced global illumination and ray-traced reflections costs roughly 14% of average FPS compared with the screen-space versions, according to reviewer tuning tests. Ray tracing also raises VRAM use: TechSpot found the Extreme plus ray tracing preset needs around 12 GB of VRAM at 1440p, so 8 GB cards should leave it off.
What settings should I use for Forza Horizon 6 on an 8 GB graphics card?
On an 8 GB card, turn ray tracing off, lower Environment Texture Quality to Medium or High, and use DLSS, FSR or XeSS upscaling on Quality. TechSpot measured an 8 GB RTX 5060 Ti at 33 FPS versus 61 FPS for the 16 GB version at 1440p with the maxed preset, because the 8 GB card runs out of memory. Watch VRAM with an overlay and lower textures until it stays under your card's limit.
Does Forza Horizon 6 have FSR frame generation?
At launch, Forza Horizon 6 supported FSR 3.1 and XeSS upscaling but not FSR Frame Generation or XeSS Frame Generation. NVIDIA RTX owners get DLSS 4.5 upscaling, DLAA, Reflex and DLSS Multi Frame Generation up to 4x. On AMD and Intel cards, upscaling is the only built-in way to raise FPS.
How many CPU cores does Forza Horizon 6 use?
DSOGaming measured Forza Horizon 6 using up to 10 CPU cores or threads at 1080p maximum settings. A simulated quad-core CPU stuttered heavily at uncapped frame rates but ran smoothly with a 60 FPS cap, so players on 4 to 6 core CPUs should cap their frame rate instead of running uncapped.