F1 25 launched in May 2025, and in the year since release, the developers have delivered numerous patches addressing gameplay, visual quality, and performance and stability issues. EA has now rolled out the game’s largest update yet: the 2026 Season Pack DLC. This paid expansion brings the sweeping 2026 Formula 1 regulation changes into the game, fundamentally reshaping both the cars and the racing experience. With a year of updates behind it and a major overhaul now in place, this is the perfect opportunity to revisit F1 25 and see where performance stands in 2026 with a selection of both Nvidia and AMD GPUs. The 2026 Season Pack DLCThe 2026 Season Pack DLCSo what exactly is included in the 2026 Season Pack DLC?The DLC features two new teams – Audi, which took over for Sauber, and Cadillac, which is the first major American car manufacturer in F1.The DLC also brings the latest driver line-ups. Racing Bulls will now have Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson. Isack Hadjar will race alongside Max Verstappen at Oracle Red Bull Racing. Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez team up for Cadillac.The paid expansion also includes a new circuit: MADRING. This 5.4 km hybrid street and purpose-built track has a mix of high-speed sections and more technical corners. It was specifically designed for the new season, so it can only be driven using 2026 cars.The cars are lighter and more agile, reflecting their real-life counterparts in 2026. The idea is for the cars to be more nimble and harder to drive at the limit, which will put greater emphasis on driver skill. The cars also have less downforce and less drag, which should make it easier to follow more closely.Active Aero is also available in the game with the paid DLC. The front and rear wings move in real-time, between straight line and corner mode, to give drivers more speed down the straights and to allow the car to be more responsive in the corners.The new Overtake Mode provides a boost of nearly 500 horsepower when deployed. This mode replaces the old Drag Reduction System (DRS) Overtake Mode can be deployed when a driver is within one second of the car ahead. It can be used either all at once or spread across a lap. Boost Mode is an energy deployment tool available through the use of the Energy Recovery System (ERS). This remains in place as it has for many years.The new regulations place a very high dependency on efficient battery management. Just as in real life, some people will enjoy this added strategic depth, while others will hate it.So, how well are all of these new features implemented?The cars genuinely feel different to drive – in a good way. The new handling characteristics require a different approach to attacking corners.The battery management might lead to more overtakes, but this is the most controversial aspect of the new regulations. The developers have done a good job of simulating how the battery management works in real-life.There are two ways to jump into the 2026 F1 season. Existing F1 25 owners can purchase the F1 2026 Season Pack DLC, while new players can pick up F1 25: 2026 Season Edition, which includes the full F1 25 base game alongside all 2026 season content.With that being said, our main focus today will be on visuals and performance.Path Tracing vs Ray Tracing vs Rasterization VisualsPath Tracing vs Ray Tracing vs Rasterization VisualsF1 25 supported path tracing at launch in May 2025. Over the course of the past year, the game has received some patches to fix some minor issues with the path tracing implementation.Tom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareYou can see from the images above just how significant the impact of path tracing is, even compared to standard ray tracing. It delivers noticeably more realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections, pushing the presentation closer to photorealism in certain scenes. Night races benefit the most from the upgrade, though under specific weather conditions, daytime races also see meaningful improvements.GPU BenchmarksWe benchmarked the game on 7 different graphics cards. We tested rasterization performance, ray tracing performance, and path tracing performance. We did not use any upscaling. We used TAA.We performed the benchmarks at Monaco, which is one of the more demanding tracks in the game.Test systemRyzen 7 9800X3D64GB (2x32GB) G.SKILL Flare X5 DDR5 @6200 MHz CL30Crucial T700 Gen5 SSDASUS ROG STRIX B850-F Gaming WiFiCorsair Nautilus 360 RS AIO CoolerMSI MPG Ai1600TS PCIE5 PSUHAGS enabledWindows 11 25H2 (Build 26200.8524)NVIDIA driver 610.47Rasterization PerformanceRasterization PerformanceTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwarePerformance with ray tracing and path tracing disabled is excellent across nearly the entire GPU stack, with the RX 6500 XT being the lone major exception. It's limited 4GB frame buffer struggles heavily at max settings, while the RTX 5060 also begins to run into VRAM limitations at 4K with its 8GB allocation. Outside of those cases, however, the game delivers very high frame rates with fully maxed-out rasterized settings on most GPUs tested here.We did want to see if the game would be playable on the 6500 XT at 1080p with lower settings. We tested the GPU using the Medium and Low presets.(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)The game is very playable with both presets. Image quality takes a hit, but the game still looks solid at these settings. Keep in mind that this is one of the more demanding circuits. The fact that the GPU can average over 70 FPS with low settings and nearly 60 FPS with medium settings means that it should achieve considerably better performance at other tracks.Ray Tracing PerformanceRay Tracing PerformanceTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareEven with ray tracing enabled, most of the GPUs tested are capable of delivering around 60 FPS or better at 1080p. However, as resolution increases – particularly at native 4K – the RTX 5090 becomes the only GPU where enabling RT consistently makes practical sense without major compromises. Alternatively, players can still target a 4K output by using DLSS or FSR in Performance mode, allowing six of the tested GPUs to deliver playable frame rates with ray tracing enabled.Path Tracing PerformancePath Tracing PerformanceTom's HardwareTom's HardwareTom's HardwareAs expected, path tracing is reserved for the very high end of the GPU market. While the feature is genuinely transformative in this game, we would only recommend enabling it on GPUs in the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, or RTX 4090 class. Even with that level of hardware, DLSS Performance mode is still required to maintain consistently playable framerates across all circuits, though some tracks are light enough to allow the use of DLSS Quality mode.The game runs smooth without any stuttering across all settings and resolutions we tested. Even when the average framerate is low on certain configurations, the frametime graph remains flat.The VerdictThe VerdictCodemasters has consistently delivered highly scalable F1 titles over the years, and F1 25: 2026 Season Edition continues that trend. With the right settings for your hardware, most players should have little trouble achieving 60 FPS or higher. Whether you are running an RTX 5090 and looking to push max settings with path tracing enabled, or using a lower-end GPU with limited VRAM, the game remains accessible across a wide range of GPUs.