Forza Horizon 5: What's the Difference Between Graphics and Performance Mode?


When booting up Forza Horizon 5 on consoles you will be greeted with two main visual options to choose from. These are Graphics and Performance mode, each offering different advantages and disadvantages to your racing experience. To help you decide which one to go with, we've detailed each in this guide. Let's take a look at what Graphics and Performance mode each has to offer.

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Forza Horizon 5: What's the Difference Between Graphics and Performance Mode?

Graphics and Performance mode are fairly straightforward options that you may have encountered in other games. Graphics focuses on graphical fidelity, offering the maximum resolution. Performance on the other hand focus on framerate, allowing you to race at a silky smooth 60 fps. We'll go into some more detail on what this means below.

Graphics Mode

Xbox Series S and Series X consoles offer the choice between Graphics and Performance mode. For Series S, Graphics mode means bumping up the resolution to 1440p, while locking the framerate in at 30 fps. Xbox Series X allows for full 4K in Graphics Mode, with a similar bump down to 30 fps in framerate. Visuals are improved across the board here. There are more detailed textures, reflection effects on cars, and a much better draw distance.

Graphics mode is for those looking to experience the views in Forza Horizon 5. It beefs up the visual fidelity, making everything from jungles to rocky plains look more detailed and vibrant. We recommend giving this a go at first, to see whether you can handle the framerate being lower than 60 fps. You might not even notice.

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Performance Mode

Performance mode focuses on, well...performance. On both Xbox Series S and X, framerate is bumped up to 60 for smooth racing action. Having a higher framerate does mean that the visuals are toned down however. On Xbox Series X, you'll still get those full 4K visuals, but detail and textures will take a hit. Water effects and reflections also get paired down, as does draw distance. On Series S, a larger bump down is applied. You'll target 1080p instead and certain visual effects will be cut in order to achieve the higher framerate.

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Which Should You Choose?

Whether you go for Graphics or Performance mode, Forza Horizon 5 is still going to look incredible. We recommend starting with Graphics Mode before switching over. Test out 30 fps driving. If you find it to be a little sluggish, then try Performance. As you advance and gain more experience as a racer, you may find that you need the extra frames to compete in higher skilled races. Generally speaking, racing games really benefit from a higher framerate. If you do choose Performance, don't feel like you're missing out too much. Playground Games has done an amazing job in keeping the visual fidelity high across the board. Forza Horizon 5 is easily one of the best looking games out there at the moment, and this remains true regardless of what mode you go with.

That's all you need to know about Forza Horizon 5's Graphics and Performance Modes. For more help with the game be sure to take a look at our guide on How to Fast Travel. Elsewhere, there's our guide on the Soundtrack.

Our friends over at RacingGames.GG already have some great guides up for Forza Horizon 5. They're sure to be drilling much deeper than most, so head on over for some expert tips on playing the game.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Forza Horizon 5 and Guides page.