Forza Horizon 5is about to introduce fully functional raytracing support during regular gameplay with its next major content update. Though the technology has been available in the game from the very start, with raytracing enabled in specific scenarios such as Photo Mode showcases, there was no option to have it enabled at all times.
WhileForza Horizon 5is no slouch when it comes to graphics, players have long wondered if Playground Games would ever try experimenting with the game’s raytracing features to a greater extent. After the upcomingForza Motorsportgame was revealed to fully support raytracing at launch, it seemed like the open-worldHorizonmay end up only having a very limited implementation of the feature.
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That, however, is no longer going to be the case starting on June 06, 2025, with the conclusion ofForza Horizon 5’s 10-year anniversary season. Namely, Playground Games has just announced thatForza Horizon 5would receive a comprehensive raytracing update that would allow players to toggle this visual option on and off during race events and open-world exploration, effectively enjoying the feature at all times. This update comes alongside support for a whole array of cutting-edge upscaling technologies, such as DLSS 2.4 and FSR 2.2, allowing players to win back some performance that they will end up losing on rendering the game with raytracing enabled.
To enable gameplay-level raytracing on PC in one of thebest open-world racing games of all time, players will need to switch the appropriate option to either “Ultra” or “Extreme,” with the cited ideal hardware spec being either Nvidia’s RTX 3080 or the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card. Playground Games' handy raytracing functionality table also explains the differences between the two options, as well as underlining the fact that only the player vehicle will get full-resolution reflections during race events and free-roam sessions, with other vehicles getting the usual rasterized rendering treatment.
SinceFH5looks quite great even while using rasterization, this shouldn’t be too big of an issue, and limiting full raytracing to just the player vehicle is likely the necessary compromise between visual fidelity and performance. Thenext-genForza Motorsportgame, on the other hand, only needs to render about two dozen vehicles racing on a closed-down racing track, which is a far cry fromForza Horizon 5’s rendition of open-world Mexico.
AfterForza Horizon 5’s last body kit updateonly ended up introducing a small number of new customization options for players to peruse, the Donut Media season that’s launching on November 8 ought to alleviate this problem. Alongside gameplay raytracing support, players can also expect to enjoy a variety of new cars and 21 classic Rocket Bunny wide-body kits.
Forza Horizon 5is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
