Best graphics card for Monster Hunter Wilds

Estimated FPS by graphics card

Native resolution, no upscaling. ⚠ marks a card with less video memory than the game asks for at that setting (see VRAM below): expect stutter, or lower the texture setting. At 1080p High, every current card from the RTX 5060 up passes 60 FPS. At 1440p, 60 FPS starts with the RTX 5070 and RX 9070. At 4K, no card reaches 60 FPS at High without upscaling, not even the RTX 5090.

The cheapest card for 60 and 100 FPS

Quality upscaling means DLSS on GeForce cards, FSR on Radeon and XeSS on Arc. Cards with less video memory than the game asks for at that setting are left out (see VRAM below). No card reaches 100 FPS at 1440p Ultra or at 4K with Quality upscaling.

Our picks explained

A note on close calls: the model's median error is about 10%, so when two cards are less than 10% apart in our estimates, we call it a tie, not a win. Then price, video memory and features decide.

1080p, best value: Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB. About 76 FPS at High and 60 at Ultra, the cheapest card that reaches 60 FPS at both. The RTX 5060 and RX 9060 XT 8GB cost $50 less and also pass 60 FPS at High, but at Ultra the game asks for about 10 GB of video memory.

1080p, for 100 FPS: Radeon RX 9070 XT. About 101 FPS at High, the cheapest card past 100 FPS at native 1080p. The RTX 5070 Ti is as fast for $150 more at launch. At 100 FPS your processor matters as much as the card (see below).

1440p, best value: Radeon RX 9070. About 70 FPS at High, the cheapest card past 60 FPS at native 1440p, with 16 GB. The RTX 5070 costs the same at launch and ties with it here (67 FPS), but has 12 GB. On a tighter budget, the RX 9060 XT 16GB reaches about 66 FPS with FSR Quality.

1440p, for 100 FPS: GeForce RTX 5080. About 81 FPS at High natively and 102 with DLSS Quality, the cheapest card past 100 FPS at 1440p High in Quality mode. The RX 9070 XT (100) and the RTX 5070 Ti (102) get there in Balanced mode for less.

4K, best value: Radeon RX 9070 XT. About 60 FPS at 4K High with FSR in Performance mode, which renders at 1080p and upscales; at native 4K it manages 36. The RTX 5070 Ti is about as fast for $150 more.

Best overall, at every resolution: GeForce RTX 5090. The fastest card we cover: about 115 FPS at 1080p High and 96 at 1440p High, and the only card that holds 60 FPS at 4K with Quality upscaling (about 79 FPS at High and 64 at Ultra). At native 4K it stays just under 60. At 1080p it gets close to the processor limit (about 123 FPS with a Ryzen 7 7800X3D), so it pays off most at 1440p and 4K.

How much upscaling helps

Monster Hunter Wilds is on the official support lists of all three upscalers: DLSS and DLSS Frame Generation on NVIDIA's list, FSR and FSR Frame Generation on AMD's, and XeSS on Intel's. The game's official system requirements assume upscaling, which is why they look modest next to the native numbers above.

In our model, Quality mode adds about a quarter more FPS at 1440p and more than a third at 4K. At 1080p the gain is smaller, and the fastest cards run into the processor limit instead. Frame generation is a different thing: with DLSS Quality and frame generation, an RTX 5070 at 1440p High shows about 153 FPS but responds like 76 FPS, because the generated frames don't react to your input. It smooths motion on a fast monitor; it doesn't make a 40 FPS game feel like 80. More in DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS.

How much VRAM Monster Hunter Wilds needs

Our estimate starts from the official requirements (6 GB at minimum, 8 GB recommended) and adds what higher settings and resolutions usually need: about 8 GB at 1080p High, 10 GB at 1080p Ultra and 12 GB at 4K Ultra. It's a rule of thumb, not a measurement. So 8 GB is enough at 1080p High; for Ultra, or for 1440p and 4K, choose 12 GB or more, and 16 GB covers every setting with room to spare. More in how much VRAM you need.

Processor: Monster Hunter Wilds is CPU-heavy

In our model, Monster Hunter Wilds is among the 20 most processor-heavy of our 210 games. The processor sets a ceiling that no graphics card, setting or upscaler can raise:

For 60 FPS, the processors in the official requirements (Ryzen 5 3600, Core i5-10400) are just enough. For 100 FPS you need a Core i5-14600K or Ryzen 7 9700X class processor or faster. With a Ryzen 5 5600, a card above the RX 9060 XT 16GB adds little at 1080p. Check your pair in the bottleneck calculator, or enter your exact parts in the FPS calculator.

Laptops and handhelds

Laptops at their typical power limit, with a Ryzen 5 5600-class processor and 16 GB, as on the game page. From the RTX 4070 Laptop up, every chip here reaches 60 FPS at 1080p Medium; the RTX 4060 Laptop falls just short (55). The fastest chips stop at about 75 FPS, the processor limit. The same chip can be much slower in a thin laptop with a low power limit: see is my laptop good for gaming.

Handhelds are not a good fit for this game. At 800p Low, the fastest ones we cover (ROG Ally, ROG Ally X, Legion Go 2, ROG Xbox Ally X, MSI Claw 8 AI+) reach about 30–40 FPS in our estimates, and the Steam Deck about 22. All devices: handhelds.