Forza Motorsport vs Gran Turismo 7: the Digital Foundry tech breakdown

This is Forza Motorsport vs Gran Turismo: The Revenge, as Turn 10 and Polyphony Digital’s latest works return to Digital Foundry for a proper face-off six years after our first comparison between the two racing franchises. With the power of new generation consoles and years of meticulous work behind them, Forza Motorsport (2023) and Gran Turismo 7 promise a new level of visual fidelity. Can they deliver?

To find out, we’ll directly compare these two titans of racing both in-game and around the track, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. We’ll even bring real world locales into the mix this time.

It’s not a surprise that fans of each series are heavily invested in this competition – and the comparisons are fascinating even for unaffiliated onlookers, despite the comparison being little more than an academic exercise with these games appearing on wholly different platforms.

After all, real-world auto manufacturers invest significant money into research and development in the pursuit of performance. Using race tracks such as the Nürburgring, cars are compared and validated based on their performance and specifications. This competitive spirit runs deep, fuelling engineers and designers alike and strengthening the firm’s identity and focus. That’s all despite the fact that these racing accolades tend to have minimal influence on the ownership experience – people tend to enjoy their cars even if they don’t have the best lap times on a race track.