Borderlands 4 Faces Steam Backlash Over Performance Issues
Borderlands 4 has finally landed, and while the excitement around Gearbox’s looter-shooter sequel is huge, the conversation online has quickly turned sour. The game launched to a storm of performance complaints, leaving Steam flooded with “Mixed” reviews, despite the fact that critics are calling it one of the best Borderlands entries to date.
Here’s the problem: even high-end hardware is struggling to keep the game running smoothly. Reports have surfaced that even with monster setups—think AMD’s Ryzen 9800X3D paired with an RTX 5090—the frame rates dip far below what players expect. At 4K resolution, some of the most powerful GPUs on the planet are needing Nvidia DLSS 4 cranked up to performance mode and Multi Frame Generation maxed out just to maintain something close to 60 frames per second. And that’s not exactly the kind of result people expect when dropping thousands of dollars on their rigs.
To put it bluntly, the game seems unusually demanding. Nvidia, AMD, and Intel have all put out their own performance guides, recommending various upscaling and frame generation tricks to squeeze more frames out of the game. But the reception hasn’t been pretty. Players are pointing out that no one buys a $1,000 graphics card just to lower their settings to medium and hope for stable 60 fps. On forums and Reddit, frustration is boiling over, with some even suggesting refunds until the game gets patched.
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Crashes have only made matters worse. A hefty day-one patch—2.7 GB in size—was supposed to improve stability, and while it has helped somewhat, users are still reporting stutters, hitches, and the occasional crash to desktop. Frame rate consistency also remains an issue. Players describe sessions where everything runs smoothly at over 100 fps, only to hit sudden drops that pull the game well below playable levels.
The strange thing is, this isn’t entirely unexpected. Borderlands games have a history of launching with less-than-ideal optimization. Borderlands 2 and 3 both needed multiple patches before they could be considered stable on PC. Many fans are now pinning their hopes on Gearbox to deliver the same kind of fixes here, though the community isn’t exactly patient at the moment.
It’s worth remembering that Borderlands 4 is running on Unreal Engine 5, which is still relatively new territory for developers. Features like Lumen global illumination and dynamic lighting are incredibly demanding, even with upscalers like DLSS, FSR, and XeSS in play. The technology is impressive, but it may also explain why even cutting-edge GPUs are struggling.
Despite all this, the core gameplay seems to be resonating. Early impressions praise the expanded arsenal, the new planets to explore, and the trademark humor and co-op chaos the series is known for. The issue is that technical problems are overshadowing those positives. After all, no matter how fun the loot and shooting may be, constant crashes and choppy frame rates can ruin the experience.
So where does that leave Borderlands 4 right now? Essentially, it’s a game that people really want to love—but they’re being asked to wait. If Gearbox can smooth out the performance with a steady stream of patches, the game could eventually live up to its promise. Until then, though, it’s another reminder that flashy graphics and new engines don’t mean much if the performance isn’t there on day one.
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