After one whole year of grumbling and Hunters throwing in DIY workarounds, Capcom’s latest hunting game’s PC port has finally turned for the better. The Steam-focused Monster Hunter Wilds January performance patch appears to have done what previous updates couldn’t: triggering a surge of glowing user reviews and a huge shift in gamer opinion. Its Steam Review is now filling up with relief, with many players saying they can finally recommend the game without caveats.
Monster Hunter Wilds’ latest PC Steam-exclusive update, Version 1.040.03.01, focuses on CPU and GPU load issues. According to Capcom, internal testing confirmed that an unintended DLC-related check was spiking CPU usage around the Support Desk in Base Camp and the Grand Hub. That bug has now been squashed, removing a major headache that left a lot of PC players with a refund-worthy rough first impression.
Indeed, the timing for the fix couldn’t be any better. In early January, a viral Reddit post claimed the game performed better the more DLC you owned — no thanks to an aggressive, 1,500-times-per-second check running in the background. Said user created a mod to spoof DLC ownership, reported immediate FPS gains, and sent the information directly to Capcom.
Previously, Capcom already released a minor performance fix back in December 2025’s TU4. Still, according to our testing, it barely improved the game’s performance — up to 9% at best. Mid-range systems still struggled to hit a stable 60 FPS without DLSS or FSR, and frame drops were common. Capcom promised further work in January, and this patch finally feels like it delivered its promise.
On Steam, PC Hunters are cheering, where the overall review score has shifted from Overly Negative to ‘just’ Mixed. After all, it doesn’t just come with a performance fix. Capcom also threw in a raft of optimization tweaks, from expanded graphics settings to a new CPU tab in the Options, complete with settings presets.
“After almost a year I can finally recommend this game after today’s performance patch. We all expected this update to be a nothing burger but it’s actually really good. No longer needing FG and having a very smooth, stable frame graph now.” – Slime boy
Took them 1 year but performance is fixed now – Shinon
[…] the game received a major patch for performance increases on Steam. The game runs MUCH more smoothly now with multiple new options added to suit the experience to your specific rig. – Bushido
We haven’t put the patch through our own benchmarks yet, but we’ll follow up with a quick comparison once we do. Capcom has also confirmed that another round of performance improvements is coming in February, so this won’t be the end of the road. For more info on the January patch notes, read below.
Complete Monster Hunter Wilds Ver.1.040.03.01 January Patch Notes
Update Summary (Ver.1.040.03.01)
This patch will include optimization improvements for Steam-specific processes and options to reduce processing load.
This patch will include optimization improvements for Steam-specific processes and options to reduce processing load. It will also include a review of presets.
After receiving user reports, our internal testing confirmed that CPU load could increase around the Support Desk at Base Camp or the Grand Hub. This is due to claimed content status check processes to notify the player if there is unclaimed content in the Support Desk, as indicated by an exclamation point (!).
- This issue may cause the FPS to drop only in the Base Camp and Grand Hub.
- The extent of the FPS drop depends on whether you have any unclaimed content. However, the number of DLCs you own does not affect it.
- It may also depend on the performance of your CPU.
This is an unintended bug and will be resolved with this update.
To further improve stability and performance across all platforms, additional improvements will be implemented in the Ver. 1.041 update on February 18.
For example, we are currently verifying measures to reduce GPU processing load by adding quality levels (LOD) to the polygon mesh for 3D models. This may help to reduce processing load by swapping to low-resolution models for objects farther away from the camera.
We would like to thank everyone who has reported issues and shared feedback.
We appreciate your continued support for Monster Hunter Wilds.
You must install the latest version of Monster Hunter Wilds in order to play online multiplayer and access downloadable content.
Release Date
Wednesday January 28, 2026 2:00 a.m. UTC (Tuesday January 27th, 2026 6:00 p.m. PT)
Note: Release date and time are subject to change without prior notice.
Required Space
Approx. 2.0 GB (With High Resolution Texture Pack: Approx. 31.0 GB total)
Note: Due to revisions to the High-Resolution Texture Pack, a re-download of approximately 31 GB will be required, resulting in an overall reduction of about 45 GB compared to the previous version.
Video Driver Version
Please update to the following driver versions to ensure the most stable experience possible.
– NVIDIA GeForce: 581.57 or newer
– AMD Radeon: 25.9.1 or 25.9.2
Note: Some issues have been identified with AMD Radeon drivers versions 25.10.2 and higher.
Note: This information is subject to change at any time due to factors such as NVIDIA and AMD support availability.
Major Additions and Changes
- Improved CPU/GPU processing specific to the Steam version.
- Reduced shader warming processes performed outside the shader compilation screen to lower CPU load.
- Adjusted texture streaming to improve visual quality while reducing VRAM usage.
- Adjusted the High Resolution Texture Pack to reduce VRAM usage and overall package size.
- Added a CPU tab to the Options menu, allowing players to adjust settings related to CPU load.
- Added new categories to the graphics settings, along with new settings for existing options.
- Adjusted graphic presets and added a confirmation window to automatically update your settings on first launch after updating.
- Expanded the Volumetric Fog setting in the graphics options from two levels to five. The previous “High” setting has been renamed to “Highest,” and “Low” to “High,” with three new lower options—”Medium,” “Low,” and “Lowest”—now available.
- Fixed an issue where a warning dialogue incorrectly indicated that the AMD Radeon driver was outdated when using driver version 26.1.1 or later.
Bug Fixes and Balance Adjustments
- Fixed an issue where system load could increase around the Support Desk at Base Camp or the Grand Hub due to claimed content status checks.
- Adjusted Variable Rate Shading behavior so it is forced off during upscaling to maintain proper effect visuals.
- Fixed other miscellaneous issues.
