Capcom's hoping to make the recommended specs for Monster Hunter Wilds less monstrous thanks to post-beta performance improvements
Back in September, Capcom raised eyebrows when it unveiled the PC specs for Monster Hunter Wilds, which say the best you can expect from a recommended GPU is 60 fps at 1080p on medium settings—and that's with frame generation enabled. While the first Wilds beta had its share of optimization issues, Capcom says the game's performance has improved enough during development that it's looking into lowering its hardware recommendations.
Over the weekend, the German-language Monster Hunter account on X tweeted gameplay video of Monster Hunter Wilds running on a PS5 with the development team's latest performance fixes. "PC Gamers: Performance will be improved in a similar way and we are looking into whether we can lower the recommended GPU requirements," Capcom said, according to machine translation. Currently, Capcom recommends an RTX 2070 Super or RTX 4060 with 8GB of VRAM.
The tweet also said that Capcom "plans" to release a standalone hardware benchmark tool for Wilds, but that was apparently a miscommunication. In a follow-up tweet correcting the "translation error," Capcom said it's "exploring the possibility of a standalone, free hardware benchmark tool, but cannot confirm this at this time."
While it'd be nice to see revised PC specs, Capcom's insistence that the game's seen substantial performance improvements during development is in line with statements it's been making since November. When performance issues and LOD bugs left Wilds beta players facing origami monsters, Capcom said that the full game was "already in a more improved state."
My hands-on Monster Hunter Wilds preview in November seemed to bear that out, as the PS5 build I'd played was performing better than what console beta players had reported—improvements that game director Yuya Tokuda said "will also be implemented on the PC for the final product."
Unfortunately, we won't be seeing the fruits of Capcom's optimization labor in the second round of Wilds beta tests in early February, as it's based on the same early development build as the first open beta. "adjustments including performance, weapon changes, hitstop, quality of life improvements, and more will not be present or reflected in the second Open Beta Test build," Capcom said.
Still, it's good to hear that Capcom committing to better performance for the full release. If you've got a recommended GPU in your rig, I'd hope you'll at least be able to see a Congalala's fart weaponry with some options set to high. Can't compromise that experience.