Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West was launched to the PC in March of 2024 and is based on the Decima game engine. For the PC release, Horizon Forbidden West added support for ultrawide and super ultrawide resolutions, as well as NVIDIA DLSS 3 upscaling and frame generation, FSR and XeSS, and NVIDIA Reflex. The game features a visually detailed experience with high-quality textures, detailed character models, and an environment with day-night cycles and weather. For our manual run-through, we have chosen an area in the game that walks the character through a long distance between Chainscrape and Barren Light.
Native Resolution
The first graph below is at the “Very High” quality preset, the second graph is at the “Medium” quality preset at 1080p.
In Horizon Forbidden West, this game needs larger amounts of VRAM capacity, and this plays out in the 1% Lows, which shows slowdowns at higher settings on 8GB GPUs. On the highest game setting of “Very High” at 1080p, all the video cards have very low 1% Lows, despite the averages being near 60FPS. The GeForce RTX 5050 has an average of 58FPS, matching the GeForce RTX 4060, but the 1% Lows are horrible in the 30s. The GeForce RTX 5050 is 78% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050 and 28% faster than the Radeon RX 7600.
Moving the game down to the “Medium” quality setting at 1080p allows the GeForce RTX 5050 to hit 60FPS 1% Lows, and averages in the 80s; this is playable. The GeForce RTX 5050, however, is 6% slower than the GeForce RTX 4060, with worse 1% Lows, and on par with the Radeon RX 7600, with worse 1% Lows. It is 61% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050.
DLSS Upscaling
Even with DLSS Upscaling, the GeForce RTX 5050 can’t quite hit 60FPS 1% Lows on “High” quality setting, but it is close; this could be acceptable. The averages are under the GeForce RTX 4060, but 62% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050 and 23% faster than the Radeon RX 7600. Only at “Medium” quality with DLSS Upscaling can we hit high 1% Lows around 89FPS. The scaling remains the same between the video cards, with it slightly behind the GeForce RTX 4060, and 70% faster than the GeForce RTX 3050 and 9% faster than the Radeon RX 7600.
Discussion (4 replies)
Join Discussion →Buy a used 4060.
Seems like a particularly hard sell when the 50-series' biggest party trick is at its least useful when the base framerate is a little tenuous.
The 130w/8GB combo is also kind of harsh. That's high enough draw that going for the modern card on an efficiency basis (while it will help a bit) won't be as dramatic an effect as you might like; and if you hit a VRAM wall anywhere it will be in the same place you would on a 3050; and one of the 12GB 3060s will still be chugging along for 40 watts more.
OEMs love these low end SKUs.
- Yeah, this is basically a repurposed laptop chip that would otherwise be used to bump a $499 office laptop into the $799 "entry gaming laptop" market.
These cards absolutely have their place however, good way to stand up a hella basic gaming PC that will be thesus' shipped into something respectable over time.
If you know what you're doing though, used 3080's and 6800XT's are starting to hit the $299 and lower price point (while 3070 and 6700XT are at $250 and below) and you'd get a helluva lot more bang from your buck there.