Forza Horizon 6, set in a sprawling Japanese world, gives players a big choice: stick with Standard Graphics or enable full Ray Tracing (RT). This choice isn’t just cosmetic—it changes how light, shadows, and reflections behave in the game, and it can make a huge difference in immersion.



Visual Differences



Reflections:



Standard Graphics (Rasterized): Uses Screen Space Reflections (SSR) and static cube maps. This works well for performance, but only objects on-screen are reflected. Off-screen cars or buildings won’t show up in reflections.

Ray Tracing: RT Reflections provide accurate, high-quality reflections on car surfaces, wet roads, and the environment. Everything around you interacts with the light realistically.



Global Illumination:



Standard: Relies on pre-baked or simplified lighting models. The lighting feels “good enough” but lacks realistic color bleed.

Ray Tracing: Ray-Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) calculates how light bounces off surfaces. The result is natural soft shadows and colors that flow across objects, making the world feel alive.



Shadows & Ambient Occlusion:



Standard: Shadows can appear harsh or miss small details, like the gap under a car.

Ray Tracing: Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion fills in these details with realistic shadows in tight spots, giving depth and weight to every scene.



Performance:



Standard Graphics: Optimized for high, uncapped framerates even on older hardware.

Ray Tracing: Demanding on the GPU. You often need upscalers like NVIDIA DLSS 4 or AMD FSR 4 to hit smooth 60 FPS at higher resolutions.

Platform Availability

PC: Supports full Extreme RT features, including RTGI and real-time reflections across the entire world.

Xbox Series X|S: Typically sticks to SSR instead of full ray-traced reflections to maintain performance. Some limited RT lighting/audio may be present.

PlayStation 5 Pro: Expected to support a “Performance RT” mode (60 FPS) or “Quality” mode (30 FPS) with enhanced lighting via PS5 Pro features.

Hardware Requirements for Ray Tracing



To really enjoy Forza Horizon 6 with RT on high settings:



Recommended: NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti or AMD RX 9070 XT.

Ultimate Experience (4K Native RT): RTX 5090 is needed to maintain stable 60 FPS without upscaling.

Minimum for RT: Cards equivalent to NVIDIA RTX 30 series or AMD RX 7000 series. Older GPUs will struggle to keep up.



Standard graphics deliver smooth gameplay with minimal hardware stress, while Ray Tracing takes visual realism to the next level—accurate reflections, soft shadows, and richer lighting. If your PC or console can handle it, RT turns the streets of Japan into a living, breathing playground.