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Kos’ MH Wilds Optimisation Guide
In this document I’m going to (attempt) to break down Monster Hunter Wild’s graphics settings. I’ll be testing the benchmark far too many times and taking far too many screenshots to help all of you make the best out of this hefty game.
As a disclaimer, if your PC can’t run Wilds on lowest then I won’t be able to make it run any better outside of showing how to tell what your PC is struggling with hardware wise. Instead my guide and custom presets will aim to get the best visuals with the least impact on performance for a range of presets.
So far all of this has been done on my personal PC, the important specs will be listed below along with each score card at the end of the benchmark. At the end of the benchmark will be my personal recommendations for what you should run based on what kind of GPU you have.
CPU: Ryzen 7 7800X3D
GPU: RTX 3060 OC 12GB
RAM: 64GB DDR5 5600MHz
Storage: 4TB NVME SSD 6GB/s
Monitor Resolution: 1920*1080
If you would like to donate your PC to the cause then please contact me on social media @Kosmogle with screenshots and specs and I’ll gladly compile them into this document. A larger range of hardware will allow for more testing and better optimisations for each type of GPU. More hardware screenshots will be posted at the end of the document! Alongside this, I want this document to be constantly updating with any changes that may come with patches to the game. Similarly, if you find any better optimisations please let me know!
As a fun aside, as of the 17th of Feb I’ve spent 21.6 hours in the benchmark and ran it far too many times for any sane human being… But hey, at least I turned it into something useful… hopefully…
I also want to give a very big thanks to @bmrjw00 for proof-reading the document and telling me what needs to be fixed. Without them this document wouldn’t be nearly as cohesive and full of errors.
The Main Presets
If you just want to pick one of the default Lowest, Low, Medium, High, Ultra presets and see how well it fares then my main advice would be to try the benchmark yourself. These presets are designed to be universal and as such trying them is the safest way to determine your thoughts about them.
These presets run with Nvidia DLSS Super Resolution, this will render the game at a lower resolution and then upscale it to match your display’s resolution.
For Ultra + Frame gen I had to swap over to AMD FSR. Nvidia DLSS only supports Frame Generation if you have a RTX40 series card, I do not :( I will explain the difference between the two later in the document. Because of this the game now classified it as a “Custom” preset, but everything is the same as the ultra preset
I’ll be going into more detail later on about specific graphics options and what I found works the best for me.
Below are some screenshots of each preset and the final score at the end:
LOWEST
LOW
MEDIUM
HIGH
ULTRA
ULTRA + FRAME GEN
The Big Graphical Settings
Now we’ve seen the presets in action and hopefully gotten a vague idea of how our PCs can handle Monster Hunter Wilds, it’s time to fine tune this a bit and either make the game look better or tone things down a bit to improve performance. Below I’ll be outlining each graphical setting, what it does and how it works or what it changes based on each setting. Hopefully I’ll be able to explain and demonstrate these settings better than the in-game menu can.
If you already know what all the graphical settings relate to and want to see what my graphical presets are, then skip past this, or if you want to skip to a specific graphics setting, you can use the document tabs on the left.
Super Resolution
I briefly touched on Super Resolution back in the main presets section, but this setting is used to enable Nvidia DLSS, AMD FSR and Intel XeSS. Enabling these will choose to render the game at a lower resolution than your display’s native resolution, then upscale it to match your monitor’s native resolution. My monitor runs at a native resolution of 1920*1080, and while I don’t have exact numbers for the resolutions that Wilds renders at with Super Resolution enabled, an example would be to render the game at 1280*720 and then use DLSS to upscale it to 1920*1080. Causing the image to still look sharp and reduce the loss in quality. Enabling one of these settings will give a decent boost in performance
The upscaling modes will determine how much lower the game's rendering resolution will be, in turn deciding how much upscaling needs to be done to meet your monitor's native resolution. Quality mode is the highest, providing the least increase in performance while maintaining visual fidelity, whilst the performance options will provide a greater boost to performance but will also lower the visual fidelity. There is one more option for Super Resolution and that is to disable it. This will provide no boost to frame rate and as such the game will run at a lower frame rate, however it will have the best graphical fidelity as the game is rendering at your monitor’s native resolution. Below is a comparison between each Nvidia DLSS option from the first OBT going from ultra performance to DLAA - the most noticeable differences are in the Weapon, Hair and Trees
Personally my recommendation would be to use Nvidia DLSS if you’re able to, in my testing it provided the best fidelity while also providing the best increase to frame rate. If DLSS isn’t an option then it goes to AMD FSR. The upscaling option depends entirely on what you find is best for your system and personal preference.
Frame Generation
This is the big one, that giant asterisk that has been slapped at the bottom of Steam’s minimum and recommended specs for wilds. Frame generation is the answer to the age old question of “Can I download more frames per second?” and the answer is surprisingly “Well, kind of…”
To explain Frame Generation I first need to briefly explain what frames per second means. If you already know this then feel free to skip to the next paragraph. A computer works by receiving an input (pressing a key on the keyboard), calculating what needs to happen as a result of that input, and then showing it on your screen. This is a grossly simplified version of the process but it gets the point across. With gaming, the faster this process can happen, the smoother your game will look and feel, iInputs will be calculated faster meaning the game will feel more responsive overall, and by updating the picture on your screen more times a second the game will look smoother too. The amount of times that cycle can happen per second becomes our number for Frames per Second (FPS)
Frame Generation becomes a part of this by saying “The image is only updating 30 times a second, what if I step in and make it look smoother by drawing what I think happens in between this frame and the next frame”. This does make the game look smoother as the image on your screen is updating more often, making characters move smoothly across the screen and such. However, we’re not getting that full cycle of input, calculate, display. The image might update 60 times a second now, but the game is only taking your inputs and calculating them 30 times a second. This means that your game won’t feel as smooth, as your character may take longer to perform the actions that you’re telling them to do, meanwhile your monitor is still showing your character doing a different thing due to frame generation.
Another major pitfall of frame generation is that it’s drawing frames based on what it thinks is going to happen, this can lead to ghosting; where frame generation leaves small parts of the last frame on screen because it doesn’t know whether it’s going to still be there or not, the extra frames can also look blurry as it can’t always make out the detail of fast moving objects or fast camera movement.
With all that being said, if you try it and find that the negatives don’t affect you all too much then I’d highly recommend enabling frame generation. It can provide a massive boost to how smooth your game looks. From what I’ve seen once again Nvidia DLSS’ Frame generation seems to be the best option in terms of graphical fidelity, however it’s only available if you have an RTX40 series card. That leaves us with AMD FSR, which is still perfectly fine, it’s what I used for my Ultra + frame gen preset. Frame generation is also a very good way of playing with much older hardware, you just need to be aware of the disconnect between input and display frames
Ray Tracing
Ray Tracing is a setting that will affect the lighting engine that Monster Hunter Wilds uses. It creates much more impressive lighting at a massive cost to performance. In the benchmark we don’t have many good areas to show off the ray tracing, so I plan to update this both when the full game releases and during the beta. The best area I found to show the difference was the pond with the Chatacabra. The first image is with ray tracing off and the second is with ray tracing set to high.
As you can see it gives around an 8% drop in average frame rate, but the reflections and lighting of the water speak for itself with the increase to quality. I expect ray tracing will be much more apparent in maps like the Scarlet Forest and the Oilwell Basin that have more dynamic lighting conditions than a big open desert.
I tested all three options for enabled ray tracing; low, med and high, and found there was a less than 3 frame difference in average FPS between all of the presets, in fact, my average with high was better than my average with low. This was all running on the Medium graphics preset. My advice is to crank that ray tracing to high if it’s something you want to use
Texture Quality & Filtering Quality
Texture quality refers to the resolution of the textures applied to all the objects in the game. Naturally, the higher quality the textures are, the more intensive it is to run the game, honestly there isn’t too much to say for this one. The pictures in the settings menu do a very good job at showing the difference in what each option looks like. One thing to note that will affect textures is the speed of your storage; the higher resolution your textures are, the more your storage needs to load in at any given time. If it’s not fast enough, the game will display the lowest resolution textures while it’s loading in the higher quality ones. If you find this is happening you can try lowering your texture quality or moving the game or benchmark tool to a much faster storage drive.
Texture Filtering Quality will affect how the textures interact with objects and other textures. It will reduce the sharp edges of textures on objects and when connecting to other textures, making the game look better. This will affect performance in more dense areas such as towns and hubs.
Mesh Quality
Mesh quality is the amount of detail within the 3d models themselves, separate to texture quality and filtering. Higher mesh quality can make 3D models look smoother and less jagged as shown with the pictures of the Ace Lancer in the settings menu. This will affect all 3D models in the game including things like the environment.
Similarly to texture quality, the game may load lower quality models while trying to load the higher quality ones. If you find this is happening regularly, move the game or benchmark to a faster storage device or reduce the mesh quality.
This can have a decent impact on the performance of the game.
Fur Quality
Fur quality affects how realistic the fur looks on monsters like Doshaguma, Palicos, Seikrets, Etc.
This won’t have a major impact on performance, however it will depend on what’s happening on screen. A herd of Doshaguma will cause this to have a larger impact than when you’re fighting a Rey Dau.
Sky/Cloud Quality
This affects the quality of the textures, and sometimes models, used to render the sky and the clouds. In my testing I didn’t find that this had much of an impact on performance, if any, but it may have an impact or system’s with weaker GPUs. If you find you’re struggling, then this will be a good setting to free up a couple extra frames.
Grass/Tree Quality
This setting will affect the quality and density of leaves on trees and grass. The pictures in the settings menu do a good job of showcasing the difference in the options, but I’ve included screenshots of the grassy field on the medium preset, with each grass/tree quality setting. In my testing I found that the medium setting provided the best frames. I can see this setting having a much larger impact in a map like the scarlet forest
LOW:
MEDIUM:
HIGH:
Grass/Tree Sway
This setting will affect the leaves and the grass swaying in the wind. In my testing I’ve found that this has an extremely low impact on frame rate. Obviously this may only be for the specific shot in the benchmark so more testing will be required in the full game. But I can also envision this being more intensive in the Scarlet Forest map.
Below I’ve attached screenshots of the framerate during the grassy field shot. These were taken with the medium preset.
Enabled:
Disabled:
Wind Simulation Quality
This setting will adjust how the wind interacts with different objects in the game world and with the characters in the world. The main example of this I’ve been able to find is the armour on the hunter in the benchmark. It affects the movement of the Hope armour’s tailcoat in the wind, as well as your hunter's hair. It’s difficult to get a picture of this difference in movement, however in my testing this provided a difference of less than a frame, but may change with the other maps.
Surface Quality
This setting refers to how “3D” the ground looks. Having a higher surface quality will change the bump map texture of the ground to give it more depth. The setting screenshots do a good job of showcasing the difference between the two. I noticed an extremely slight dip in frame rate when this was set to high.
Sand/Snow Quality
Similarly to the Surface Quality, this adds depth to the textures that can be found on and around the snow and sand in the game. Similarly to surface quality setting, the screenshots found in the settings menu do a good job of showcasing this difference in these options. We don’t know how this will affect the snow side of things, as we don’t have access to the Iceshard Cliffs until the full game releases.
Water Effects
This adds or removes the fluid effects from water. This includes ripples in the water and the water moving as things interact with it. In my testing this has had a minimal impact on frames, it dipped by around 2 frames when the Chatacabra was interacting with the water.
Render Distance
Render distance will have a noticeable effect on performance as it changes how the distance at which objects will appear. The lower that distance, the closer the cut off point will be. A lower render distance will provide a better frame rate. In my testing, it was a difference of around 3 frames per second in the big sweeping shot of the benchmark.
Lowest:
Highest:
Shadow Quality
Shadow quality affects the quality of the shadows being rendered, with a higher setting giving finer detail on things like shape and small gaps where light would shine through. The settings menu screenshots do a good job of showcasing this.
In my testing during OBT2 this had a fairly large impact on performance, especially when in the cave like areas of the windward plains
Distant Shadow Quality
This acts as a form of LOD for shadows. Far-away objects will have lower quality shadows rendered. It’s tough to take a good screenshot showcasing this on a 1080p monitor, but it gave a 1 or 2 frame difference between high and low.
Shadow Distance
This changes the distance at which shadows stop rendering. Similar to distant shadow quality, this can have a large impact on performance in dense areas or areas with lots of monsters. The settings screenshots show this setting quite effectively. The main grassy field section during OBT 2 I noticed about a 10 frame difference between Near and Far, medium doing what it says and settling in the middle.
Ambient Light Quality
Ambient light affects the lighting applied in various parts of the environment like overhangs and potentially caves. In my testing this has little impact in the benchmark, around 3 frames from low to high, but the benchmark doesn’t show any areas where this would cause a massive effect to framerate. The settings menu screenshots show this well.
Contact Shadows
This setting affects how shadows are cast onto objects. The easiest way to see the difference is by looking at the setting menu screenshots. With contact shadows disabled you can see that the light source acts as a ball of illumination that doesn't cast shadows underneath tables, or on the vegetables nearby, whereas with the setting enabled it does render shadows. During my OBT testing I found this had a minimal effect when out of the base camp or in Kunafa village.
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient Occlusion is similar to contact shadow but instead focuses on how it interacts with larger global light sources such as the sun. Just like with contact shadows, this had a minimal effect when I was out and about in the field during the OBT. The settings menu shows the effect of this setting quite well.
Bloom
Bloom blurs light to make it look more realistic, and makes lights look smoother than without it. The settings menu shows this difference well. I didn’t notice a difference in frames with this setting enabled or disabled, so it’s down to personal preference.
Motion Blur
Similarly to Bloom this will have no bearing on framerate and is a purely player choice based setting. Motion blur will apply a blur effect to anything moving on screen This can be used to make things look slightly smoother and hide the ghosting effect when paired with Frame Generation.
Vignette Effect
Vignette effect is used to darken the edges of the screen to “enhance” the lighting and draw more attention to the center of the screen. This is a purely player choice setting and will have no effect on performance.
Screen Space Reflection
This affects the reflections that can be seen in things such as water. With this setting disabled, the game will not render any kind of reflection. In the Windward Plains this is most visible in the water.
In my testing this gave a difference of around 5 frames when a body of water is close, with the frame dips getting worse the more water there is. No doubt this will be more prevalent in the Iceshard Cliffs with all the ice around.
This setting also can’t be disabled if you have Ray Tracing enabled. Ray Tracing will, however, further enhance the quality of the reflections at the cost of lower frames.
SSSS Scattering
Screen Space Subsurface Scattering changes how the game handles its lighting through translucent surfaces like skin and light clothing, specifically how shadows are rendered on the other side of these surfaces. The settings menu does a good job of showcasing the effect of the setting on a character model. In my testing I found this had minimal effect on performance, around 3-4 frames with a greater effect in dense areas.
Depth Of Field
Depth of Field adds a blurring effect to things over a certain distance, meant to add extra focus to what’s close to you as opposed to what’s far away.
This has a minimal effect on frame rate, around a 2 to 3 frame drop when enabled.
Volumetric Fog
Volumetric fog affects the quality of the fog that can be seen during things such as the Sandtide in the Windward Plains. In my testing this had minimal effect on framerate, dipping the frames by around 5 during the Sandtide
Variable Rate Shading
Variable rate shading affects the rendering of pixel shaders such as the scout flies and other 2D shaders that get rendered in game. There isn’t an easy place to show the difference of this setting in the benchmark, so we’ll have to rely on the setting menu pictures to show the difference.
The Optimisation Section
So now that we’ve discussed the settings, what they change and how much of an impact they have, we can now start to get the best visuals for the least cost in performance. Unfortunately if your PC can’t run Wilds on the lowest preset then I won’t be able to make it run any better, only make it look better. My main bit of advice is to mess about on your own and find what works best for you, as each person has their own opinion on what looks best and what doesn’t. Make sure to read the next heading for a little bit of optimisation troubleshooting. If you’d rather just go with my personal opinions on what some presets would look like then feel free to read on!
Finding Our Weakness
No, this isn’t some spiritual journey we’re about to embark on. We are going to instead find out which part of our PC is struggling to run Wilds, thus causing a “Bottleneck” (this word comes up a lot in the future).
This will vary from machine to machine as no PC is really the same. For some it may be the graphics card, for others it may be the processor, maybe in some it’s the RAM. Either way we need to find out what it is and we can very quickly find out that information through a default app installed in windows; Task Manager!
We’re going to start by running the benchmark, once the benchmark has started and we see the sandship we can open Task Manager by pressing the “CTRL”, “Shift”, and “Esc” key on a keyboard. Once Task Manager has opened we’ll want to head to the performance tab (this is found on the left side for Windows 11 and at the top for Windows 10). Once we’re in the performance tab you’ll see options and graphs for “CPU”, “Memory”, and “GPU”. While the benchmark is running in the background, keep an eye on these different graphs and see which one has the highest percentage at different parts of the benchmark
For example, here I can see that my GPU is causing the bottleneck in performance. My CPU usage is low and my Memory is under half full, meanwhile my GPU is at 85%, around the area it’ll start struggling to run any faster.
Similarly when in Kunafa village we can see that my CPU usage was much higher than out in the desert. This shows that village areas are quite intensive on the processor, and as such if your processor isn’t fast enough then villages will cause quite an intensive framerate drop.
If your benchmark is being bottlenecked by CPU or Memory then I can recommend closing other applications on your PC to free up CPU/Memory resources that can instead be used on Wilds.
If your game is being bottlenecked by GPU then you can try lowering some graphical settings until you get a look or frame rate you’re happy with.
If you can’t get any better performance using the above tips then you’ll need to look at upgrading your hardware.
Kos’ Presets
Now time for the fun part, what my recommended presets are!
I’ll have a Low, Medium and High preset. I’m choosing to skip out in Lowest and Ultra as the game sets everything to lowest/off or highest/on respectively, so there’s not much to change here.
The main thing I’ll be using to keep our performance high is super resolution and changing other things to be higher quality.
I want my presets to act more as baselines than rigid recommendations of “you must use all of these settings or it breaks” (although if you want to, that would be more than fine). Feel free to warp and change these as you need for better results for your hardware.
Low
Below are the screenshots for the Low settings I used as a preset.
I have frame generation enabled just to help bump up frames but this can be adjusted as you see fit. I also felt the frame gen was appropriate for the lower preset as opposed to the medium and high which I’ll be showing without frame gen. I recommend using this preset if you have a lower end RTX 20 series card (or AMD equivalent).
Here are the settings and screenshots:
Medium
For this I used the same performance super resolution using AMD FSR. I’ve disabled frame gen for this just to show the raw performance of the preset, if you need to, however, you can enable frame gen to boost the frames a bit. This is what I’d recommend for a high end RTX 20 series or a low end RTX 30 series (or AMD equivalent).
Here are the settings and screenshots for this preset:
High
This is my high preset. It uses a balanced super resolution and quite a lot of the settings that would be found in the game’s ULTRA preset. This is what I will likely use to play the game myself, I will be using AMD FSR frame gen just to bump up the frames a bit, however (I like smooth visuals I can’t lie). I recommend this for high end RTX 30 series cards and low end RTX 40 series cards (or AMD equivalent).
Here are the settings and screenshots for this preset:
Extra Benchmarks
A massive massive thank you to each and everyone who helps out in this section, the more info we can gather the better.
RTX 2070
Thanks to @TheRedJanuary for providing me with the results for their build, the specs are below. They ran my Low preset both with and without frame gen to get a measure of how they ran.
CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X
GPU: RTX 2060
RAM: 32GB
