PlayStation Studios
More than two years after its launch on PS5, Horizon Forbidden West is now accessible on PC. The authentic recreation, Horizon Zero Dawn, has change into a mainstay for efficiency testing on PC, and it’s one of many pillars of our GPU critiques. The sequel ups the ante in a giant approach with extra graphics choices and a extra demanding world general.
I’ve been taking part in the sport over the previous week, drilling down on one of the best settings, evaluating DLSS, FSR, and XeSS, and testing the bounds of efficiency. Horizon Forbidden West lives as much as the usual set by the unique launch, although weaker GPUs with solely 8GB of reminiscence will battle with excessive graphics settings and resolutions.
Best settings for Horizon Forbidden West PC
PlayStation Studios
Horizon Forbidden West has a ton of graphics choices. After digging by them, listed below are one of the best settings for Horizon Forbidden West to stability efficiency and picture high quality on PC:
Texture Quality: Medium
Texture Filtering: 2x Anisotropic
Shadow Quality: Low
Screen Space Shadows: On
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
Screen Space Reflections: Low
Level of Detail: Medium
Hair Quality: Medium
Terrain Quality: Medium
Water Quality: Low
Clouds Quality: Medium
Translucency Quality: Default
Parallax Occlusion Mapping: On
Depth of Field: High
Bloom: On
Motion Blur Strength: 0
Sharpness: 5
Lens Flares: On
Vignette: On
Radial Blur: On
Chromatic Aberration: On
Anti-Aliasing: TAA or upscaling
Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
This is a place to begin. In Horizon Forbidden West, you’ll see your graphics modifications up to date in actual time as you alter settings — no restarts required. This is the record I’d begin with, however positively take the time to regulate additional to your personal PC. Tweaking isn’t a trouble in Horizon Forbidden West as it’s in different PC releases like Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Horizon Forbidden West PC really helpful settings
Above, you may see how my really helpful settings stack up towards the Very High and Very Low presets. You’re getting many of the high quality of the Very High preset with considerably dialed-back settings and with an enormous efficiency bump in addition.
Some of the settings listed below are tough. For occasion, the Texture Quality setting doesn’t refer to only textures. It improves the standard of the terrain, as nicely. You can see this in motion for those who stand beneath a rocky patch of land and cycle by the choices. The larger settings add extra particulars to the feel but in addition make the terrain extra advanced in its geometry.
Horizon Forbidden West PC display house reflections
In addition, the Screen Space Reflections setting doesn’t confer with reflection high quality. Instead, it’s a draw distance — how far the reflections are solid — for reflections. You can see how that makes a distinction within the video above. For settings like these, I opted for the bottom setting attainable with out turning off the graphical function outright.
Horizon Forbidden West PC system necessities
Sony’s releases on PC embody a number of totally different ranges of system necessities, together with efficiency estimates for every. Similar to a recreation like Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, you have got 4 tiers for Horizon Forbidden West, they usually’re a great illustration of the efficiency you may count on.
Minimum
Recommended
High
Very High
Preset
Very Low
Medium
High
Very High
Performance estimate
720p at 30 fps
1080p at 60 fps
1440p at 60 fps
4K at 60 fps
Processor
Intel Core i3-8100 / AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
Intel Core i5-8600 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Intel Core i7-9700 / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Intel Core i7-11700 / AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory
16GB
16GB
16GB
16GB
Graphics
Nvidia GTX 1650 / AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT
Nvidia RTX 3060 / AMD RX 5700
Nvidia RTX 3070 / AMD RX 6800
Nvidia RTX 4080 / AMD RX 7900 XT
Storage
150GB SSD
150GB SSD
150GB SSD
150GB SSD
There are two huge notes right here. The first is VRAM. As I’ll dig into within the subsequent part, GPUs with 8GB of VRAM will battle with this recreation. You can see that from the Recommended tier and up, all the GPUs begin with 8GB of VRAM, topping out with the 20GB accessible within the AMD RX 7900 XT.
The different notice is cupboard space. Horizon Forbidden West requires a ton of house at 150GB, however extra importantly, it requires an SSD. We’ve seen this a number of occasions with earlier PlayStation 5 ports to PC. Games designed for Sony’s console require an SSD, and Horizon Forbidden West isn’t any exception.
Is an 8GB GPU sufficient for Horizon Forbidden West?
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Horizon Forbidden West will problem 8GB graphics playing cards, notably for those who’re taking part in at a excessive decision. After working by the preliminary space of the sport at 4K with the Very High preset, I topped out at over 12GB of VRAM utilization. Even trendy GPUs just like the RTX 4060 with 8GB of VRAM will encounter some points with Horizon Forbidden West, notably when pushing past 1080p.
Thankfully, there are methods to scale back VRAM utilization. Using the really helpful settings above, I used to be in a position to get all the way down to 8.1GB of VRAM utilization at 4K — an excellent enchancment contemplating how excessive of a decision I used to be taking part in at. The two fundamental culprits listed below are Shadow Quality and Texture Quality. As talked about, Horizon Forbidden West makes use of the latter setting for each texture element and geometry complexity, so turning these settings down can enhance efficiency on 8GB graphics playing cards fairly a bit.
Horizon Forbidden West PC texture settings
You’re not giving up a lot with the Medium setting for Texture Quality, both. You can see within the video above that the Medium Setting seems to be very near the Very High setting, whereas the Low setting seems to be the worst by far.
If you’re working an 8GB GPU, you’ll know for those who’re working into VRAM issues for those who expertise stuttering within the recreation. Typically, it will occur as you’re working across the open world. The two issues you are able to do to enhance efficiency are flip down Texture Quality and Shadow Quality, in addition to scale back your decision. Turning on an upscaling function like DLSS or FSR will help, too.
How to repair stuttering in Horizon Forbidden West
PlayStation Studios
I didn’t expertise extreme stuttering when testing Horizon Forbidden West, however there are nonetheless some reviews of stutter on-line. I think the principle offender is VRAM. 8GB GPUs will most likely run into stuttering points at larger resolutions and settings, so for those who’re utilizing a GPU just like the RTX 4060 or RX 6600 XT, you’ll want to show down some graphics settings.
In specific, Texture Quality and Shadow Quality hog plenty of VRAM, so chopping in these areas will help. Resolution is huge issue, as nicely — you’ll battle to run the sport at 1440p with an 8GB GPU. Resolution scaling will help right here, however you’ll want to mix it settings cuts in Texture Quality and Shadow Quality.
Make certain to put in the most recent driver from Nvidia, AMD, or Intel, as nicely. All three distributors have drivers with specific assist for Horizon Forbidden West, so that you’ll want to put in the present drivers to get essentially the most out of the sport.
DLSS, XeSS, and FSR in Horizon Forbidden West
PlayStation Studios
Horizon Forbidden West helps a buffet of performance-boosting options. The star of the present is Nvidia’s DLSS 3, which mixes Super Resolution upscaling with Frame Generation, the latter of which is just accessible on RTX 40-series GPUs. If you don’t want a efficiency enhance, you have got entry to Nvidia’s Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing, as nicely. This is an Nvidia-promoted PC launch, so it shouldn’t come as a shock that DLSS is out in full drive.
You produce other choices, although. AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.2 (the most recent model) is out there within the recreation, together with Intel’s XeSS. I might put the choices in that order, too. DLSS is one of the best, FSR is available in second, and XeSS is in final place.
Horizon Forbidden West PC upscaling
You can see why within the video above. FSR 2.2 will get across the sputtering instability we see in video games like Starfield, however it’s very smooth. The lack of element is especially noteworthy in Forbidden West, the place dense vegetation and violent winds typically expose the restrictions of AMD’s upscaling tech. Still, it’s higher than XeSS within the recreation.
XeSS seems to be higher near the digital camera, sustaining the same stage of element as DLSS, however look within the distance, and also you’ll see the issue. There’s a distracting shimmer, and it’s not simply current on wonderful particulars like we typically see with FSR. It’s throughout the entire scene when something will get too removed from the digital camera, even at 4K.
I might keep away from XeSS within the recreation, not less than proper now. DLSS and FSR present a bigger efficiency enchancment, and though FSR is softer general, it’s not distracting like XeSS is.
Editors’ Recommendations