Forza Horizon 6 is the largest and most detailed entry in the open-world driving series yet, but Playground Games is known for its excellent work on optimisation with every release. Does Forza Horizon 6 run well on Steam Deck? We’ve done some testing and have answers (plus the best FH6 Steam Deck settings) for you.
Forza Horizon 6 Steam Deck performance
The good news is that Forza Horizon 6 is Steam Deck verified from the get-go, which means it’s at least somewhat playable on Valve’s handheld PC machine. That said, we’re used to many current-gen titles getting the verified badge without delivering acceptable performance, so how does Forza Horizon 6 actually fare?
Well, it performs quite well (if you’re willing to make some visual compromises) and can deliver smooth racing on a ridiculous scale in exchange for eating through battery life. Let’s explore which FH6 settings for the Steam Deck are the most convincing next…
Forza Horizon 6 best Steam Deck settings
Out of the box (and once you get past the one-time Xbox login screen), Forza Horizon 6 on Steam Deck will perform decently on the Low preset (which still looks nice) and behave okay if you go with Medium… until you reach the denser urban area of Tokyo. Very Low might seem like the obvious answer here in order not to dip below 30 FPS in Tokyo, yet it makes FH6 look rough.
The recommended approach to get the best of both worlds (staying above 30 FPS and getting decent visuals) is to mix the presets and even push higher on some fronts, paying attention to which settings hit performance the hardest. Of course, we’ve done the homework and testing ourselves, so you only have to follow this recommended configuration:
- FPS Cap: 30 FPS (you can set to 45 on the OLED model or leave uncapped too)
- Resolution: 1280x800
- Resolution Scaling: FSR Balanced
- Motion Blur: Long
- Car Level of Detail: Low
- Environment Texture Quality: Low
- Environment Geometry Quality: Very Low
- Car Reflection Quality: Very Low
- Screen Space Reflections Quality: Off
- Raytraced Reflections Quality: Off
- Shadow Quality: High
- Night Shadows: Off
- Screen Space GI Quality: Medium
- Raytraced GI Quality: Off
- Shader Quality: Low
- Audio Quality: Ultra
- Deformable Terrain Quality: Medium
- Particle Effects Quality: Medium
- Volumetric Fog Quality: Off
- Lens Effects: Off
- Motion Blur Quality: Low
It must be noted I prefer the 30 FPS cap for consistency, but FH6 can regularly go well above that point in the more open map areas, so try different caps (or uncap the framerate) and see what works best for you.
On the matter of loading times, you’ll no doubt get longer ones than on a beefy PC, yet it’s never too bad. Moreover, FH6 doesn’t mind being installed on a microSD card, which is music to our ears since it’s a pretty chunky +155GB install.
Related Forza Horizon 6 Articles:
- Forza Horizon 6 Car List
- Forza Horizon 6 Progression Guide
- Forza Horizon 6 Best Starter Car
- Forza Horizon 6 Turn Off Car Damage
- Forza Horizon 6 Patch Notes Hub
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