Borderlands 4 on PC crushing even the most powerful rigs — RTX 5090 struggles in some scenarios, but day one patch solves plenty of issues

Borderlands 4 has arrived on PC to a chorus of criticism over performance and stuttering. Just one day after launch, Steam user reviews show as ‘Mixed’ as early reports from players described low frame rates and frequent crashes, even on high-end hardware.

“Terrible optimization. Another Unreal Engine 5 casualty. Not worth buying in its current state unless you have a NASA PC,” wrote Steam user 'Rej'. Meanwhile, on X, a player claimed that their RTX 5090 couldn’t maintain 60 FPS, even with settings turned down, and other anecdotal reports have echoed complaints of stutter, texture pop-in, and unresponsive controls.

Independent benchmarks back up those anecdotes. DSOGaming’s test on a Ryzen 9 7950X3D paired with an RTX 5090 saw frame rates dip to 40-43 FPS at 4K/Badass settings indoors. Enabling DLSS 4 in Quality mode brought the average closer to 60 FPS, but outdoor traversal still produced noticeable stutter.

Criticism has been especially sharp during shootouts, particle-heavy areas, and certain indoor sequences where performance has tanked without warning. Despite this, the game reached a peak of just under 208,000 concurrent players on launch day.

Day-one patch improves stability

Borderlands 4 officially launched at 12 PM ET for PC players on September 11, with Gearbox deploying a 2.7 GB day-one patch at the same time. But because many players had preloaded the game and jumped in the instant it unlocked on Steam, the update didn’t apply automatically. Those players effectively ran the unpatched build, leading to a wave of negative reviews.

In a pre-patch breakdown by PC Gamer, Nick Evanson tested both minimum-spec and top-tier builds. His RTX 5090 and Ryzen 9 9800X3D rig saw around 43 FPS in 4K with “badass” settings and no upscaling. “As you can see, the overall performance isn't great. Hitting 40 fps on average in an indoor environment… is really disappointing,” he wrote, later adding that, “Not long after Borderlands 4 launched on Steam, a 2.7 GB patch appeared…. I can say it stopped most of the crash-to-desktop failures I experienced with my first few runs."

Even so, Evanson noted that outdoor sequences remained harder to stabilize than indoor ones. Large open areas with lots of AI and particle effects saw higher CPU utilization and sporadic hitching, reinforcing concerns that Unreal Engine 5’s heavy reliance on CPU-driven systems like Lumen and Nanite is part of the bottleneck.

While the majority of the game’s early reviews were negative, recent reviews paint the game in a more positive light. “The game runs smooth [sic] at 80fps… my rig is RTX 4070 Ti Super and a 13th Gen i9 CPU,” wrote Steam user 'sudobored'.

Pitchford: Don’t expect miracles on older PCs

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has been upfront about the challenges that some players might face. In a pre-launch post, he warned that systems below spec — especially those with older GPUs or without SSDs — might see serious issues. The day-one patch “does a lot,” Pitchford said, adding that the expectations of those using a below min-spec machine “should be that the game is unplayable.”

In terms of the specs required, the game’s minimum specs, which can “run Borderlands 4 with solid performance on older pc hardware,” and maximum specs, which will “provide the intended experience,” are:

For those still struggling, Gearbox has posted basic troubleshooting guidance, including driver updates and shader cache resets. The company has also posted an Nvidia optimization guide on Steam, the response to which has been pretty emphatic. Steam user ‘PeePeePantsCity’ sums up the mood nicely: “No one on PC wants to play at ~60 fps. They didn’t buy 3080s or 4080s to play games at 60 fps 1440p.”

Tom’s Hardware has reached out to 2K Games for comment.

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