Ah, the ultimate PC gaming boogeyman: “Is my CPU bottlenecking my graphics card?” It’s the first question we ask ourselves when building a new rig, slapping in a shiny GPU upgrade, or wondering why a game feels like a stuttery mess despite dropping a small fortune on PC hardware. But here is the hard truth, folks: a bottleneck isn’t a permanent stamp on your PC. It is a dynamic, fast-shifting state dictated by the specific game you're playing, the resolution you're running, your graphics presets, and your target framerate. Your system can be completely GPU-bound in a graphically heavy AAA […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/how-to/cpu-or-gpu-bottleneck-how-to-diagnose-whats-really-limiting-your-gaming-performance/

AMD is expanding Advanced Shader Delivery support across its entire RDNA GPU stack, starting with RDNA 1 and up to RDNA 4. Microsoft Advanced Shader Delivery Lands On All AMD RDNA GPUs, Giving Load Times A Big Boost Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery is now being expanded through general availability via the Xbox PC App, and GPUs such as AMD's RDNA series are able to take advantage of ASD in the latest titles. As per Microsoft, they have partnered with AMD to invest in and improve the experience for PC gamers. This partnership expands with the first rollout of Advanced Shader […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/amd-brings-advanced-shader-delivery-across-all-rdna-gpus-slashing-game-load-times/

Forza Horizon 6 was the much-anticipated successor to 2021’s open world racer. Released just over a week ago (slightly longer for those who paid for Advanced Access) the game has already garnered a ton of success, selling over 1.4 million copies during its pre-release period while amassing over 6 million players across PC, Xbox and Game Pass. Adding another achievement to the game’s belt, Forza Horizon 6 has also managed to become the most played game published by Microsoft on Steam – seeing over 300,000 concurrent players.

As reported by the data tracking site SteamDB, the full launch of Forza Horizon 6 was met with a ton of interest, including on Steam where the game managed to peak at over 300k concurrents (302,645 players to be specific).

While this is already a major achievement, even more impressive is the fact that Forza Horizon 6 now represents the most played title on the platform in Microsoft history – beating out Halo Infinite (272k) and Halo: The Master Chief Collection (161k).

With regards to the former, Infinite’s multiplayer mode is a free to play offering, meaning FH6 managed to beat it despite costing ‘infinitely’ more (£60).

In comparing apples-to-apples, Forza Horizon 6’s peak was almost 4 times as high as FH5, which managed a total of 81,092 players during its launch period back in 2021.

With Forza Horizon 6 breaking records on Steam despite also being available via Xbox Game Pass, it is quite clear that Playground Games’ long-awaited title was indeed worth it in the eyes of players.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Have you purchased Forza Horizon 6? How do you think it compares to previous entries? Which Horizon game is your favourite of all time? Let us know down below.

With PC games becoming increasingly complex nowadays — especially large-scale open-world games with dense environments, high-speed traversal, and ray/path tracing — default/maxed-out graphics settings rarely, if ever, strike the optimal balance between visual fidelity and performance that most PC gamers seek, and Forza Horizon 6 is no exception to this rule. Thankfully, Playground Games’ latest open-world racing title arrives on PC with an impressively complete graphics menu, support for modern temporal upscaling solutions, uncapped framerates, ultrawide support, ray-traced reflections, ray-traced global illumination, and even live previews for many of its individual graphics settings. However, while Forza Horizon 6 is a […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/how-to/forza-horizon-6-pc-performance-analysis-tuning-guide/

Forza Horizon 6 launched earlier this week (or at the end of last week if you bought the Premium Edition), and according to a new report from Alinea Analytics, the latest driving game from developer Playground Games is, unsurprisingly, a massive hit as it nears an estimated 5 million copies sold and $325 million earned in gross revenue in its first week on store shelves. According to the report, Playground Games' trip to Japan had no problem selling millions of copies off the jump despite its inclusion on Xbox Game Pass right at launch for Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. More […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/forza-horizon-6-estimated-5-million-copies-sold-325-million-gross-revenue/

The second batch of XBOX Game Pass titles for May 2026 has been revealed alongside the full release of Forza Horizon 6, which is the big headlining game for the entire month. The rest of the month will include titles like the upcoming shooter Luna Abyss, the dinosaur park management game Jurassic World Evolution 3, and the co-op shooter Remnant 2. Those are just a few of the notable titles entering the subscription service over the rest of the month and into the first two days of June, others being the continued dolling out of the original Final Fantasy series […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/xbox-game-pass-may-2026-forza-horizon-6-luna-abyss-remnant-2/

There are three more DLSS supported titles launching this week, including the highly rated Forza Horizon 6, which launches today after a period of early access for Premium Edition buyers.

Today, Forza Horizon 6 launches with support for DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution and DLSS Multi Frame Generation. According to Nvidia, RTX 50 series GPU owners can experience an average performance multiplier of 5.2x with Frame Generation 4X enabled at 4K resolution with ray tracing on.

Luna Abyss is another major title launching this week. In this game, you're a prisoner sentenced to explore a derelict megastructure that travels deep beneath the surface of a moon. The game will sport DLSS and DLAA at launch, with support for overrides in the Nvidia App to force better visuals.

Crimson Desert launched in March with a suite of Nvidia features in place. However, thanks to a new patch this week, players can now enable 6X Frame Generation, or dynamic Frame Generation for an even bigger performance boost.

KitGuru Says: Are you planning on picking up any of this week's new games?

AOC has introduced the U27V6RL/WW, a 27-inch Fast IPS monitor aimed at the Chinese market. Aimed at office work and gaming, the display stands out for its dual-mode capability and the inclusion of BOE's hardware-level Circular Polarization technology to enhance eye protection.

The U27V6RL/WW (via DisplaySpecifications) features a flexible native resolution configuration, enabling users to choose between 4K at 80 Hz and dropping the screen to full HD (1920×1080) at 311 Hz for smooth frame pacing. The display panel boasts a typical brightness of 400 nits and carries a VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification. Regarding colour coverage, it covers 100% of the sRGB spectrum and 96% of the DCI-P3 wide colour gamut, with a factory-calibrated average Delta E of less than 2 in standard sRGB mode.

By embedding BOE's Circular Polarization hardware directly into the display layer, the screen minimises reflections. It maintains clean readability when users operate it in bright ambient environments or view the panel through polarised sunglasses. Visual safety is further reinforced with hardware-based low-blue-light protection that shifts light wavelengths without distorting colour accuracy, granting the display official TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light and Flicker-Free certifications.

Gamers are supported by response speeds reaching 0.5ms MPRT and 2ms grey-to-grey, alongside Adaptive-Sync and AMD FreeSync compatibility to eliminate screen tearing. Connectivity is versatile, including an HDMI 2.1 port, a DisplayPort 1.4 interface, a USB-C port supporting DisplayPort Alternate mode, and a dual USB 3.2 Gen 1 hub with a high-speed peripheral charging port. The included stand offers 150mm of height adjustment, along with full pivot, swivel, and tilt angles.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: If you play games and work in the same setup, monitors such as the U27V6RL/WW are a good option, especially if you don't like the typical ‘gamer' aesthetic.

Microsoft Advanced Shader Delivery technology support has now landed on more AMD Radeon GPUs based on the RDNA 3 architecture. Lower Load Times & Less Stutters Made Possible On AMD Radeon RX 7000, RX 8000, RX 9000 GPUs With Microsoft's Expanded Advanced Shader Delivery Tech Support Last year, Microsoft announced its DirectX "Advanced Shader Delivery" technology, which is meant to deliver precompiled shaders when supported games are being downloaded. With precompiled shaders, users do not have to wait extra time for shaders to compile, leading to faster load times, and when playing games, you will also benefit from less stuttering. […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-rx-7600-loads-forza-horizon-6-in-4-seconds-instead-of-90-as-microsofts-advanced-shader-delivery-tech-lands-on-rdna-3-gpus/

Forza Horizon 6 opens up to Premium Edition owners today and AMD has armed Radeon graphics card owners with a new driver with day-one optimisations. The new driver also enables support for next week's launch of 007 First Light.

The new driver is AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 26.5.2 and is available as a direct download through AMD's website. The new update's headlining features are new optimisations for Forza Horizon 6 and 007 First Light, but there are also some important stability fixes too.

The new update resolves an intermittent crash or driver timeout while playing RoadCraft on RX 9000 series graphics cards, as well as a visual corruption issue in Satisfactory.

As always, you can download the latest AMD graphics drivers HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Are you grabbing Forza Horizon 6 today? Make sure to grab the new driver first.

Forza Horizon 6 is set to become one of the best-looking racing games of the current generation. According to a recent analysis by Digital Foundry, the game not only sports some transformative ray tracing features that elevate the experience but also offers a potential sneak peek at what the next-generation Xbox Project Helix could deliver with its powerful hardware. Forza Horizon 6, however, introduces both a complete package of ray-traced reflections across cars and environments alike, along with a new RT global illumination (RTGI) system that "works in tandem with its more traditional rasterized lighting to bring additional nuance", says […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/forza-horizon-6-next-gen-showcase-xbox-project-helix/

This week's GeForce Now update has arrived, with eleven new games joining the library, including the biggest new game of the week, Subnautica 2, which just had a record-breaking early access launch.

Aside from Subnautica 2 there is one other major day-one title worthy of headliner status – Forza Horizon 6. The game becomes available for all Premium Edition owners tomorrow, and will be available through GeForce Now at the same time. Standard Edition buyers and Game Pass subscribers will get access to the game next week instead.

Here is the full list of games joining GeForce Now this week:

• Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes (New release on Steam, May 11)
• Outbound (New release on Steam, May 11)
• Directive 8020 (New release on Steam, May 12)
• Subnautica 2 (New release on Steam, Epic Games Store and Xbox, available on Game Pass, May 14)
• Blades of Fire (New release on Steam, May 14)
• Forza Horizon 6 (Early access on Steam and Xbox, available on Game Pass, May 14)
• Disco Elysium (Xbox, available on Game Pass)
• Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure (Epic Games Store)
• Planet Coaster 2 (Epic Games Store)
• Sudden Strike 5 (Steam)
• Super Battle Golf (Steam)

KitGuru Says: What do you think of this week's GeForce Now update?

NVIDIA's latest GeForce drivers are now available for players to download ahead of a couple of major releases within the week, including Forza Horizon 6, Directive 8020, and Subnautica 2 all arriving with support for DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution and DLSS with Multi-Frame Generation. Beginning with Directive 8020, which just released yesterday, Supermassive Games' latest horror adventure arrives with support for DLSS 4.5, as mentioned, and it also supports DLSS Ray Reconstruction and Path Tracing at launch. If you're curious about Directive 8020 but have yet to jump in yourself, you can check out Kai Tatsumoto's review for Wccftech, and […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/nvidia-dlss-drivers-forza-horizon-6-directive-8020-subnautica-2/

Earlier this week, Forza Horizon 6 fully leaked, allowing pirates to download the unencrypted game files and even access online services before release. Now, Playground Games is handing out lengthy bans for anyone accessing the game early.

In a statement released online after players reported lengthy ban periods, Playground Games confirmed that the game has leaked, and that it is taking “strict enforcement action” against those accessing the game.

“We are taking strict enforcement action against any individuals found accessing this build including franchise-wide and hardware bans. We encourage fans to sit tight for the game’s release on May 19.”

Interestingly, Playground Games also claims that the game leaking was not due to an issue with pre-loading the game. That would indicate that they believe the game files leaked via a reviewer or a content creator with privileged access.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The most interesting part about this is the denial that the leak came via pre-loading the game. So far, all signs had pointed towards that being the case.

This year, a bizarre number of AAA games have been uploaded to Steam for pre-loading without any encryption in place. This has already led to Death Stranding 2 being playable and piratable before its official release date. Now, the same thing has happened with Forza Horizon 6 and the new Lego Batman game. 

Forza Horizon 6 isn't due to launch until May 19th for standard edition buyers, or May 15th for those buying the Premium Edition. However, as spotted by early pre-loaders on Steam, the game files were made available to download unencrypted, creating a similar situation to Death Stranding 2, where pirates were able to play the game early while legitimate customers still had to wait.

While pirates were able to access Forza Horizon 6, Playground Games has quickly begun banning unauthorised accounts playing early due to this leak.

In the case of Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, the Xbox version of the game was made available to pre-download ahead of its release date, but someone messed up and made the unencrypted version of the game available, allowing Xbox owners to launch the title early, despite it not being released. However, due to consoles being more locked down compared to PC, the developers are going to have a much easier time containing this leak.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Pre-loading has been a thing for both PCs and consoles for over a decade now but leaks have been largely kept to a minimum. I don't know what changed in the last couple of months, but suddenly, these kinds of leaks seem to be popping up regularly. 

Playground Games has announced that Forza Horizon 6 has officially gone gold, confirming the final version is ready ahead of its May 19th launch. The developer also detailed platform-specific performance targets, storage requirements, and an expanded soundtrack featuring nine radio stations for the game's Japan setting.

Xbox Series X and Series S users can now begin preloading the title, with PC preloads available via the Xbox app and Steam support expected shortly. On Xbox Series X, the game requires 135GB of storage, while the Series S version occupies 130GB. PC players will need 160GB of available space on an SSD.

Forza Horizon 6 includes two rendering options on consoles. On Xbox Series X, Quality mode delivers native 4K at 30FPS, while Performance mode targets 4K at 60FPS using dynamic resolution scaling. Xbox Series S users can choose between 1440p at 30FPS in Quality mode or 1080p at 60FPS in Performance mode, both using dynamic scaling.

The game features nine radio stations covering genres including J-pop, metal, drum & bass, and synthwave. Accessibility additions include a new high-contrast mode, auto-drive, and proximity radar. Playground Games also confirmed loyalty rewards for returning Forza players, who will receive vehicles such as the 2021 Mercedes-AMG One and 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray after completing the introductory Tokyo City race. The complete can be found below:

• Forza Motorsport – 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray
• Forza Horizon 5 – 2021 Mercedes-AMG ONE
• Forza Horizon 4 – 2016 Aston Martin Vulcan
• Forza Horizon 3 – 2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4
• Forza Horizon 2 – 2014 Lamborghini Huracán LP-610-4
• Forza Horizon – 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS

Early access for Premium Edition owners begins on May 15th.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you jumping on Forza Horizon 6 as soon as it releases?

Today, Playground Games confirmed several key Forza Horizon 6 details ahead of the game's May 19 launch. First and foremost, the game is now gold, and preloading is available on Xbox Series S and X and PC via the Xbox app, with Steam preloading coming soon. You'll have to make a lot of space in your storage drive, though: Playground also shared that there will be two graphics modes to pick from on Xbox Series S and X. The former console will allow 1440p at 30 frames per second or 1080p at 60 frames per second, while the latter enables […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/forza-horizon-6-soundtrack-babymetal-linkin-park-radio-stations/

Microsoft has officially announced a new collection of limited-edition accessories to celebrate the upcoming Forza Horizon 6, which takes the festival to Japan. The lineup includes a custom Xbox Wireless controller, a Wireless headset, and a matching 8BitDo Charging Dock, all featuring vibrant aesthetics inspired by Japanese street racing culture and mountain “Touge” roads.

The Xbox Wireless controller – Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition stands out as one of the most colourful entries in the Xbox hardware lineup. It features a transparent cyan top case that transitions into a metallic gradient, with a core design inspired by a top-down view of Japan's winding Touge mountain roads. The controller is equipped with a silver metallic D-pad and two-tone rubberised diamond grips. It offers the standard 40 hours of battery life and is compatible across Xbox consoles, PCs, and mobile devices via Bluetooth and Xbox Wireless.

The companion Xbox Wireless Headset – Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition doubles down on the festival aesthetic with transparent cyan and pink accents. Beyond its looks, the headset is engineered for deep immersion, featuring custom sound effects that blend the roar of a Japanese V8 engine with the game's UI sounds for actions like turning on and pairing. It supports advanced spatial audio technologies, including Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphone: X. For those playing on PC or handhelds, the inclusion of Bluetooth LE Audio ensures low-latency stereo sound and wideband voice support for clearer party chats.

To keep the gear powered, 8BitDo has collaborated on an officially licensed charging dock designed specifically to match this collection. The dock uses magnetic alignment to fully charge a controller in approximately 3 hours and includes a 1,100 mAh rechargeable battery pack with a custom-coloured battery door.

This entire collection is currently available for pre-order. The Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition controller is available for £84.99/$89.99/€89.99, the headset for £124.99/$134.99/£134.99, and 8BitDo's charging dock for $34.99.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Are you a fan of the design of the Limited Edition Forza Horizon 6 gear? Planning on getting any of these pieces?

Forza Horizon 6 is a little more than a month away from releasing on PC and Xbox Series X/S (with a PS5 version set to arrive later). With its May 19, 2026, release date quickly approaching, we're getting more looks at the coming racer, with recent previews from media outlets, and new gameplay footage showcased by developer Playground Games, which, unsurprisingly, is chock-full of some truly stunning visuals. The studio shared gameplay from the game's prologue in a new trailer, which seemingly just shows how you'll jump from one event to the next, similar to previous Forza Horizon entries, and […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/forza-horizon-6-gameplay-prologue-playground-games/