Monster Hunter Wilds Dev Capcom attempts to tame the beasts’ PC demands

As Monster Hunter Wilds’ February 28 release date approaches, developer Capcom has announced that it is considering lowering the recommended GPU requirements.

The confirmation comes from the official German Monster Hunter X/Twitter account, which made a follow-up statement about it revealed Capcom is also exploring the possibility of releasing a standalone PC benchmarking tool.

Capcom recommends an Nvidia GTX 1660 Super or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT for 30 FPS at 1080p. This minimum requirement is also detailed as requiring an internal resolution of 720p and upscaling the graphics using DLSS or FSR at the “lowest” graphics setting.

Monster Hunter Wilds’ recommended settings also target 1080p and 60 FPS with upscaling and frame generation technologies enabled, using an RTX 2070 Super, RTX 4060 or AMD RX 6700 XT as an example. Of the three, only the RTX 4060 supports Nvidia Frame Generation, while the 2070 Super and 6700 XT rely on FSR 3 instead (which had ghost artifacts in the previous Monster Hunter Wilds beta).

Aiming for 60 FPS with frame generation enabled is not the ideal use of the technology Digital Foundry recommends a base value of 40 FPS in third-person titles. If a game runs at less than 60 FPS with upscaling enabled, you may experience significantly poorer responsiveness or tactile feel due to latency.

During the Monster Hunter Wilds open beta test, PC players with lower-end hardware experienced issues, even with mid-range graphics cards like the RTX 3060. Specifically, players experienced a low LOD error where the game would not load fully detailed textures of characters or monsters.

Monster Hunter Wilds is based on the RE engine, first introduced in 2017’s Resident Evil 7. The engine was used in games like Devil May Cry 5, Monster Hunter Rise and Street Fighter 6 and delivered excellent performance across all platforms.

However, not all that glitters is gold for the RE Engine, as larger open-world titles with more NPCs and enemies like Dragon’s Dogma 2 have suffered from performance drops on consoles and PC, which is a worrying sign for Monster Hunter Wilds. With the clock heading towards an early February open beta and a late February launch, Capcom’s claim to reduce GPU requirements could be key to the title’s success on PC.

Sayem is a UK-based freelancer covering technology and hardware. You can contact him at @sayem.zone on Bluesky.