Forza Horizon 5 on PC: System requirements, specs, ray tracing, and more
Make sure your PC is prepared for Forza Horizon 5 and all its features.
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Forza Horizon 5 continued Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios' commitment to fully support PC platforms alongside Xbox consoles with a full-featured release containing countless options. Playground Games' latest open-world racing masterpiece is packed with visual and performance settings to perfect your experience when playing on PC, and the game continues to improve with every successive update.
Forza Horizon 5is now available on PC through the Microsoft Store and Steam, giving players all over the world access to anexcellent racing gameand one of 2021’s most visually stunning and technically impressive titles. With so many PC configurations out there, though, it can be difficult to know if your gaming rig is capable of handling everything FH5 can throw at it. In our ultimate Forza Horizon 5 PC guide, we’ll go over everything you need to know about FH5’s minimum and recommended system requirements, different options of which you should be aware, and more.
Forza Horizon 5 on PC: Minimum & recommended system requirements
Forza games have long been visual showcases on any platform they launch, and Forza Horizon 5 is no different. Forza Horizon 5 is undoubtedly one of the most attractive games on the market today, with a myriad of features and optimizations to highlight its graphical and technical prowess. FH5 marks a noticeable improvement over its predecessor, and as such requires relatively beefy PC specifications to get the most out of it.
Playground Games has detailed full PC requirements for its racing title, and it’s split into the standard three tiers: minimum, recommended, and ideal. While players can obtain a solid racing experience even on minimum specs, recommended provides the greatest balance between performance and visuals. Those with powerful gaming rigs may be able to experience Forza Horizon 5 at even higher levels, with peerless visual quality, resolution, and even ray-tracing features. Bear in mind that even players with an “ideal specced” PC may not be able to completely max out Forza Horizon 5’s settings, as the game can scale quite high.
Below is a table of all the PC requirements for Forza Horizon 5 which should, hopefully, give you an idea of what it’ll take to get the experience you’re after in Forza Horizon 5.
Forza Horizon 5 on PC: Checking your configuration
Forza Horizon 5 is impressive from every angle, and is certainly a step above the game that came before it. Gaming PCs come in all manners of specs, shapes, and sizes, so FH5’s system requirements beg the question: Can your PC run Forza Horizon 5?
There are a number of ways to check your PC’s hardware, if you’re not already familiar with the specific specs. However, the easiest method is with the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, a piece of software built into Windows that will thoroughly check and break down all of your PC’s hardware for you. From this tool, you’ll be able to obtain an overview of all the components in your PC, letting you easily check it against Forza Horizon 5’s PC requirements or the particular options you want to use..
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Here’s how you can use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool to check whether your PC can run Forza Horizon 5:
Forza Horizon 5 on PC: Graphics & performance features & options
Forza Horizon 5 fully embraces the vast PC platform, which contains an endless array of configurations and setups. Every player may have a unique way of tweaking their gaming experiences when beginning a new game, and Playground Games wants to enable all those players with a plethora of PC-centric features and settings to explore. Here’s what you need to know about Forza Horizon 5 on PC, including its various visual and graphics options, platform features, and more.
General
Here’s a general overview of how Forza Horizon 5 on PC compares to its console counterpart, and how players benefit from racing through Mexico on a gaming PC.
PC graphics & performance options
In the images above, you can see most of Forza Horizon 5’s most prevalent PC-centric settings and features that players can customize, including the “Video” and “Graphics” sections. Below, we’ll breakdown some of the more important options you should remember when first beginning in Forza Horizon 5, including thenew PC features introduced with Forza Horizon 5 Series 14.
Forza Horizon 5 on PC: Best pre-built desktops, laptops, & parts
Many players might have perfectly capable PCs that aren’t quite ready for Forza Horizon 5, and many others may be in the market for a new PC altogether. Fortunately, there are options for both groups, as there are plenty of excellent PCs, both desktops and laptops, that are capable of delivering an excellent high-speed experience in FH5.
For those who are in the market for a brand-new gaming rig, look no further than themost capable gaming desktop PCsandmost powerful gaming laptopsthat are available right now. Below we’ve listed some of our top picks that meet FH5’s PC requirements, or you can look directly at thebest pre-built PCs for Forza Horizon 5for even more options.
Those who need just a little more graphical or processing oomph can peruse theour favorite PC GPUs for gaming, or thetop PC gaming CPUsfor quick upgrades that don’t require replacing your entire computer. You can also find some quick recommendations down below to make your perusal even faster.
Best budget options for “Minimum” requirements
Here are the best options for those looking to play Forza Horizon 5 on a budget by meeting or exceeding the game’s minimum requirements.
Desktop
HP continues to update its Pavilion gaming desktop with refreshed hardware, and it continues to be an excellent option for those looking for a no-frills gaming PC capable to playing the vast majority of modern titles, including Forza Horizon 5.
Laptop
One of the best budget gaming laptops continues to be updated with newer hardware, making it even more able to handle everything Forza Horizon 5 can throw at it. The Acer Nitro 5 features decent hardware for the price, and is a fantastic choice.
Best options for “Recommended” requirements
Here are the best options for those looking to blend visual quality and performance by meeting or exceeding Forza Horizon 5’s recommended requirements.
Desktop
Alienware has been excelling at PC gaming hardware for years, and that excellence continues with the Alienware Aurora R13, a highly configurable gaming desktop that also looks visually stunning. Relatively inexpensive at the entry level, players can upgrade the R13 with more and more powerful hardware.
Laptop
The HP OMEN 15 comes in tons of configurations, and a lot of them are capable of pushing Forza Horizon 5 at higher settings than more affordable options. Like the desktop, though, make sure you’re getting a model that has 16GB of RAM onboard.
Best premium options for “Ideal” requirements
Here are the best options for those looking to obtain the most premium experience in Forza Horizon 5 by meeting or exceeding the ideal PC requirements.
Desktop
The beefiest HP OMEN desktop PC combines an innovative cooling system with powerful hardware to deliver a peerless pre-built PC gaming experience. The lack of Thunderbolt support doesn’t deter from what is a fast, customizable, and consistent gaming PC.
Laptop
The Razer Blade 15 has long survived as one of the best all-around premium gaming laptops, and Razer’s latest iteration is more powerful and sleek than ever before. There are plenty of configurations from which to choose, but everyone has a premium price tag to match its quality and power.
Forza Horizon 5 is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC through the Microsoft Store and Steam. Forza Horizon 5 is also included in Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. To elevate your experience in FH5, consider combining your gaming PC with one of thebest Forza Horizon 5 steering wheels.
Forza Horizon 5 is included in every tier of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, including on PC, making the epic gaming subscription the best way to race into Mexico alongside industry-leading visuals and hundreds of awesome cars.
The Logitech G920 remains one of the best racing wheels for Forza Horizon 5 on PC, thanks to its quality construction, plethora of high-end features, and an appealing price tag due to the existence of its more expensive successor.
Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter@BoddyZachary.
