Horizon Forbidden West PC port evaluation: One other recreation that may exceed 8GB VRAM use

Horizon Forbidden West launched on PC on March 21, 2024 — over two years after the sport initially got here out on the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. That’s fairly the wait, however the unique Horizon Zero Daybreak was well-received and PC players have been ready for his or her most well-liked launch. Nvidia offered us with a code for testing the sport, as that is an Nvidia-promoted title, however don’t fear: We’ve examined it on the most effective graphics playing cards and it doesn’t appear to outright favor Crew Inexperienced’s {hardware}, apart from the inclusion of DLSS 3 body technology however not AMD’s FSR 3 various.

As a PC port, Horizon Forbidden West was initially created for and optimized to run on AMD {hardware} — the PlayStation 5 has a Zen 2 8-core CPU and 36 RDNA 2 compute items, whereas the PS4 model needed to make do with far much less succesful {hardware}. The PlayStation 5 has 16GB of shared GDDR6 reminiscence with 448 GB/s of bandwidth. In contrast to the Xbox Sequence X, the PS5 reminiscence isn’t partitioned into CPU and GPU segments, which suggests video games can simply make the most of as much as the complete 16GB for textures and different information, although in apply most appear to high out at round 12GB of reminiscence use. That may show to be an essential consideration when it comes to what settings and resolutions you possibly can comfortably run on PC {hardware}.

For this preliminary take a look at how Horizon Forbidden West runs on PC, we’ve used our commonplace GPU check PC, which consists of an Intel Core i9-13900K Raptor Lake CPU, 32GB of DDR5-6400 reminiscence, and a 4TB Essential T700 PCIe 5.0 SSD for storage. Then we’ve examined many of the present technology AMD, Nvidia, and Intel graphics playing cards, utilizing the newest drivers from the respective firms. Now we have Nvidia 551.86, AMD 24.3.1, and Intel 5379 drivers, all of that are “recreation prepared” for Horizon Forbidden West.

We didn’t check each present gen GPU, nonetheless. We omitted the Nvidia RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti, changing them with their newer Tremendous variants. We additionally examined the RTX 3080 10GB, RTX 3060 12GB, RTX 2080 Ti, and RTX 2080 Tremendous to see how among the older technology GPUs carry out. For AMD, we now have all of the RDNA 3 RX 7000-series GPUs, plus the earlier technology RX 6800 XT, RX 6700 XT, and RX 5700 XT — observe that there’s no ray tracing help in Horizon Forbidden West, so AMD’s first technology RDNA {hardware} ought to nonetheless do okay. And for Intel, we’ve examined the Arc A770 16GB and Arc A750, with the latter being the preferred Intel choice and among the finest values so far as GPUs at present go.

In contrast to the earlier Horizon Zero Daybreak, there’s no built-in benchmark in Forbidden West, which suggests we needed to provide you with our personal check sequence. That’s not essentially dangerous, because it does imply our testing represents precise in-game efficiency, with all of the AI and different code totally working. Nevertheless, as with every benchmark, the place you select to check doesn’t characterize all areas of the sport. We examined every GPU working round an early space of the sport, the town of Meridian the place there’s no threat of fight however loads of NPCs wandering about.

We examined with the medium preset at 1080p, after which the utmost very excessive preset at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Even at 1080p, this could exceed 8GB of VRAM use and body charges can dip quite a bit at occasions. We needed to verify DLSS, FSR 2.2, and XeSS upscaling efficiency as nicely, so we then examined at 4K with the excessive preset with out upscaling, after which with DLSS, FSR 2.2, or XeSS relying on the GPU. We additionally spot-checked FSR on Nvidia and Intel GPUs, which usually resulted in related efficiency to DLSS / XeSS, however with barely decrease picture constancy, so we caught with the seller APIs for our upscaling outcomes. Nvidia additionally helps body technology (aka DLSS 3) on RTX 40-series GPUs, so we examined at 4K excessive with upscaling and body technology enabled as one ultimate information level.

Now we have screenshots and a dialogue of picture constancy on the numerous presets beneath. The brief overview is that top and really excessive look largely the identical, whereas the medium preset drops texture high quality and shadow high quality fairly noticeably. Graphics playing cards with 8GB of reminiscence will usually wish to stick to the medium or excessive settings, and can usually be okay at 1080p and 1440p. Lesser GPUs could have to run even decrease settings to get acceptable ranges of efficiency. Now let’s get to the benchmarks.

Horizon Forbidden West PC efficiency

So far as being playable goes, all the things that we examined simply broke 60 fps at 1080p medium. Minimal framerates had been all above 60 fps as nicely, aside from the 2 Intel Arc GPUs. Curiously, we had some preliminary stuttering on the A770 as nicely, however that cleared up with retesting — and the Arc A770 wasn’t alone in its considerably anomalous conduct.

A few of the Nvidia GPUs we examined initially confirmed quite poor efficiency, and for those who expertise critical stuttering you may wish to attempt a full driver clear (we use Show Driver Uninstaller) adopted by a reinstall of the newest drivers. We additionally examined in unique fullscreen mode, which appeared to present barely higher efficiency than the default fullscreen setting.

In fact, we’re largely testing what can be categorised as high-end graphics playing cards, although the earlier technology 5700 XT and 2080 Tremendous definitely aren’t high-end by at this time’s requirements. The RX 7600 and RTX 4060 are fairly inexpensive mainstream playing cards as nicely, and we’d count on AMD’s RDNA 2 options to carry out advantageous as nicely, at the least for the RX 6600 and above.

Finances GPUs would doubtless show to be much more problematic. Tell us within the feedback for those who’d prefer to see some further testing, however we don’t at present understand how playing cards with 6GB or 4GB will deal with the sport. We suspect on the low or very low presets, most GPUs will nonetheless be capable to run the sport with acceptable ranges of efficiency, although the picture high quality drops off considerably at these settings.

Going from the medium to very excessive presets cuts efficiency by a few third on many of the GPUs, with the qualification that the GPU must have at the least 10GB of VRAM. For playing cards which have 8GB of reminiscence, common efficiency takes an even bigger hit, but it surely’s the 1% lows that basically plummet. The RTX 4060 and above technically break 60 fps, however minimums can fall nicely beneath that degree.

The RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti for instance go from minimal fps of 94 and 100 fps at medium settings, respectively, all the way down to 27 and 36 fps at very excessive. That’s an enormous delta, and in apply the sport feels fairly dangerous, with clear micro-stuttering and occasional slowdowns that may final for a number of seconds at a time.

Curiously, the 8GB AMD GPUs don’t appear to be hit fairly as onerous. There’s nonetheless an enormous hit, however the RX 7600 barely exceeds the 1% low efficiency of the RTX 4060 Ti, regardless that the Nvidia GPU is in any other case 20–35 p.c sooner. The Intel Arc A750 alternatively drops to sub-20 fps at occasions and goes from being 8% slower than the A770 16GB at 1080p medium to being 25% slower with very excessive settings.

The RTX 4060 Ti 16GB and RX 7600 XT give us our greatest take a look at how further VRAM may also help with the upper high quality settings. Nvidia 4060 Ti 8GB typically outperforms the 16GB card when VRAM isn’t a bottleneck — the Founders Version clocks barely than the Gigabyte card we now have for testing, by 4% at 1080p medium for example. On the very excessive preset, the 16GB card has barely larger common fps, but it surely’s the minimal fps that’s actually noticeable: 64% larger.

The 7600 XT has larger clocks and energy than the 7600 normally, so it’s at all times sooner than the vanilla 7600 — 3.5% sooner on common fps and 15% sooner on minimal fps at medium settings. Bump to very excessive and common fps is 22% larger, whereas minimal fps is 54% larger.

In brief, the very excessive preset clearly exceeds 8GB of VRAM use at 1080p, however lower than 10GB. The RTX 3080 nonetheless matches the RTX 4070, give or take a couple of p.c. Notice additionally that the excessive preset vastly improves efficiency on 8GB playing cards — we did not check most GPUs, however the RTX 4060 acquired 77 fps common and 65 fps for 1% lows, with the latter being greater than double the very excessive end result.

Shifting as much as 1440p with maxed out settings, the RTX 2080 Ti virtually hits 60 fps, simply barely behind the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB. Minimal fps can also be usually advantageous on playing cards with 10GB or extra VRAM, however the 4060 TI 8GB card as soon as once more has critical framerate dips and stuttering at occasions, with 1% lows dropping beneath 30 fps.

AMD’s GPUs normally outperform their Nvidia counterparts, if we match them up based mostly on value. The RX 7700 XT for instance begins at $420, roughly the identical value because the 4060 Ti 16GB, and it’s clearly a a lot sooner card on this explicit recreation — it’s 22% sooner. The identical goes for the RX 7900 GRE and RTX 4070 at $550, the place AMD’s card once more finally ends up 23% sooner.

The 12GB playing cards all look like ample for 1440p very excessive, at the least when it comes to VRAM capability, however the RTX 3080 10GB does present a drop in minimal fps relative to the 4070. It has fairly a bit extra reminiscence bandwidth however with out the massive L2 cache of the Ada card, so 10GB is principally the naked minimal you’d need for 1440p in Horizon Forbidden West on the very excessive preset. Once more, dropping to the excessive preset will assist fairly a bit, and even 8GB playing cards stay viable — for reference, the RTX 4060 acquired 59 fps common and 49 fps 1% lows at 1440p excessive.

The highest of the chart hasn’t modified a lot. Aside from AMD’s win at 1080p medium, the RTX 4090 will get the pole place, but it surely’s the matchup between the 4080 Tremendous and RX 7900 XT that’s extra fascinating. AMD’s card at present prices about $100 lower than the 4080 Tremendous however performs higher in Forbidden West. Actually, the 4080 Tremendous principally ties the lesser RX 7900 XT, which solely prices $700 nowadays.

One other fascinating tidbit is the earlier technology RX 6800 XT, which barely outperforms the newer RX 7800 XT. The 2 GPUs typically commerce blows, and Horizon Forbidden West doesn’t change the sample. That is not too stunning for a recreation that debuted on RDNA 2 (PS5) and Polaris (PS4) {hardware}.

Maxing out all the things at 4K with out upscaling or body technology requires a number of GPU energy. The RTX 4070 Ti Tremendous and above break 60 fps, whereas the 7900 GRE principally will get there as nicely. However getting minimal fps above 60 would require the 7900 XT or XTX, or the RTX 4090.

Alternatively, for those who’re simply in search of decently playable — holding minimal fps above 30 — the RTX 4060 Ti 16GB and RTX 2080 Ti will each suffice, whereas the RTX 3080 really dips beneath that mark. Based mostly on that, we will see that 11GB of VRAM is sufficient for 4K very excessive, however 10GB comes up a bit brief. Notice that it is not simply VRAM, although, because the RTX 3060 12GB beats the newer RTX 4060 however fails to ship a compelling 4K very excessive end result because it lacks the uncooked compute that is crucial for 4K expertise.

The excellent news is that Horizon Forbidden West has full help for all of the upscaling options, and at 4K with high quality mode upscaling (from 1440p), you may get easy efficiency nonetheless. You possibly can barely scale back the VRAM necessities by dropping to the excessive preset, with a comparatively negligible lack of picture high quality, in order that’s what we did.