Forza Horizon 5 performance mode benchmarks revealed

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The Series S can keep up at a lower resolution

Forza Horizon 5
(Image credit: Playground Games)

Forza Horizon 5 performance mode delivers 60 FPS on both Xbox Series X and Series S, though the latter runs at a lower resolution.

Creative director Mike Brown shared the performance mode benchmarks on Twitter. On Xbox Series X, the upcoming racer can maintain 60 FPS at 4K in performance mode, but on the weaker Series S, the resolution drops to 1080p at 60FPS. That's in line with the side-by-side comparisons Microsoft offered at the start of this console generation – the Series S was never meant for 4K – and it's comparable to how other games run on the two consoles. 

These stats are especially interesting given the recently revealed Forza Horizon 5 PC specs, which suggest that the game will run pretty well on average PCs. The minimum PC specs call for mid-grade CPUs and GPUs and just 8GB of RAM – altogether, well below what the new-gen Xbox consoles are packing. Developer Playground Games didn't specify what performance you can expect from a minimum-spec PC, but between these Xbox benchmarks and early PC specs, Forza Horizon 5 looks like an impressively lightweight game with a gamut of graphics options. 

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And remember, this only applies to performance mode for consoles. I'll almost always recommend a higher frame rate over extra detail, but as we observed in our Forza Horizon 5 gameplay breakdown, its Mexican landscapes are so gorgeous that some players may want to turn on all the bells and whistles with a more graphically intense preset. With this being a fast-paced racing game, I suspect performance mode will win out overall, but Forza Horizon 5 with all the graphics settings maxed out ought to be something to see. 

It's encouraging to see yet another big first-party game set the bar at 60 FPS. Console gaming has bounced between high resolutions and frame rates for years, but with the PS5 and Xbox Series X, we finally have hardware that can hit 60 FPS even at higher resolutions. For comparison, the newly released Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart has a performance raytracing mode that can maintain 60 FPS.

The first Forza Horizon 5 gameplay was one of the best Xbox Series X showcases yet. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.