We tested Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam Deck, don’t bother, wait for GeForce Now support instead
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There’s a Monster Hunter Wilds Benchmark tool available to download on the Steam store page ahead of the game’s launch on February 28th. We’ve already tested it on an RTX 5080 at 4K, so we thought we should venture in the opposite direction – how does Valve’s popular Steam Deck handheld perform? Well, not great is the quick answer. Not a massive surprise considering even the RTX 3060 struggled at native 1080p.
Much like we witnessed with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which runs terribly on Steam Deck, you’re most likely better off going for the streaming route. This is something the Steam Deck is great for, especially with demanding modern AAA titles.
Monster Hunter Wilds doesn’t run great on the Steam Deck
After taking its sweet time ‘Optimizing Game Data’ – in other words, compiling shaders, we moved on to running the Monster Hunter Wilds benchmark test. You are immediately greeted with a message urging you to turn on frame generation, which is helpful if you want to maximize frames. Following that, we headed to the settings menu.
| Screen Mode | Borderless Window |
| Screen Resolution | 1280 x 800 (native) |
| Aspect Ratio | Automatic |
| HDR Output | Automatically Enable (unsupported on our LCD Deck regardless) |
| Graphics Settings | Custom (Lowest preset, edited to set Bloom to ‘Off’) |
| Cutscene Graphics | Do Not Adjust Separately |
| Upscaling | AMD FSR 3.1.3 |
| Frame Generation | Enable / Disable (we tested both) |
| Upscaling Mode | Ultra Performance |
| Upscaling Sharpness | 0.50 |
As you can see from the settings above, we stuck to FSR Ultra Performance with the lowest settings possible and this left a lot to be desired as far as the visuals are concerned. Visual fidelity dropped massively and it’s safe to say that the game doesn’t look great when playing at these low settings, and the performance doesn’t make up for it.
With frame generation turned on, the game managed to average 41.67 FPS. With frame gen turned off with the exact same settings, it averaged 27.29 FPS.
Steam Deck Monster Hunter Wilds benchmark with frame gen ON, image by PC Guide
Steam Deck Monster Hunter Wilds benchmark with frame gen OFF, image by PC Guide
Steam Deck Monster Hunter Wilds FSR Ultra Performance, image by PC Guide
Now, averaging around 40 FPS doesn’t sound too bad whatsoever, but you need to remember that frame generation shouldn’t exist to reach 60 FPS, and even AMD recommends you are “running at ~60 FPS before frame generation is applied for an optimal experience” in its FSR documentation. On top of that, the game suffered heavily from stuttering during the benchmark, leading to incredibly unsmooth performance that isn’t fully represented in the average FPS score. This is immediately noticeable in the frametime graph below which demonstrated consistent spikes through most of the test.
GeForce Now could be the saving grace for Steam Deck owners
Based on our internal testing, we wouldn’t recommend playing Monster Hunter Wilds on the Steam Deck natively. Even when dropping way down to the lowest settings possible, it suffered from heavy stuttering – and the visuals made it a bit of an eyesore. So, instead, it seems like streaming is the way forward.
As we’ve already mentioned with the recent Indiana Jones game, platforms such as Nvidia’s GeForce Now are your best shot at great performance on the Deck. We also expect a similar situation in the upcoming DOOM: The Dark Ages based on its system requirements.
Unfortunately, Nvidia has yet to confirm support for Monster Hunter Wilds on its cloud gaming service. However, looking at the list of games supported on GFN, you’ll find both Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter World, two of the most popular entries to the franchise. As a result of MHW’s steep system requirements, we’re already seeing GFN users asking for support. With that in mind, we can only hope that support is added soon.
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