‘Monster Hunter Wilds’ Gets Its PC Requirements Lowered, but Players Are Calling the New Benchmark Tool ”Misleading”

Yesterday, Capcom lowered the system requirements for the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds PC release. Alongside a list of more accessible specs required to play, a benchmarking client has released for players to test how their PCs handle the game. However, players were quick to spot a few concerning details, and running the benchmark themselves led to more questions than answers.

using frame generation to achieve 60 fps in ‘Monster Hunter Wilds’ is hurting player confidence

Following what some are calling a “poorly optimized open beta,” Capcom has lowered the CPU, GPU, and storage requirements for Monster Hunter Wilds. The newest requirements, shown on the official benchmark page, tout an attainable 60 FPS for recommended, high, and ultra settings. The catch? It’s with Frame Generation technology enabled.

“They dropped the recommended specs but are still targeting 60 FPS with frame generation and 1080p with upscaling, so that is still a huge red flag. Kudos for the transparency, but that doesn’t bode well at all,” one user states on Reddit.

Frame Generation is a tool that creates additional frames in a video sequence using artificial intelligence. In real-time, it takes one frame of animation, generates what it thinks the next frame should look like, and displays it. While this can essentially double your framerate, some criticize it for causing stuttering in gameplay and a perceived increase in input lag.

the benchmark tool looks beautiful, but some aren’t buying it

Other users are criticizing the Monster Hunter Wilds benchmark as misleading. As most of it features less demanding cutscenes as opposed to graphically intensive moments. “That benchmark is somewhat misleading imo. It mostly consists of desert areas. You can see how performance drops significantly in that small savannah location, but it only appears briefly. I’d like to see how it performs in that rain forest biome,” says one user on Reddit. “Yeah, the benchmark made me pretty certain that the game will run like ass. A little green patch is hitting the frame rate this hard, imagine what an entire forest will do to your poor GPU,” another user replies.

It’s not the first time a Capcom title has struggled with performance issues. Last year’s Dragon’s Dogma 2, another open-world game built in the RE Engine, struggled similarly in attaining consistent performance. With Monster Hunter Wilds only a few weeks away from release? Capcom’s strive toward further optimization could save it from a contentious launch. With Monster Hunter Wilds topping the Steam charts, however, Capcom likely has little to worry about.

Monster Hunter Wilds will host an additional open beta test this month, leading to release. The first, from February 6 through February 9, and the second, from February 13 through February 16. Both testing windows will feature a new Arkveld hunt as a special Advanced quest. While the upcoming beta test will use the same build as the prior test, Capcom states further optimization and improvements will come when Monster Hunter Wilds officially releases.