Forza Horizon 5 High Performance Update Adds Intel XeSS Support, New Content & PC Performance

Forza Horizon 5 is getting one of its biggest updates yet with the release of Series 20 “High Performance.” The big update includes an all-new stadium, an authentic oval racetrack, and support for Intel XeSS (Xe Super Sampling). It also improves framerate performance in the dunes of Valle de Foreneos on Nvidia GPUs.

The latest Forza Horizon 5 High-Performance update includes several bug fixes, 4 new unlockable cars, and much more, the full list of changes can be found on the official release note for the Forza Horizon 5 High-Performance update.

XeSS technology is built into Intel’s newest dedicated graphics cards, called the “Arc” series. It supports the latest graphics technologies like ray tracing, variable rate shading and mesh shading. It has a number-crunching Xe Core, a Thread Sorting Unit, and a Ray Tracing Unit with dedicated BVH caches.

It’s designed to work in two modes, with the highest-performing one using accelerated XMX code-path. The other mode is based on a DP4a code-path, and it works on Nvidia and AMD GPUs as well.

According to Digital Foundry, XeSS is at par with DLSS 2.0 and FSR 2.0. The publication tested an Arc A770 with XeSS and an RTX 3070 with DLSS, and it was found that XeSS offers similar or better image quality at low frame-times.

The XeSS algorithm takes data from previous frames, reconstructing details, and upscales them to the current resolution. It does this by adding some frame-times to the rendering process.

To help game developers integrate XeSS into their games, Intel released an Unreal Engine plugin. This lets developers add XeSS to their games and simulations using the UE4 and UE5 engines. The company plans to release a higher-performance version of the plugin later this year.