Monster Hunter Wilds might be Steam Deck Verified after Capcom spent more than a year optimizing the game. But getting this freeroaming hunting game to run smoothly still takes some tinkering. We proceed to test out different graphics options and run it through several Quests. Now, the Monster Hunter HQ team has found the best Monster Hunter Wilds Steam Deck settings for a consistent handheld experience.
Smooth 30 FPS Steam Deck Settings for Monster Hunter Wilds
According to our tests, even with Frame Generation turned on, Monster Hunter Wilds cannot reach 60 FPS on Steam Deck. Instead, it usually hovers around 40–50 FPS in most situations. We also found that enabling Frame Generation introduced noticeable input delay. Considering that, we suggest leaving it off. Instead, limit the framerate to 30 FPS, then use AMD FSR upscaling if you feel it’s necessary.
With these Monster Hunter Wilds Steam Deck settings, we were able to maintain a fairly consistent 30 FPS in most scenarios. There are some particularly demanding exceptions, such as the heavily foliaged areas of Scarlet Forest and Gogmazios‘ phase change. The infamous Windward Plains Area 8 was even rougher, cratering performance to around 20 FPS at its lowest.
Display Settings
| Frame Rate | 30 |
| Uncapped Frame Rate | Capped |
| HDR Output | Disable |
| V-Sync | Enable |
CPU Settings
Note that most CPU settings can only be changed from the main menu.
| Animation Quality | Reduced |
| Effect Quality | Low |
| Character Facial Expression | Reduced |
| Wet Surface Effects | Disable |
| Monster Frame Skip | On |
| Handler Frame Skip | On |
| Small Monster Quality | Reduced |
| Endemic Life Display Count | Reduced |
| Background Decoration Motion Quality | Reduced |
Graphics Settings
We found that running the game at native resolution with a lower Render Scaling setting and Anti-Aliasing produced slightly better results than using Upscaling Mode set to Performance. The latter can squeeze out some extra performance, but the noticeably jaggier image wasn’t worth the trade-off.
| Upscaling | AMD FSR |
| Frame Generation | Disable |
| Upscaling Mode | Performance |
| Upscaling Sharpness | 0.0 |
| Anti-Aliasing | TAA, if not using Upscaling |
| Render Scaling | 60-65, if not using Upscaling |
| Texture Quality | Lowest |
| Texture Filtering Quality | Lowest (Bilinear) |
| Mesh Quality | Medium |
| Fur Quality | Low |
| Sky/Cloud Quality | Simplified Display |
| Grass/Tree Quality | Low |
| Grass/Tree Sway | Disable |
| Foliage Density | Lowest |
| Foliage and Snow Collision | Off |
| Wind Simulation Quality | Off |
| Surface Quality | Lowest |
| Sand/Snow Quality | Lowest |
| Water Effects | Disable |
| Distortion Effects | Enable/Disable, doesn’t affect performance |
| Render DIstance | Low |
| Shadow Quality | Lowest |
| Distant Shadow Quality | Low |
| Shadow Distance | Near |
| Ambient Light Quality | Low |
| Contact Shadows | Disable |
| Ambient Occlusion | Off |
| Bloom | Off |
| Motion Blur | Off |
| Vignette Effect | On/Off, doesn’t affect performance |
| Screen Space Reflection | Off |
| SSSS Scattering | Off |
| Depth of Field | Off |
| Volumetric Fog | Lowest |
| Variable Rate Shading | Performance |
