While Monster Hunter Wilds is a more than worthy new entry in the series, the game leaves a lot to be desired in terms of image quality and performance on all platforms, and the massive performance issues many are experiencing on PC may be caused by how the game handles streaming data to the GPU.
Earlier today, Digital Foundry released their first look at the PC version of the game, highlighting how the positive first impressions one may get from the detailed graphics settings are soon turned around by bad image quality, low-quality textures that likely suffer from texture decompression issues, and subpar performance. From the testing conducted by the tech experts, there's a very good chance the performance issues are caused by how the game handles data streaming data to the GPU, as it has been noted that frametime gets really bad on mid and low-range GPUs by turning the camera around quickly, whereas frametime remains acceptable without moving the camera or turning it slowly in the same identical scenario with very little going on.
The same issue is found on more powerful GPUs, although it is more mitigated and slightly less of an issue. Given how the same issue still happens with low texture quality, Digital Foundry surmises that these Monster Hunter Wilds performance issues may not be caused by VRAM usage but by data streaming to the GPU, as there's the chance that the game could still be streaming things in and maybe decompressing textures in an unnecessarily aggressive manner. Title Update 4 promises to address this issue, introducing over 100 performance improvements on December 16, which will hopefully enhance performance across all platforms.
It's not just mid- and low-range GPUs that cannot run Monster Hunter Wilds with decent performance, but also more powerful high-end GPUs like the recently released RTX 5080. A new video put together by MxBenchmarkPC highlights how one of the most powerful GPUs currently available on the market can barely hit the 60 FPS mark at 4K resolution, highest setting, which is truly baffling, considering the game doesn't push visual quality boundaries in any way.
The Monster Hunter Wilds PC performance issues outlined above align with my experience, as the game is not running smoothly at all on my RTX 4080. It is a shame that the game's launch is marred by these issues, as it is a very solid game. You can learn more about the new entry in the CAPCOM series with my review.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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