Borderlands 2 Lag

MasterWaffulz

Distinguished
Jan 13, 2014
13
0
18,510
I have just started playing Borderlands 2 again on a new pc and i have had incredible FPS lag.
I used to play on a toaster and i had a more stable FPS than this.
My new pc specs:
Windows 8
XFX R9 280x
i5 4670k
8gig sniper ram
msi g45 motherboard
I have had the settings on max and had low fps similar to my fps on lower settings.
Is this just a un-optimized game or is my pc dumping?
Thank you,
MasterWaffulz
 
Solution
Hey,
Borderlands 2 is one of the few games I've had weird issues with and for me that tied in with the FPS and VSYNC settings.

*If I recall correctly, even though I have a 60Hz monitor, setting to a 60FPS CAP caused weird stutter. I think I'm at "UNCAPPED" with VSYNC ON. That does cap it for me at 60FPS so I'm not sure why the difference but there is a HUGE difference for me with lots of stutter.

Other options:
a) Drop the quality settings to lowest for now (should be way above 60FPS), mess withe CAP (UNCAPPED again I think is best) and VSYNC until you're sure that's smooth.

then
b) Use RADEONPRO and try using Dynamic VSync (same as NVidia's Adaptive VSync I believe). That should make enable VSYNC ON provided you can output the...
It's not an unoptimized game. I run it on ultra at 50+ fps, 1080p, no lag at all. Specs are in my signature. My brother also runs it on ultra at a bit lower framerate, but still above 40, and he just has a GTX 560.

It's possible it's due to your video card model. Borderlands 2 makes heavy use of PhysX, which runs great on Nvidia cards, but can't run properly on AMD cards, as it requires 32+ Cuda cores for hardware acceleration, and AMD cards don't physically have those.

Another possibility is that your R9 280X isn't being detected. But that's only possible if your framerate is low in every game.
 
Hey,
Borderlands 2 is one of the few games I've had weird issues with and for me that tied in with the FPS and VSYNC settings.

*If I recall correctly, even though I have a 60Hz monitor, setting to a 60FPS CAP caused weird stutter. I think I'm at "UNCAPPED" with VSYNC ON. That does cap it for me at 60FPS so I'm not sure why the difference but there is a HUGE difference for me with lots of stutter.

Other options:
a) Drop the quality settings to lowest for now (should be way above 60FPS), mess withe CAP (UNCAPPED again I think is best) and VSYNC until you're sure that's smooth.

then
b) Use RADEONPRO and try using Dynamic VSync (same as NVidia's Adaptive VSync I believe). That should make enable VSYNC ON provided you can output the target refresh or higher (i.e. 60FPS) but if you drop below then VSYNC is automatically off (screen tearing but no mini-stutter caused by synch mismatch).

*for b) if you get screen tearing too often then you're dropping below 60FPS (confirm with FRAPS). If that's annoying you, adjust a few quality settings to keep the frame rate higher.

I can't speak for RadeonPro, but if it's the same as my NVidia solution then forcing any VSYNC solution like "Dynamic VSync" overwrites any game choice for VSYNC (but not sure about the "cap" value as I rarely see that). In fact, it seems pretty stupid to give me options like 120FPS I can't even support so probably some coding issue there... hence possibly why "UNCAP" seems to work if I remember correctly. Again, experiment.

OTHER:
1600x900 may, I say again, MAY be a better resolution for you. The total experience is a combination of settings so it's up to you to decide what's optimal. Going above 1600x900 is often mostly reflected by the HUD and onscreen text more than anything else. So that gets a bit blurrier but you gain performance either for the frame rate or to increase quality elsewhere.
 
Solution

Vynavill

Honorable
As others stated already, turn physx down to low, as that's probably the reason...

I was able to run it maxed out except physx @1080p on an XFX HD 6870, a downclocked and unstable i5-2500 and 4gb of g.skill 1333mhz ram, with a framerate between 45 and 70.
My current Asus R9 290x, paired up to an i5-4670 and 8gb of corsair 1600mhz ram runs it maxed out with physx on normal @1080p, with a framerate between 100 and 150.
I kinda don't like the effects anyway, too much clutter around with them active, and after lowering them it's around 200-250fps.

As another proof of how well the game is optimized, I was able to get it running on a laptop with a Pentium T4400 dual core and an HD 4670m. Obviously, minimum settings, but it keeps 30+ fps at 800x600 :p