Borderlands 4's success is not hindered by its performance on PC

GAMING NEWS Fyra Frost - 15-Sept-2025, 12:00 pm - 32 comments

The release of Borderlands 4 by Gearbox Software has generated massive excitement, achieving impressive sales numbers on Steam shortly after launch. Thousands of players flocked to the platform, pushing concurrent player counts beyond 190,000, which is a clear sign of the franchise's enduring popularity.

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Despite this commercial success, the game's launch has been overshadowed by widespread performance issues on PC. Players have reported stuttering, frame drops, and crashes across a wide range of systems. Even high-end setups, including those equipped with the latest RTX 5090 GPUs, have struggled to maintain smooth gameplay, leading some users to liken the experience to the rough launch of previous entries in the series. Gearbox quickly responded with a day-one patch aimed at improving stability. While this update has helped reduce crashes for some users, many still report inconsistent performance. The game's demanding open-world design and reliance on fast storage, such as SSDs, have contributed to these challenges, particularly for players using older hardware.

Addressing the criticism, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford urged players to manage their expectations, emphasizing that individual hardware configurations would heavily influence performance. He also reassured the community regarding concerns over the game's Terms of Service, clarifying that Take-Two, the parent company, does not incorporate spyware into its games. Gearbox will surely address those problems in time and the sequel to Borderlands 3 will soon be on par with its predecessor in terms of performance.

Gearbox has released optimization guides for AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. However, the pressure put on the developers by the community is quite noticeable as the "Mixed" tag for the game's reviews on Steam prove. Randy Pitchford has responded to such a pressure with a sarcastic publication on X where he prompts haters to code thir own graphics engine as a solution for those lacking patience. In such scenario, the best is probably to let the developers fix the problems and work on future enhancements.

Code your own engine and show us how it’s done, please. We will be your customer when you pull it off. The people doing it now are clearly dumb and don’t know what they’re doing and all the support and recommendations and code and architecture from the world’s greatest hardware…
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 13, 2025

While Borderlands 4 has clearly captured the attention of gamers, its launch issues highlight the ongoing challenge of balancing cutting-edge visuals with performance across a variety of PC setups. Gearbox's efforts to patch and communicate openly with the community will likely play a key role in determining whether the game maintains its strong start or struggles to keep players engaged in the weeks ahead. In any case, it's quite sure that the game will continue being the most popular option for those who enjoy the caotic action and acid humor that have made the Borderlands series a hit. Remember that you can visit our comparator to get the cheapest Borderlands 4 digital codes if you don't own the game yet.

68d12206d2c86_jonathansubtile

22-Sept-2025, 12:21 pm on dlcompare.fr

For a huge DLC of the 3rd, which was itself a huge DLC of the 2nd, we're not disoriented (so much the better?) but I'm less thrilled, I think... But where it really hurts is the strawberry optimization, it's absurd to release a game like this with so many technical problems.

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juanpr85

20-Sept-2025, 8:47 pm on dlcompare.es

It is true that it also has things that can be improved and that I hope they will fix. It is curious that, to the friends with whom I have played and who have a better computer than mine, the game works worse. My problem has been more of fps drops and some other crashes for them. Despite the problems, we have been able to enjoy the game for as long as possible. Under normal conditions, I would recommend this game but, if you are short of money and have other alternatives, I would wait for the price to drop and fix everything they have to fix and improve.

FiskerMann

19-Sept-2025, 8:49 pm on dlcompare.es

As for the audiovisual section, the truth is that although it does not look like it in the images, this fourth installment has made a remarkable leap in its graphics, especially as far as lighting is concerned. This is something that you will notice as soon as you set foot in Kairos, the game as a whole is beautiful (and gore), a delight. The music is at the level we are used to Gearbox in their Borderlands games and the Spanish dubbing still feels of outstanding quality. It is true that the performance falters quite a bit and unless we have a card with which we can activate DLSS, FSR or similar, I would refrain from buying it for the moment, because without activating this technology the game barely manages to reach 60fps and suffers from constant jerks. However, if you have a graphics card capable of supporting the frame generation technology, buy it without any fear, because you will enjoy it at more than 100fps without any problem.

moskauu

19-Sept-2025, 8:59 am on dlcompare.es

The graphic part is the critical point of the game. I have a 3060, I have put the settings as they recommended on the page and I have lowered them a bit; it is supposed to go to +60fps, and it is true but when I'm in a safe area without doing anda, the fps dance between 40-60 not stable at all and there are like weird things like leftovers that leave the weapons or things like that when moving. Borderlands 3 already looked amazing, it's not a game that depends on having incredible graphics, I don't know why they improved them so much, it wasn't necessary. If they fix the graphic aspect it's a good Borderlands that I hope they squeeze it as much as possible because it can be the best Borderlands (not the best in everything, but in its totality).

Cabilau

19-Sept-2025, 2:00 am on dlcompare.pt

Gearbox's CEO should know when to keep quiet. The game suffers from optimization problems, like many others, and unfortunately some players won't be able to enjoy it under ideal conditions. As I don't care much for maximum visuals, I think I'll be able to run this game at my leisure. All that remains is to wait for the full version including DLCs and at a good discount :D

membraxfr

18-Sept-2025, 9:05 pm on dlcompare.fr

the game had a really tough start, and the developers really need to check whether others can run the game before releasing it. that said, those who can play it are having a lot of fun. on PC, optimization is a problem: players report framerate drops and unstable performance, even on large configurations.

Reign

18-Sept-2025, 11:16 am on dlcompare.fr

It should be. I'd be ashamed of the developers for releasing a game in such a state, then adopting a moralistic tone towards its playerbase.

Gamer2021

17-Sept-2025, 5:08 pm on dlcompare.fr

Borderlands 4 is a good game, and despite the bugs and crashes, it's shattering the records set by previous releases. It peaked at 211,674 concurrent players on Steam shortly after its launch, which proves that gamers love the game. For the time being, I recommend waiting for a patch to make it stable, but if you're a fan, you won't be disappointed.

SerYohoho

17-Sept-2025, 11:59 am on dlcompare.es

Optimization is pitiful. That's just the way it is. Unreal Engine 5 is a problem that hurts the industry. While in B3 you play comfortably at 120FPS, in B4 you have to be content with 40FPS. The solution from tech support is that you lower the settings.... 😑 At least they didn't tell me to reboot the pc. Thanks for that.If you want to play a game at jerky or jumpy.... Borderlands 4 is your game. if you want to enjoy slaughtering to your heart's content and generating mayhem... also, but jumpy and dying a lot because of how poorly optimized it is, of course.

Pierh

17-Sept-2025, 11:14 am on dlcompare.fr

Borderlands 4 is off to a strong start: over 190,000 simultaneous players on Steam shortly after release, proof that the license remains ultra-popular. The DNA is intact: humor, wacky weapons and co-op as fun as ever. Players praise the artistic direction and generous content. But all is not perfect: PC performance is very uneven, with FPS drops and jerks even on high-end configs. Gearbox has already released patches and is actively communicating, which reassures us about follow-up. If optimization continues to improve, this episode could become one of the saga's best. As it stands, Borderlands 4 remains an excellent looter-shooter, but it will need a few more patches to be fully satisfying.