Forza Motorsport 6: APEX really amazed us on the PC. While there were some minor stutters (we didn’t experience much to be honest in that particular title), it ran amazingly well on the PC platform. Naturally, we were wondering whether the next, full Forza title would be as well optimized as APEX was. And it appears that things are not looking particularly good for Forza Horizon 3.
As always, we used an Intel i7 4930K (turbo boosted at 4.2Ghz) with 8GB RAM, NVIDIA’s GTX980Ti, Windows 10 64-bit and the latest WHQL version of the GeForce drivers. The reason we did not use our GTX690 was simple. Forza Horizon 3 does not support multi-GPU configurations right now, therefore our GTX690 would perform similarly to a GTX680.
Forza Horizon 3 sadly suffers from single-core CPU issues. As we can see, one of our CPU cores was maxed out during our playthrough, while all the other five cores were below 70-80% usage. As a result of that, we were CPU-bound in pretty much the entire game.
In order to find out how the game scales on various CPUs, we simulated a dual-core and a quad-core CPU. Unsurprisingly, there were no performance differences between our simulated quad-core and our hexa-core systems. On the other hand, the game was completely unplayable on our simulated dual-core system (while it managed to run the game at 30fps, there were severe stutters that made it unplayable). And given the fact that the game relies heavily on a single CPU core, we strongly suggest disabling Hyper Threading.
quad-core performance hexa-core performance
What’s really interesting here is our GPU usage. As we can see in the following images, our PC system was unable to offer an enjoyable experience due Forza Horizon 3’s single-core CPU issues. Our GTX980Ti was used at 50-60%, suggesting that our CPU was bottlenecking the GPU. It’s pretty clear that Forza Horizon 3’s multi-threading capabilities are awful, something that definitely surprised us. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, we were unable to run Forza Horizon 3 with constant 60fps at 1080p, even on Medium settings and without MSAA (while driving through Surfer’s Paradise).
For what is worth, we were able to play the game with constant 30fps at 4K on Ultra settings. The only downside here is that the game introduces additional input lag when locked at 30fps, so we can’t really recommend this option until Playground Games fixes it.
Playground Games has included a respectable amount of PC settings. PC gamers can tweak the framerate (there is an unlocked option), select their resolution (there is support for 4K and 21:9 resolutions), and enable or disable Motion Blur, VSync, FPS indicator, Frame Smoothing and Dynamic Optimization.
In addition, PC gamers can adjust the quality of Anisotropic Filtering, Shadows, Motion Blur, Environment Textures, Static Geometry, Dynamic Geometry, MSAA, Reflections, Windshield Reflections, Mirrors and World Car Level of Detail.
Graphics wise, Forza Horizon 3 is a really beautiful game. The game is packed with high-resolution textures and all cars are highly detailed. The lighting system is great and there is an amazing day-night cycle. Forza Horizon 3 also sports some of the best skyboxes we’ve ever seen, as well as some really cool rain effects.
Unfortunately, though, the game does suffer from some minor graphical issues. For example, ambient occlusions seems to be absent and as a result of that, the environments – under certain conditions – can look flat. Not only that, but there is noticeable pop-in of objects and the shadow LOD values – even on Ultra settings – seem to be fairly low (as can be seen in the following image).
Still, for an open-world racing title, Forza Horizon 3 looks great. However, it’s obvious that the game could look even better on the PC, provided the developers took advantage of the PC platform.
All in all, Forza Horizon 3 is the most beautiful open-world racing game that suffers from ridiculous single-core CPU issues. The game also suffers from really annoying stutters (worse than those witnessed in Forza Motorsport 6: APEX). We don’t know whether the single-core CPU issues or the game’s encrypted files are to be blamed here. Bottom line is that the game suffers from major performance issues on the PC. In order to overcome the game’s CPU issues, PC gamers will have to either use the latest Intel CPUs (that offer better performance per core) or overclock their CPUs.
Therefore, we strongly suggest staying away from Forza Horizon 3 until Playground Games fixes the game’s performance issues, especially if you don’t own a high-end Intel CPU (or if you own an AMD CPU). Unless of course you want to experience the game at 30fps and with additional input lag that will, undoubtedly, frustrate you!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
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The DrM is what destroys the game. Other than the hiccups from that I enjoy playing the game I just wish they wouldn’t use such taxing nonsense
I think that this game is simply designed to 30fps. All “Forza Horizon” games on Xbox One always use 1080p 30fps. Only “Forza Motorsport” games have been 60fps. “Open world” needs faster hardware than closed tracks. And when game is designed to 30fps then its hard to run it twice of normal speed
Hiccups are because of MSAA, turn it off. Don’t even use 2x. Also use Medium or High Shadows. Ultra Shadows are too demanding.
I think it’s just funny the game has no problem keeping at 30 fps on my 970 on Ultra at 1080P even with MSAAx8.
Yet once you tell it 60 fps the issues start to happen. Even for people on a GTX 1080.
Personally I think the game is truly designed for 30 FPS and the dev’s did a rush job with the 60 fps mark… Guess we will find out when the game get’s it’s patches.
I play at 4k/60fps just fine. You just need to know exactly what the limitations of your PC are. I was having slight hiccups so I turned off MSAA and Lowered the Shadows to High. Now the game is running almost perfectly for me at 4k/60fps on a single overclocked GTX 1080.
oh I know what the limitations are… I just find it funny that this game causes so much problems from it’s 30 to 60 fps cap…
And the game uses way to much CPU… Makes the Crew look amazing for optimization.
It does not use Threaded Rendering at all. And the LoD feels to DX11 ish.
Game is running great on my PC but I would not mind performance improvements and multi-GPU support in future patches.
So Great for you is spending around $700 on a GPU for a console port…
I have the Ultimate Edition. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy the game. But it needs patched up.
The game was truly designed for 30 fps. And it uses no advantages DX12 has to offer. I see that when I see the game in action.
Game is running at 1080p/30fps on Xbox One and I can play it at 4k/60fps with higher settings than the Xbox One version. All that extra power of my PC is being used. Should the game be running better? Absolutely. But to say its not taking advantage of PC hardware is unfair. Maybe you should ask Nvidia why they had so less VRAM for GTX 970 & 980 and also ask Intel why they have only marginally increased the Core counts and clock speeds for so many years.
Dude don’t make excuses for them. GPU V-ram and CPU’s are not a issue. The game is just a garbage port in many aspects. And to me the PC version feels like a after thought.
I don’t believe you can’t see that. And it’s not even a Full on DX12 game. It’s just a wrapper for yet another game to only be on their Windows Store. Nothing about this game says it’s made for PC in mind with advantages from a low lvl API
The only difference is the textures are slightly better and the cars have better reflection. Oh and draw distance is very slightly better. But it’s nothing special.
So you spent around 200$ on a video game?.. jesus, i’ve been looking away from Horizon 3 because of the ~90$ pricetag for the bog standard model..
A PC game that costs Console game money, yeah, no, i’ll just pass
Same here… It runs quite well on my system. Does it need some patching? Yes. Is it broken like this performance review suggests? No. And going on about “single core bottlenecks” is kind of ridiculous when you can see that all cores are being used. It seems that the first core is being used more fully however. But this game is NOT only using a single core. When I run the game with vsync off I get constant frame rates in the 75-110 range (and that is at 4K and Ultra settings). Enabling vsync is where the issues start to happen. And that is a direct result of the game running in “borderless fullscreen” mode. That has nothing to do with the game however and is a handicap brought on by the crappy UWP. If this game could run in proper fullscreen mode I have no doubts many of the issues with hitching and frame drops would be remedied. And I don’t know what happened with Johns system but running the game at 30fps doesn’t bring on unreasonable latency issues for me. Obviously the latency isn’t as good as running it at 60fps but the performance “latency wise” is identical to playing the game on the XBOX ONE. Which is excellent for a game that is running at 30fps. Playground Games are known for having the Horizon titles run very well at the 30fps mark. My biggest complaint is that when I am using my Fanatec CWSv2 that there is no FFB. And for some strange reason my frame rates dips to a sustained 45-50 FPS while using the wheel. The same wheel that when playing the game on the XBOX ONE works flawlessly. I would say the game is in good shape but needs some work to make it great.
“I think it’s just funny the game has no problem keeping at 30 fps on my 970 on Ultra at 1080P even with MSAAx8. Yet once you tell it 60 fps the issues start to happen”
GameGPU write that Forza Horizon 3 on ultra need 4827 MB of graphics memory. Your GTX 970 have only true 3500 MB of graphics memory. Game must use a lot of PCIE bandwidth to copy memory between GPU and system RAM. Try to set textures = medium or low if your GPU have less than 6GB of RAM
4827 at 4K….
come on now. This game has issues. And besides that’s a 1080 that picks up that much usage with it’s GDDR5X but a 980 TI don’t. Also different cards handle compression different.
GameGPU:
4827MB video memory on 1080p
5292MB video memory on 1440p
5682MB video memory on 4K
Your GPU have 3500MB fast memory and 500MB slow memory. Try to use medium or low textures. Maybe It will help when memory usage drop below 3500MB. GTX 970 always have some performance issues with games using more than 3500MB
Nope, it also happens with 0xMSAA
I guess you also saw that reddit thread that has zero proof the drm actually effects the performance.
Quit shilling, Metroturd. The EFS has been cracked and we’ll soon see the performance difference between the DRM laden version and the cracked free version. CS . RIN . RU already have a fully decrypted, repacked, renamed, app.
Using your brain and not falling for reddit bullsh!t make you a shill?
Jeez the people on this site are a fu*king joke.
No, using one’s brain means not acquiescing to Microsoft’s luring of users to their walled garden with their coveted triple a titles. Using one’s brain would lead to boycotting the store and waiting for said titles to inevitability end up on Steam, where all my friends are and the community are.. and which Microsoft will never ever be capable of competing with.
Is it possible to inject some AO. This looks really terrible.
no
ALL Forza Motorsport games on Xbox One = 1080p 60 fps
ALL Forza Horizon games on Xbox One = 1080p 30 fps
This game is DESIGNED to 30fps. It always been like that. If someone want 60 fps then buy “Motorsport” not “Horizon”.
WHAT? …
All “Horizon” games always been 30fps. Only “Motorsport” games use 60fps on Xbox One. This is because of “open world”, dynamic lighting and dynamic weather. “Motorsport” games use static lighting and closed tracks so them runs 2x faster
is Amiga 4000 some kind of M$ troll?
you dont know the half of it, he promotes the uwp store like he has massive stock in it or something and ignores all the glaring issues ms is causing for the pc platform, hes what you would call a blind fanboy or a shill
Dude don’t take it personnal. But 30FPS IS THE BIGGEST CRAP EVER ON PC. If consoles tolerate that it’s their problem. I WON’T. Lock a game @30fps ? OKAY you ain’t getting my money. Why the hell would i have a killer computer and a 144hz then ?… Devs who lock it down are brainless.
Don’t know about that. But 30fps is crap.
”The only downside here is that the game introduces additional input lag when locked at 30fps, so we can’t really recommend this option until Playground Games fixes it.”
Yeah..Definitely designed for 30FPS..It’s just another unoptimized UWP game. I hope GoW 4 doesn’t suffer from these RIDICULOUS issues, otherwise i’m really done with M$.
GOW4 is also desiged to 1080p 30fps on Xbox One. So I don’t know if any existing PC can run that game in 60fps. This is not “60fps game” like COD or Battlefield. When game is designed to 30fps then its hard to run it twice of normal speed
”What’s really interesting here is our GPU usage. As we can see in the following images, our PC system was unable to offer an enjoyable experience due Forza Horizon 3’s single-core CPU issues. Our GTX980Ti was used at 50-60%, suggesting that our CPU was bottlenecking the GPU. It’s pretty clear that Forza Horizon 3’s multi-threading capabilities are awful, something that definitely surprised us.”
Clearly they don’t know how to optimize a game or they pushed it out for PC too early. A Performance/High-end PC shouldn’t struggle to maintain constant 60FPS in this game at reasonable resolutions.
GOW1 need at least GTX1060 for 1080p 60fps. New GOW4 will need faster hardware than that. If you want 1080p 60fps in Gears 4 buy GTX 1070 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e3844b2476f9beeaf3793fc497eca97c91117fbc5b976700641d1d4839f5f6af.jpg
gow ue was botched on pc and unoptimized, they even admitted that. from what it seems the pc version of 4 is going to be much better optimized so a 1070 for 1080/60 seems a bit much. i do plan on playing it and i have a 980ti classified so well see how that goes at 1440p, im expecting over 60 honestly.
Wow, do folk still use M$ these days? I thought that died out ten years ago when gamers grew up and realised that a company was allowed to, you know, make money.
theres a difference between making money honestly by releasing good products and just making everything you throw on PC a quick cash grab by not doing anything to make it a proper PC port to begin with. Microsoft loves doing the latter of those 2. they dont usually give a crap about PC, maybe now and then theyll do something kind of ok but for the most part they treat the platform as an afterthought.
I wish shills would die very horrible deaths. I know I shouldn’t wish death on another person, but shills will do anything for their perceived “gods” that it makes me sick.
Right… you probably want Denuvo + Steam. But did you know that Denuvo on Steam can destroy SSD disk? You can read about that on many sites
“most systems struggle to get 1080p 60Hz and not even a TITAN XP can use MSAA without stutter, where the XBOX One uses MSAA X4”
All Forza Horizon games always been 30fps. This game is designed that way. If you want 60fps install any “Motorsport” instead of “Horizon”
ALL Forza Motorsport games on Xbox One = 1080p 60 fps
ALL Forza Horizon games on Xbox One = 1080p 30 fps
“Quantum break steam is my next game in a few days”
Be prepared for Denuvo. You must love that if you want Steam+Denuvo instead Windows Store version which is without anti-tamper DRM protection. It will be interesting how much Steam version will be slower compare to Windows Store because of Denuvo 🙂
Windows Store uses more demanding DRM than Denuvo is, apparently.
Not only DRM, the whole Windows Store thing is a lie for PC gaming. It is like a cheap advertisement platform with poorly optimized games.
In those recent years, MS had released totally broken products like Windows 8/8.1/10, Windows Store, Windows Phone etc… Hell, even trying to install Forza Motorsport 6: APEX gives an error :p
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6837f216b54082a2530fc4b398bc80c6baaf9a4dcb60e1174ebb5b4434571be4.png
“Quantum break steam is my next game in a few days”
I hope you have good Nvidia GPU. Steam version is DX11 (DX12 is exclusive to Windows Store). Check DX11 benchmarks:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e66651951ecad8f254b0b88efbeca85b29fee4da7119d13190508a7b3863c355.png
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df5e3cceb33af38e3d185ae7828b9d1118a9e990c02636597e8bc7518badbc21.png
Might as well say any game that uses your page file is POS, that’s the basis of the entire claim on denuvo ‘destroying’ your ssd. There isn’t even any proof it’s denuvo using the pagefile.
It really is an Angel compared to this crap.
Denuvo allow to modding a game like Total Warhammer when a modding tools was available at day one. Corporate slave!
No it doesn’t. That was proved wrong ages ago.
I honestly enjoy the game but this like John said this game is ridiculously CPU dependent that and I think its the advanced DRM they put on it.As I believe it decrpyts the files on the fly so with a SSD sending files so fast that is bound to bring up the CPU utilization in game.
Ah alright so its basically the DRM in general then ya hope Microsoft removes it after a few months.(probably not)
Any console port from this gen shouldn’t be suffering from a cpu bottleneck on pc especially with no major additions over the console version graphically. Maybe i could understand heavy vram usage but the cpu shouldn’t be taxed at all. Makes even less sense if you consider this being 1st party microsoft studio that supposed to show the advantages of dx12.
All “Forza Horizon” games was always designed to 30fps. Only “Forza Motorsport” games was in 60fps on Xbox One. When game is designed to 30fps then its hard to run it twice of normal speed
A joke that is now our bed and our reality with the fact that they forced 10 on enough people.
Vulkan is the future.
“it ran amazingly well on the PC platform.”
Until you play 4 or 5 more races then it stutters like crap.
They also F’ed the unlocked fps or playing at unlocked or 60fps lock might cause physics problems, game might run 1.5x more faster than it should in places. but hey DX12, yeah ? lol
Nice article john, thanks.
PS: You can’t launch the game in offline mode. you can play offline but you have to connect first, then run the game, wait for it to connect to xboxapp, then disconnect.
This is game DESIGNED for 30fps like all previous Forza Horizon games. Only Forza Motorsport was designed for 60fps (closed tracks, static lighting, static weather).
All Forza Motorsport games on Xbox One = 1080p 60 fps
All Forza Horizon games on Xbox One = 1080p 30 fps
When game is designed to 30fps then its hard to run it twice of normal speed
It was false advertising for MS to put out press releases and sponsored content that ALL touted PC support, tons of options, screenshots, gameplay, and blah blah blah. It was all misleading us to think that PC would receive top support.
Even 30fps on PC is broken. Stating that “…DESIGNED for 30fps…” is just another fanboy excuse for MS. Top end PCs with 11TF Titan cards and FLUX CAPACITORS are having a hard time with this Xbox game that was “DESIGNED” for 2 year old 1.3TF hw. CLEARLY they willingly released it knowing it was busted and charged honest customers then left us with the burden after they got theirs.
Technical products must be SLAMMED HARD for technical problems before hard working people PAY MONEY expecting what’s advertised! MS sleazy anti-consumer practices make me vomit. There was a reason why I only played ONE gen of Xbox. This was my first and LAST Xbox exclusive this gen. Trust me, Xbox games are not that life changing.
If you don’t like 30 fps games like Horizon series then wait a year for Forza Motorsport 7. All “Motorsport” games are 60 fps and it will be available on PC in 2017
You need to get shot irl.
BTW: This game use a lot of video ram. It may be problem for some people with GPU with less than 6GB of video memory.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0cc0cef78195678104c405526c4fc091bb094f233de5a1fc4662473804868971.png
Not this time, if it were a action game with many dialogs and time events yes, a racing game is just a update on numbers its easy, the problem here is being a dx12 game with lack of a decent multithreading…
Not sure if there is a anti crack running on the background of the game, but this is working as a dx11 game by now.
Well, it even looks like it behaves as a DX9 title transformed to a DX12 title.
Many DX11 titles have much better multithreading capabilities. But hey, says M$, you now have it for both platforms; Buy an XBOXONE! yEAH!
How ironic, a racing game designed to stay at “normal speeds.”
“this game needs to be extremely multithreaded to work properly on the Xbone and yet I doubt that this PC port is radically different from the Xbone version:
No. All existing Forza Horizon games on Xbox are also 30fps. Only Forza Motorsport are 60fps. If you want 60fps install Forza Motorsport instead of Forza Horizon.
Shut up already.
were not on a console, plenty of PC devs with less of a budget manage to make 30fps on console and unlocked framerate on the PC version. the devs dont care, they didnt put the time in to truly make it a PC version. i mean theres a ton of indie devs who make console/pc versions of a game that get 30/unlocked correct. theres no excuse
Go to hell Microsoft!
Ah, the glorious PC Master Race.
Someone was frustrated ..In pictures 17-19 the plate reads poutses (dicks) 😛
95% of the time I can play this at 4k/60fps all Ultra and No MSAA. With only Shadows set to High and No MSAA and the rest at Ultra I get 4k/60fps all the time.
My PC:
i7-4790k (4.4 GHz)
Two Overclocked GTX 1080 (only one is being used)
32 GB RAM
MSAA is causing the stuttering at 60 fps and Ultra Shadows are not really needed unless you have an Titan XP.
Dude you really have no clue what you are talking about… Even people with the newest Intel CPU’s with Titan Pascal cards have issues holding 60 fps at 4K…
The game needs performance patches.
Someone tracked down the reason behind poor performance and it turned out it was DRM. Don’t know if it’s true though.
Cracked version faster?
what is funny digital foundry said gtx 970 ultra setting without msaa the game run max at 45 but when you lock the fps to 30 you can run the game at 8Xmsaa well i remember 8Xmsaa eat a lot of gpu power this game is fuc*f*ing weird
It’s true I tested it on my 970 lol.
can u test the game at 4k using dsr
lol you neckbeards should just get an xbox
DX12 is not native multi-threaded API. But it is well prepared for that kind of usage. It depends on game developers if they use it like that or not.
Amiga already out doing damage control lol.
since the game files are all encrypted, decrypting the stream of textures & sound & game files take cpu power specifically the 1st core, add to it the Directx driver overhead which is still focused more in the 1st core, even with directx 12 just check microsoft & amd dx12 charts, now the encryption method if it’s AES256 well it’s not that hard to decrypt at realtime specially on the latest intel cpus with AES instruction set, so i think the game files are compressed too
decompression & decryption & Directx12 main thread all heavily stressing the 1st core
good job microsoft, that’s not how DRM is done, this game file encryption method is easy to get cracked comparing to something like denuvo, as soon as UWP debugger will be available this shiit gonna be cracked
How the hell do people defend this game. The pc port on medium settings drops to 20fps whenever I enter a festival. Also, wheel support is broken as hell on PC but works fine on console.
Playing 1080p maxed 8x MSAA with GTX 1070, i5 3570k, 16gb ram game running sub par 40 fps avg ridiculous. Never had to over clock the cpu yet but might give it a try, turned off MSAA with no difference and the first city looks horrible.
When a 980 can’t run the game, but a low powered console can, there is a problem.
“Still, for an open-world racing title, Forza Horizon 3 looks great. However, it’s obvious that the game could look even better on the PC, provided the developers took advantage of the PC platform.”
I’ve yet to see devs take full advantage of the PC platform with multiplat games that don’t involve forcefully crippling even high end machines with small settings that tax the shit out of your hardware like gimpworks.
2016 and we’re still stuck with MSAA and other AA like FXAA. I feel we’re never going to progress if all we can choose from is blurry AA or super taxing AA that even still, doesn’t do away with the jaggies.
Xbox one runs high settings 1080p MSAA 4X with an APU and a boosted 7790 GCN, and meanwhile a 970 is dying at medium 1080p no msaa with a 2500K at 4Ghz ?
Man.. I’m not buying this.. FIX IT My GPU is twice as fast as an XBOX one gpu, so i must be able to pull 60fps 1080p high with it !
well it does run better on xbone especially the menu/upgrade car screen the upgrade parts screen lags on pc but just fine on xbone. i did notice some stuttering. but it seemed to get a little better as time went on. was getting 45-58,60 fps @ 1440p high settings gsync on i7 2600k, gtx 970, 16gb ram.
BTW a quick glance at the memory looks like it was using a good 6gb of ram so i say you need 12-16 gb ram.
Fixed that for you.
forza 6 apex was NOT OPTIMIZED a racing game with a serious case of micro stuttering is very serious so what if it shows you maxed out 2560×1440 at 100+fps?!
what 100+fps is worth if you got stutterings and hiccups especially in a racing game and now that the game is not in beta make it harder for me to forgive
im sorry but turn 10 don’t deserve credits now and didn’t deserve credits before from the pc community
What did Durante say?
Soooo, what are these high end Intel Cpu`s? Does 6600K count as one?
Its probably just a DX11 title. Misrosoft is pushing ppl to install Win10 with ze olde DX12 trick.
Just look at Quantum Break. Steam version Is running in DX11 and it’s running pretty much the same as DX12 version. XD
Can you play this on a dual core CPU?