- A Redditor has claimed that Monster Hunter Wilds runs poorly when less DLC is owned and enabled
- It appears to be due to the game’s constant DLC presence checks, leading to a higher load on the CPU
- Capcom has multiple upcoming patches to further improve performance
Since its launch in early 2025, Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds has faced consistent criticism due to its poor performance on PC, particularly on lower-end hardware. Fortunately, it looks like the root of the issue may have been discovered, and it’s quite comical.
Monster Hunter Wilds reportedly runs better on PC when more downloadable content (DLC) is owned and enabled, and much worse with less, as Redditor, u/de_Tylmarande, claims. Using the same hardware and game settings in both tests, the user highlighted a trend of 20 to 25 frames per second (fps) while in player hubs in-game with no DLC installed, and over 80 fps with a ‘DLCPresenceFix’ mod installed.
This indicates that the game’s DLC checks are putting extra load onto the CPU, on top of all the CPU processes that are already needed for the game’s content itself, and that’s evident in the performance test video (available below), which shows less CPU usage and higher GPU usage once the mod is active.
The mod is a test from the user to essentially fool the game into believing all DLC is owned and installed, but in reality, it’s just blocking the CPU-heavy process that appears to be constantly checking for DLC.
It’s a truly bizarre discovery, and it would explain why the game suffers from poor performance, even on high-end hardware, without relying on frame generation technology – and may also add credence to some users’ reports of fair performance on their configurations, as they may own more DLC.
The user has promised a release of the full mod if Capcom doesn’t fix the issue itself, and highly recommends consumers avoid purchasing all DLC for Monster Hunter Wilds for better performance.
Given Capcom’s stance on consistently using anti-tamper software, Denuvo, for a large majority of its recent games, there’s no guarantee that it will oblige and address this bug. One thing is for sure: this isn’t a good look for the developer, and while this likely is indeed a bug, it won’t stop consumers from questioning whether it was intentional or not.
Monster Hunter Wilds, unfortunately, isn’t the first game to suffer from major performance issues, despite the RE Engine being popular for great frame rate stabilization and optimization, specifically in Resident Evil games.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 shares very similar performance woes as a CPU-bound game, and still has significant frame rate drops in main cities with multiple non-player characters (NPCs), almost the equivalent of Monster Hunter Wilds‘ hubs. While patches have improved performance in both games, this DLC presence check discovery is enough to raise the question of whether DLC ownership in Dragon’s Dogma 2 has any effect on performance.
If legitimate, it may easily damage the trust Capcom has earned from consumers over recent years, and rightly so.
It’s worth noting that Capcom is releasing a new patch for Monster Hunter Wilds, set for January 27, which is intended to bring ‘optimization improvements for Steam-specific processes and options to reduce processing load’, and another performance update coming later on February 18.
Capcom may already be on top of the matter, but if this claim happens to be accurate, I doubt it’s going to end well for the popular developer.
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