Borderlands 4 is getting lambasted everywhere online for just how poorly it performs for many players on PC. It’s all anyone is talking about in the game’s Steam reviews and elsewhere.
The debacle has certainly given the game a certain image, and developer Gearbox clearly isn’t happy with this current state of affairs. Unfortunately, the developer has decided to respond to the complaints in a strange way that ends up actually undermining its point.
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The saga of Borderlands 4’s performance troubles on PC is a very common one. It’s a modern AAA game that performs worse than you expect it to given the hardware it’s running on. In this case, too, the visuals aren’t impressive enough to warrant how heavy the game is.
Borderlands 4 also runs on Unreal Engine 5, which has itself become something of a punching bag. Anytime a game that uses it runs into technical issues, players are quick to blame the engine. Add Denuvo DRM to the mix and the game really has the full package.
Gearbox’s solution to all that negative feedback – which includes many hours of content from top tech YouTubers – was to release ideal settings for some of the most popular Nvidia and AMD GPUs on the market, which it suggests players use.
There are two massive guides – one for each GPU brand – that list every single in-game setting, and the recommended value for each for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. It’s a bit of an overkill, considering the initial settings released for Borderlands 4 ahead of its launch were nowhere near as detailed. These updated guides, on the other hand, offer framerate targets, resolution, and whether or not upscaling is required to achieve each one.
Image credit: 2K / Gearbox
Unfortunately, as detailed as they may be, the two lists only serve to prove players’ points that Borderlands 4 simply isn’t optimised well enough to take advantage of the hardware it’s running on. The reason is that upscaling is required for almost every single one.
In fact, for most of the higher-end GPUs, achieving a framerate beyond 60fps requires frame generation, which the two guides clearly state. Frame generation, if you’re unfamiliar, is similar to motion smoothing, in that it interpolates the frame buffer to add more virtual frames, increasing input lag.
Frame generation is also generally recommended for players who can already reach above 60fps comfortably, as its drawbacks become much more serious when your hardware/settings combination can’t reliably achieve 60fps without it.
The guides only really serve to shift the blame onto players, who are clearly advised to temper their expectations (and their settings), not to mention rely on frame generation to achieve acceptable results regardless of how powerful their GPUs are.