Forza Horizon 5 launched on November 9, 2021, to rave reviews, and now, exactly a year later, the open-world racer from Playground Games has gotten even more impressive courtesy of a new anniversary update that enables greater visual fidelity alongside improved performance.
Available immediately through Steam and the Microsoft Store, the new “Donut Media series update,” as it’s called, is headlined by new “Ultra” and “Extreme” ray tracing options that enable the intensive rendering technique to additionally run in the game’s Free Roam and Races, as well as Photo Mode, bringing support for ray-traced reflections beyond ForzaVista. Users will also find the addition of NVIDIA DLSS (2.4) and AMD FidleityFX Super Resolution 2.1 in the PC version of Forza Horizon 5, modern options for boosting frame rates while maximizing image quality.
The end of the support document suggests that Playground Games has already been receiving requests for DLSS 3, the latest version of NVIDIA’s upscaling technology, but it has “nothing to share” at this time. GeForce RTX users are urged to test out DLSS 2.4 or FSR 2.2 for the time being.
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.2:
- We have incorporated AMD’s latest upscaling technology: FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.2
- In Performance mode it can construct a 4K rendered image from a 1080p frame buffer, allowing higher performance at higher resolutions.
- This technology can be used on all PC graphics cards including AMD, NVIDIA and Intel.
NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) Super Resolution:
- We have incorporated NVIDIA’s DLSS Super Sampling technology, providing AI-powered resolution upscaling.
- In Performance mode it will generate a 4K rendered image from a 1080p frame buffer, improving framerates at higher resolutions.
- DLAA uses AI-powered technology to anti-alias a native resolution image at high quality.
- DLSS Super Resolution is available on all NVIDIA RTX graphics cards.
PC hardware required for an optimal ray tracing experience at Extreme settings in Forza Horizon 5:
From the Forza Support page:
Boost your Forza Horizon 5 framerates on PC whilst maximising image quality by enabling NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution or AMD FSR 2.2. These resolution upscaling features are coming in the Donut Media series update available to download from the Microsoft Store and Steam on Tuesday, November 8.
In addition, we’re enhancing our DirectX Raytracing implementation on PC with two new presets: Ultra and Extreme, which render true-to-life reflections for the player car in Free Roam and Races, as well as realistic Drivatar reflections in Photo Mode. Ray tracing is also available in Forzavista as before.
We continually evaluate our tools and processes, and have introduced new security improvements to the PC version of Forza Horizon 5 to promote a healthy and secure gameplay experience for our community.