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Last weekend, we showcased the PC port of Playground Games' Forza Horizon 3, running at close to its absolute best at 4K resolution with a silky smooth 60 frames per second. It took an overclocked Core i7 and Nvidia's Titan X Pascal to get the job done, but typically, impressive performance at ultra HD tends to scale down nicely to less capable graphics hardware running at 1080p. However, Forza Horizon 3 appears to be something of an exception.Reports of inconsistent, stuttering performance are far and wide, even using PC hardware that far outstrips both the CPU and GPU power of the Xbox One, so we went back to the game to see the extent to which the issues could be replicated on our test system. The results are bizarre to say the least - using an Intel Skylake-based system, some of the performance issues and inconsistencies almost defy belief.
Typically, a game that runs flawlessly at 4K on the new Titan X should run perfectly with performance to spare on Nvidia's GTX 1060 - but not Forza Horizon 3, which actually runs significantly more slowly. The GTX 970 - quite possibly the most popular enthusiast-level GPU installed in the most PCs today - shows a huge performance deficit compared to the 1060, but its shortfalls are nowhere near as pronounced as the R9 390 compared to the new RX 480, with a gap often in excess of 20fps (!). Bearing in mind that the R9 390 outperforms the RX 480 in many titles, this differential is remarkable.
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