The Steam Deck, Valve’s latest handheld gaming console, is struggling to run the popular monster-hunting game Monster Hunter Wilds. Despite tweaking settings and hardware configurations, the device was unable to achieve a smooth 30 frames per second (fps). In fact, the framerate often hovered in the mid-teens, causing choppy gameplay.
In testing, the Steam Deck’s modest hardware proved insufficient for running Wilds at any meaningful framerates. The game’s developers likely underestimated the console’s capabilities, leading to poor performance. To try and stabilize the experience, users adjusted graphics settings, including turning off bloom and sky/cloud quality.
However, even with these adjustments, the framerate remained unacceptably low. When enabled, Half-Rate Shading helped lighten the load on the GPU, but even this couldn’t overcome the console’s limitations. Some users reported occasional 30 fps bursts, but overall, the experience was subpar.
For context, a more powerful gaming handheld like the Asus ROG Ally managed to run Wilds at 30 fps in its lower power mode, using optimized settings. Given the challenges of running Monster Hunter Rise on desktop hardware, it seems likely that streaming is the best option for playing Wilds on a Steam Deck.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/bad-news-for-portable-monster-hunter-wilds-hopefuls-the-steam-deck-cant-manage-30-fps-even-in-maximum-potato-mode