Forza 5 Better on Xbox One X Than Series X?

It may seem surprising to some, but it turns out that for all the bragging about Xbox Series S and how it is more “next generation” than the Xbox One X… that might not be necessarily true. In fact, it might be so not-true that developer Playground Games has left out a particular graphics mode on Xbox One X, perhaps to hide the fact that it outperforms Series S in some significant areas.

If you’re confused reading that first paragraph, I can only apologize that Microsoft has named their Xbox models in such odd ways. Xbox One X is the model which came out a couple of years ago and is essentially the 4K “pro” version of the Xbox One. The Xbox One X is a monster of a console, even to this day, with six terabytes of power, compared to the newer Xbox Series S’ four terabytes. What makes the Series S even competitive at all is that it eclipses the Xbox One X in processor speed, as well as features faster load times due to better memory storage. However, if a person hooks up their Xbox One X to an external hard drive (SSD), the tides are essentially turned and Xbox One X is the hands-down superior console.

So why does all this matter?

Well, let’s say that you’re looking at the brand-new Forza Horizons 5 game: a stunning, graphical smorgasbord. Maybe you currently have an Xbox One X, but you’re wanting to jump up to the next level for that improved next-gen graphic expansion. So, you go to the store and find there are no Xbox Series X consoles (the most powerful console on the market), but there are Xbox Series S consoles. If you were to buy an Xbox Series S thinking you’re going to get any sort of boost over Xbox One X, think again. In fact, you’re going to have wasted hundreds of dollars on a console that performs less impressively than your current console when playing Forza Horizons 5. Draw distance, in particular, is quite superior on the Xbox One X.

Take a look at this comparisons video, specifically at the six minute mark:

Nearly everything about the Xbox One X outperforms the Series X sans processor-intensive lighting techniques. However, there’s one giant caveat to this argument. And that is that the developer has kept the “Quality Mode” off of Xbox One X, despite it clearly showing it could pull of the 60 FPS mode. That means that while the Xbox One X looks better than the Series X in their top-level graphics modes, the Xbox One X is prevented from showing off its prowess with the likely more desired Quality Mode that has far higher frame rates.

So why would they specifically keep this off of the Xbox One X? My guess is to protect the Series X, but that’s only a guess. Either way, they should definitely add it to the Xbox One X in the future, as it does seem a bit shady to keep it away from consumers who would like to see it on the system.

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CategoryXbox Series SXbox One X

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