Forza Horizon 3 PC Performance Review

Conclusion

As one of PC’s first Xbox “Play Anywhere” titles, you would expect that Microsoft would be putting a lot of effort onto the games PC release. While Forza Horizon 3 does offer a lot of key features like Wheel support, 21:9 resolution support and the wide range of graphical options it is simply not optimised well for those with older GPU hardware and requires and enthusiast grade CPU to run at a steady 60FPS.    

Performance wise, we do see a huge drop in framerate when moving to our last generation Nvidia and AMD GPUs and the game is CPU bound in a system with an overclocked i7 6700K CPU, which is something that is pretty shameful for a modern PC game. The lack of SLI and crossfire support is also a huge disappointment, though the game is reality is much more CPU limited than GPU limited. 

To put things simply, we expected a little better from Forza Horizon 3, especially when the game costs £49.99 at launch for the base version. Hopefully, this game will have a few of these performance issues fixed with future patches, but right now anyone using an older system should avoid this game if they expect a 60FPS experience.   

A lot of GPU performance can be gained by reducing the game’s MSAA and some CPU performance can be gained by reducing the game’s geometry levels, but even then the game will not run at a solid 60FPS for some.  

Outside of the game’s performance issues on some hardware Forza Horizon 3 does shine, offering support for ultra-wide displays and a surprising number of steering wheels at launch, but the game does lack the consistency performance wise to recommend at the price of £49.99. Right now the Xbox One disk based version of this game is available for cheaper than the digital version for PC/Xbox One at retail, which is another thing about this PC version which is questionable. Why does this price premium need to exist? 

If you are a racing fan with a modern gaming system or a Forza fan that would really like to play the latest release on PC this game will be worth purchasing, though please bear in mind that those with older or low-end systems will likely need to run the game at a capped 30FPS which is very disappointing for a PC release. If Turn 10 can decrease the CPU requirements for this game 60FPS gameplay could be much more achievable, but for now this is a game that is easy to run but difficult to run well. 

In a lot of ways the PC port of Forza Horizon 3 is refreshing, with rebindable wheel, gamepad and mouse/keyboard controls, support for modern display resolutions and a detailed graphical options menu. Sadly the game’s performance is a little disappointing, especially for those who use older hardware or want to play at a constant 60FPS at ultra settings. 

All-in-all the PC release of Forza Horizon 3 is a lot better that what we have seen with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Quantum Break, but hasn’t quite met our expectations for what a full price AAA PC release should be. 

 

You can join the discussion on Forza Horizon 3’s PC version on the OC3D Forums.