What just happened? From what we've already seen, Forza Horizon 5 is going to be one of the best-looking games in years. But if you want the highest level of fidelity, you're going to need a powerful PC: one packing an RTX 3080/RX 6800 XT or higher.

Developer Playground Games revealed Forza Horizon 5's system requirements and PC-specific features as part of the Tokyo Gameshow. The specs are split into minimum, recommended, and ideal categories, with listings for both AMD and Nvidia hardware.

The minimum specs are very generous, asking for an Intel i5-4460 or Ryzen 3 1200 with either an Nvidia GTX 970 or Radeon RX 470 alongside 8GB of RAM.

Moving onto the recommended specs, the CPU goes up to an Intel i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 1500X while the GPU is either a GTX 1070 or Radeon RX 590. The cards' VRAM is upped from 4GB to 8GB, and system RAM is now 16GB. Again, that's not too bad.

If, however, you want to play Forza Horizon 5 with all its bells and whistles, and in 4K at 60fps or more (presumably), you'll need an Intel i7-10700K or Ryzen 7 3800XT with an RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 6800 XT. VRAM is now 10GB (Nvidia) or 16GB (AMD), while system RAM stays at 16GB.

All tiers ask for Windows 10 with the November 2019 update (1909) or later and 110GB of free storage space, though the ideal specs suggest an SSD. Stalker 2 is one example of an upcoming game that requires an SSD, even in the minimum specs.

Although ray tracing isn't available during standard Forza Horizon 5 gameplay, the effects are available in Forzavista, a car exploration mode that lets users check out the vehicles in close detail.

In addition to the unlocked framerate, 4K, and HDR, Forza 5 also supports 21:9 ultrawide monitors and a number of steering wheels from Logitech, Thrustmaster, and Fanatec:

  • Logitech: Driving Force, G25, G27, G29, G920, G923PS, G923XB, Momo
  • Thrustmaster: Ferrari 458, T150 RS, T300 RS, T500 RS, TMX, T-GT, TS-XW, TX, TS-PC
  • Fanatec: V1, V2, V2.5, CSL, CSL DD, DD1, DD2, Universal HUB device

Forza Horizon 5 launches on November 9 on PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One worldwide. Xbox Game Pass/Game Pass for PC members also get the full game on day one as part of their subscription.