Best Horizon Forbidden West PC PC Settings for Maximum FPS in 2026

Quick Answer

For maximum FPS in Horizon Forbidden West on PC in 2026, use DLSS 4 or FSR 4 on Quality, drop Clouds and Volumetric Fog to Medium, set Reflections to Screen Space and Texture Quality to High. On a Ryzen 5 7600 + RTX 4060 SA rig you'll see 90-110 FPS at 1440p, on RTX 5070 expect 130-160 FPS at 1440p Ultra.

Hardware Tiers and Realistic FPS Targets in SA

Horizon Forbidden West is GPU-heavy with strong CPU dependence in dense biomes like the Tenakth tribal lands. On an entry RTX 4060 + Ryzen 5 7600 SA build (around R22,000 prebuilt at Evetech), expect 70-90 FPS at 1080p Ultra native and 90-110 FPS at 1440p with DLSS Quality. On an RTX 5070 + Ryzen 7 7700X mid-range build, push 130-160 FPS at 1440p Ultra with DLSS 4 Balanced. On an RTX 5080 + Ryzen 7 9800X3D enthusiast build, target 100-130 FPS at 4K Ultra with DLSS Quality. Both AMD and Nvidia upscalers work well, FSR 4 closing the gap significantly versus the FSR 2 implementation that shipped at launch. If you bought an RX 9070 you'll see numbers very close to RTX 5070 Ti tier in this title.

The Settings That Actually Matter for FPS

Five settings drive nearly all of the FPS gain in Horizon Forbidden West. Drop Cloud Quality from Ultra to Medium for an immediate 8-12% boost with minimal visual loss. Lower Volumetric Fog to Medium for another 6-10% gain in foggy biomes. Set Screen Space Reflections instead of Ray-Traced (Ray Tracing was patched in late, and the perf cost is brutal). Texture Quality stays High or Ultra (free, just uses VRAM). Anti-Aliasing should be DLAA or DLSS, never the in-game TAA which softens textures. Shadow Quality Medium is basically indistinguishable from High during gameplay. Crowd Density Medium also helps in towns like the Plains-of-Kaal hub, freeing up CPU time during dense NPC scenes.

Upscaling Strategy: DLSS 4 vs FSR 4 vs DLAA

DLSS 4 with the new transformer model is the best image quality at 1440p and 4K. Use Quality mode for 1440p and Balanced for 4K to maximise the FPS uplift. FSR 4 has caught up significantly versus FSR 3, and looks great in Forbidden West specifically because the game's foliage and water render well with FSR's temporal pipeline. If you have RTX 5000 series and FPS isn't a problem, run DLAA for sharper-than-native image at the cost of about 15% FPS. Frame Generation works well in Horizon Forbidden West because the game runs at consistent base FPS, the artificial frames feel natural rather than hitchy.

CPU and RAM Considerations on SA Builds

Forbidden West is CPU-sensitive in towns and combat-heavy biome edges. A Ryzen 5 7600 holds 60+ FPS 1% lows comfortably. A Ryzen 7 7700X or 7800X3D smooths out the dips entirely. 16GB DDR5 is the floor, 32GB DDR5-6000 helps avoid asset-streaming hitches when you've got Discord, browsers and OBS running. Loadshedding-related power surges can corrupt save files, so SA gamers running stage 4-6 should pair the rig with a 1500VA UPS (around R2,500 at Evetech) and enable Cloud Save backup in the launcher. The autosave system in Forbidden West is decent but not bulletproof, manual saves at major story beats are the safest practice.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the best Horizon Forbidden West setting preset for the RTX 4060?

Use 1080p Ultra preset, drop Cloud and Volumetric Fog to Medium, enable DLSS 4 Quality. You'll see stable 90+ FPS in most biomes and 100+ in lower-density areas like the western desert. The 8GB VRAM ceiling holds at 1080p with these tweaks.

Does Ray Tracing in Horizon Forbidden West look much better?

The added RT shadow and ambient occlusion is subtle in actual play. The 25-35% FPS cost isn't worth it on RTX 4060 or RX 7600 class cards. RTX 5070 Ti and above can absorb it but you trade frame-rate headroom for marginal visual upgrade, especially during fast-paced combat where the eye doesn't catch the lighting nuance.

How much VRAM does Horizon Forbidden West need at 1440p Ultra?

Roughly 9-10GB at 1440p Ultra with high-res textures. The RTX 4060's 8GB is enough at 1080p Ultra and 1440p High, but you'll see VRAM-related stutters at 1440p Ultra with maxed textures. Drop Texture Quality one notch to fit comfortably within 8GB at 1440p.