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Horizon Forbidden Weststood out as one of the best-looking games on the market upon its release on the PlayStation 5. Years later, this statement remains as true as ever. The recentPC release has opened the doors for a new community of playersto experience its drop-dead gorgeous visuals firsthand.
What’s remarkable about the PC release isn’t just its impressive visuals and exceptional optimization. Nevertheless, no matter how much work the developer might put into the game, some players with older hardware may still encounter difficulties running the game smoothly, especially when attempting to max out all settings to Ultra.
Recommended Display Settings for Horizon Forbidden West
The guide below outlines the optimal graphics settings that strike a balance between visuals and performance, ensuring you can enjoy the stunning world ofHorizon Forbidden Westwhile maintaining a decent framerate.
Recommended Setting
Window Mode
Select whether you want the game to utilize the entire screen or a portion of it. Fullscreen mode allows you to Alt + Tab out of the game smoothly.
Fullscreen
Display Resolution
Select the resolution of the game. Native is highly recommended for the best visuals.
Native
Aspect Ratio
Choose between different aspect ratios that decide the game’s width and height. Native or Auto is recommended as it will use the entire screen.
Auto
Cinematics Letterboxing
It adds letterboxing when playing the game at a non-16:9 aspect ratio. Enable to counter any visual bugs around the edges of the screen.
On
Refresh Rate
Decides the Refresh Rate of the game. Choose the highest one available for your monitor. Only tweakable if Exclusive Fullscreen is selected in Window Mode
VSync
Enabling removes screen tearing but caps the game framerate to your monitor’s refresh rate and increases input lag. Disabling removes any cap but may cause screen tearing. Enable for a smoother experience.
NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency
Reduces system latency and makes the game more responsive. Only available on NVIDIA GPUs. Enabling it causes stutters in our testing, so turn it off.
Off
Dynamic Resolution Scaling
Automatically reduces the game’s resolution to match the targeted framerate. Disable as turning it on caused the game to look extremely grainy.
Anti-Aliasing
Reduces aliasing and makes the game look smoother. Can’t be selected if any Upscale Method is chosen. Choose DLAA if you have an RTX 2000 or above card. If not, then select TAA.
DLAA or TAA
Upscale Method
Choose between various upscaling technologies to boost the game’s framerate at the cost of a minor visual hit. DLSS is only available for the NVIDIA RTX 2000 or above series.
DLSS or Off
Upscale Quality
Select the quality mode for the chosen upscaling technology. Higher quality increases render resolution, and high performance uses lower resolution but grants more frames. Choosing DRS automatically sets this option to Dynamic.
Quality
DLSS Frame Generation
Uses AI to create “fake frames” that increase the game’s overall FPS. It makes the game look smoother but causes input lag. Only available on RTX 4000 series GPUs.
Recommended Graphics Settings for Horizon Forbidden West
Adjusting the following settings may slightly impact visuals but canboost performance by 20-30%based on your hardware. It could be just what you need to hit that much-coveted 60FPS mark.
Texture Quality
Determines the quality of the textures of the game. Higher quality uses more GPU VRAM. Very High can be selected by 8 GB VRAM GPUs. Choose lower-quality textures if VRAM is filled.
Very High
Texture Filtering
Determines the quality of the textures when viewed at a different angle. Little to no impact on performance.
16x Anisotropic
Shadow Quality
Determines the quality of the shadows in the game. High impact on GPU performance. Do not select OFF.
Medium
Screen Space Shadows
Determines if screen space shadows are enabled or not. Little to no impact on performance.
Ambient Occlusion
Determines if Ambient Occlusion tech is used or not. Little to no impact on performance.
SSAO
Screen Space Reflections
Determines the quality of SSR. Available Options are Off, Low, and High. Little to no impact on performance.
High
Level of Detail
Determines the quality of far-away objects. High impact on both GPU and CPU performance.
Hair Quality
Determines the density and curvature of the character’s hair. Little to no impact on performance.
Crowd Quality
Determines the quality of far-away NPCs. Little to no impact on performance.
Terrain Quality
Determines the quality of the Terrain rendering. Little to no impact on performance.
Water Quality
Determines the quality of Water rendering. Little to no impact on performance.
Clouds Quality
Determines the quality of Clouds rendering in the game. Medium impact on GPU performance.
Translucency Quality
Determines the quality of translucent objects like particles. Little to no impact on performance.
High Res
Parallax Occlusion Mapping
Determines if additional lighting effects or depths are applied to certain items. Little impact on performance but a negligible impact on visuals
Field of View
Determines the FOV of the game. A higher value allows more of the world on screen but may decrease performance.
Personal Choice
Depth of Field
Determines if DOF is applied to the game. Little impact on performance.
Motion Blur Strength
The camera movement feels smoother by blurring the environment. 0 completely turns off Motion Blur.
Sharpness
Determines how smooth or sharp you want the game to look. No impact on performance.
Lens Flares
Determines if Lens Flares effect is applied or not. No impact on performance.
Vignette
Determines if the edges of the game are darkened or not to emphasize the rest of the screen. Turn it off to make the game look clearer.
Radial Blur
Determines if a slight blur effect at the corner of the screen is applied to simulate the camera lens. Turn it off to make the game look clearer.
Chromatic Aberration
Determines if lens distortion effects are applied at the corner of the screen or not. Turn it off to make the game look clearer.
Additional Improvements
One of the greatest advantages of PC gaming is the utilization of mods, andHorizon Forbidden Westis no exception. If you seek to further enhance the visuals of your game when using DLSS upscaling technology or HDR, then you’re in luck. Thanks to the mods accessible on NexusMods, you can implement several enhancements to the game’s PC version.
Update DLSS and Frame Gen Version
Per the modderZanity03,Horizon Forbidden Westemploys DLSS + frame generation version 3.5.10.DLSS and frame gen 3.6.0 Updatemodrevises both components to version 3.6.0. The newer iteration brings significant improvements,such as faster shader compilation speed, greater VRAM efficiency, and more.
To install the mod, all you have to do is copy both the “nvngx_dlss.dll” and “nvngx_dlssg.dll” files provided in the mod file and paste them into the game’s main folder (where the .exe file is located), and now you will enjoy the best version of DLSS available.
Fix HDR Max Luminance Slider
If you are one of the few individuals who like to tweak HDR settings in your game, you must have noticed that the HDR Max Luminance Slider inHorizon Forbidden Westdoesn’t seem to work. This is a bug and not intended, as Native HDR works just fine.
Themodder Ershinhas released a much-neededmod called HDR Max Luminance Fixthat does exactly what it sounds like. Following this mod, the slider will work as intended, and the game won’t override the selected value.
Copy both files, “hfw-maxluminance-fix.asi” and “winmm.dll,” andpaste them into your main game’s location(where the .exe file is located). A future patch may fix this bug and render this mod useless, but for now, this should do.
