Performance Tips (Mostly for Nvidia users)

[UnL1k3]

1. When using Nvidia Reflex, use the "ON" setting and not the "ON + Boost" setting as it seems to be bugged and cost GPU performance. (Source: @Sebasti66855537 on X)

2. If your GPU supports Re-Bar, use Nvidia Inspector to enable it for Horizon Forbidden West. (Source: @Sebasti66855537 on X)

3. The DLSS3 to FSR3 mod does not work well right now. If you are using it, make sure to remove the files that relate to it from you game directory.

4. If you are on a 20 series (and above) GPU and find the game dropping below your desired framerate. Enable DLSS and then turn on the "Dynamic Resolution Scaling" option. It will use scale the resolution to hit your desired framerate and use DLSS to upscale it back up.

5. For users with GPUs with 8GB VRAM, stick to 1440p or else you will run out of VRAM during certain cut scenes resulting in frame drops. If you want to play at a higher resolution, lower textures to medium. (Source: Digital Foundry)

6. In case you forgot to, update your drivers to the latest drivers.

There are certain issues like camera hitching that seem to be a bug and is not performance related.
Hope this helped someone. If you have tips of your own, post it in the comments below.

[Andrex]

Thx for the tips

[Jazzem]

Big thanks :)

I noticed some camera hitching when the frame rate would drop to 90-105fps ish range, even though it should've still been smooth on VRR. I appreciate you mentioning that point at the end of the post!

I'm not sure if the same thing happens on controller, only used mouse and keyboard so far

[Kain Mightyena]

I have an 8GB gpu and im playing at 1080p and im still getting massive fps loss in cutscenes regardless. I think cutscenes are just straight up broken and idk why this isn't addressed yet.

[Harry101UK]

Can confirm that Reflex + Boost costs about 15-20fps.

[GlowWorm]

I suggest people actually lock their frame rate at 60fps. This isn't a PvP FPS where the tiniest difference in reaction time determines which of you gets headshot. Locking at a frame rate that your machine can CONSISTENTLY hit with no dips will give the best experience. (If that CONSISTENT rate is > 60 FPS for you, go for it. But there is no reason to go for bragging rights that you are setting a meaninglessly high FPS.)

[Dragaan]

Originally posted by GlowWorm:

I suggest people actually lock their frame rate at 60fps. This isn't a PvP FPS where the tiniest difference in reaction time determines which of you gets headshot. Locking at a frame rate that your machine can CONSISTENTLY hit with no dips will give the best experience. (If that CONSISTENT rate is > 60 FPS for you, go for it. But there is no reason to go for bragging rights that you are setting a meaninglessly high FPS.)

What on earth makes you think people are only (or mostly?) going for > 60fps just for lower latency? (that IS what you're implying...)

I understand there's a small minority of people out there who don't really notice a difference between 60 and higher (say, 120) fps.... but it's a small minority, like I said. Most people want higher fps because it looks SO much better. Night and day between 60 and even 90/100, let alone 120-165 (any higher than that and it gets very hard to notice; that's when it turns into a latency/esports benefit over all).

That said - good solution is to just play games like this on a large 4k tv, set vsync to on (which will be 60hz/60fps), and use interpolation to make it look like 120fps. SOME tvs out there raise the latency so high outside of "game mode" that it's not really practical to do this.... and that's REALLY unfortunate (and in other cases, some lower quality tvs can also introduce artifacts or ghosting in faster-paced games while using interpolation), but most decent mid-tier+ 4k TVs can do this just fine and it looks amazing. I've been doing it on my tv (that I got 8 years ago - upper-mid model and doesn't even have HDR yet) and I cannot imagine playing at 60 anymore :/

[MancSoulja]

Originally posted by GlowWorm:

I suggest people actually lock their frame rate at 60fps. This isn't a PvP FPS where the tiniest difference in reaction time determines which of you gets headshot. Locking at a frame rate that your machine can CONSISTENTLY hit with no dips will give the best experience. (If that CONSISTENT rate is > 60 FPS for you, go for it. But there is no reason to go for bragging rights that you are setting a meaninglessly high FPS.)

I couldn't play at 60fps if I wanted to, without sounding like an elitist, after spending 2 years with a high refresh rate display, 60fps looks like 30fps used to look when I was playing at 60.

[UnL1k3]

Originally posted by Kain Mightyena:

I have an 8GB gpu and im playing at 1080p and im still getting massive fps loss in cutscenes regardless. I think cutscenes are just straight up broken and idk why this isn't addressed yet.

That shouldn't happen. What GPU are you on?
To add to this, it is entirely possible the cutscenes are broken. I had the same issue when trying out 4K for sh*ts and giggles on my 10 GB 3080 but don't have it when I play at 1440p. So I assumed it was VRAM like DF had mentioned. I will do some testing to see how much VRAM the game uses at different resolutions.

[UnL1k3]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Originally posted by GlowWorm:

I suggest people actually lock their frame rate at 60fps. This isn't a PvP FPS where the tiniest difference in reaction time determines which of you gets headshot. Locking at a frame rate that your machine can CONSISTENTLY hit with no dips will give the best experience. (If that CONSISTENT rate is > 60 FPS for you, go for it. But there is no reason to go for bragging rights that you are setting a meaninglessly high FPS.)

I couldn't play at 60fps if I wanted to, without sounding like an elitist, after spending 2 years with a high refresh rate display, 60fps looks like 30fps used to look when I was playing at 60.

Honestly. Only reason I'm even thinking about an upgrade to my PC xD

[MrMuffinz]

Yep +Boost seems super bugged, causing huge frametime issues and random huge frame drops. Game didn't feel smooth at all before I dropped it down, and I was constantly hovering around 50fps with a 4070 Ti Super at 1440p.

As soon as I dropped it I now hit a locked 60 and the game feels buttery smooth at 60+.

[Young Hot Buns]

I wonder if disabling direct storage improves fps like it does in Ratchet and Clank.

[UnL1k3]

Originally posted by Young Hot Buns:

I wonder if disabling direct storage improves fps like it does in Ratchet and Clank.

Direct storage in HFW doesn't use GPU decompression which was what was causing issues with Ratchet and Clank, so I doubt it'll do anything but make loadtimes and cutscenes transitions worse.

[UnL1k3]

Originally posted by MrMuffinz:

Yep +Boost seems super bugged, causing huge frametime issues and random huge frame drops. Game didn't feel smooth at all before I dropped it down, and I was constantly hovering around 50fps with a 4070 Ti Super at 1440p.

As soon as I dropped it I now hit a locked 60 and the game feels buttery smooth at 60+.

Nice, have fun :))

[Killerbee]

Enabling ReBar caused my game to crash at launch, saying driver was outdated. (got the latest version installed)

[Those dont go there]

Don't touch very high textures unless you have over 12gb. With high textures and 2k w/ dlss quality, cut scenes will still reach 7600 megs of texture data. (the meeting of the sun king in tip of the spear is a great stress point to test with). I mistakenly thought I could do very high on my 8gb but said cut scene was averaging 22fps the entire time even though the game itself was not. At first I did not consider it a texture issue because it was reporting 7gb used but when I bumped it back to high on a test, the frame rate was back at 60 and gpu memory was reporting 7.6gb used. Its not kidding around.

I'll have to test more with rebar, I toggled it once but there was a shadow flickering issue I thought was being caused by it but ended up not, so next time I play I will run with rebar back on.

I played a little with the dynamic DLSS but honestly my FPS drops.. are not something that improves at lower resolution. I'm running it on quality for now because I don't notice the quality hit and im trying to smooth over any fps bumps, but im thinking the game is just too geometry heavy in scenes and LOD just stinks.