Best Borderlands 4 settings for optimized PC performance

Finding the best Borderlands 4 settings for PC is a tricky job right now, as the game is in an ongoing battle with performance issues across all platforms. You may well be struggling to achieve a stable frame rate even if you have the best graphics card from our buying guide installed in your gaming PC.

The Borderlands 4 system requirements aren't unreasonably high, but players with gaming PCs of all levels are struggling to get good performance in Gearbox's latest looter shooter. That includes us, as during our first Borderlands 4 test, we found that our rig performed poorly, failing to hit an average of 60fps with 45fps 1% lows at 1080p or 1440p when using the medium graphics preset and DLSS upscaling. However, a new Borderlands 4 update has been deployed, and while it doesn't bring a magic fix for performance, there are some minor improvements that are a step in the right direction.

• Upscaling Method: DLSS (AMD FSR or Intel XeSS for non-Nvidia GPUs)
• Upscaling Quality: Balanced
• Frame Generation: On (DLSS or FSR, depending on GPU)
• HLOD Loading Range: Medium
• Geometry Quality: Medium
• Texture Quality: Medium
• Textures Streaming Speed: Medium
• Anisotropic Filtering Quality: 2x
• Foliage Density: Low
• Volumetric Fog: Low
• Volumetric Cloud: Low
• Shadow Quality: Medium
• Directional Shadow Quality: High
• Volumetric Cloud Shadows: Disabled
• Lighting Quality: Medium
• Reflections Quality: Medium
• Shading Quality: Medium
• Post Process Quality: Medium
• Motion Blur Amount: 0.0
• Motion Blur Quality: Medium

Using the above settings on our RTX 4070 test rig (full specs under the How We Test section), you can see in the above graph that we had an average frame rate of 134fps, with 1% lows of 51fps at 1,920 x 1,080. At 2,560 x 1,440, this dropped to an average frame rate of 126fps with 1% lows of 50fps. At 4K, the average frame rate was 85fps while the 1% lows were 33fps.

We recommend using frame generation if it's available to you, as we have seen a fair improvement in the 1% lows across all resolutions since our initial testing, and if you're playing on a 1080p or 1440p on a rig similar to ours, it's now a viable tool to increase your average frame rate.

We retested the 1080p and 1440p resolutions a few times, with and without frame generation, and each time the 1% low came out with a very similar number. So, while dropping the resolution and enabling frame gen might improve the average, you'll still be facing the same sort of drops in highly demanding areas of the game.

Elsewhere, there aren't any massive performance improvements since our initial testing; there are still instances of stuttering and slowdowns, alongside blinking lights and frequent texture pop-ins. However, the improved stability, which resulted in the higher 1% lows, is a move in the right direction for a hastily released patch.

Borderlands 4 graphics presets

There are five graphics presets currently available in Borderlands 4.

• Low
• Medium
• High
• Very High
• Badass

Curiously, the Badass preset doesn't switch all graphical options to their highest, meaning there is scope to demand more from Borderlands 4 if you think your gaming PC can handle it.

Whenever I switched between presets, the game world would effectively reload all assets and textures, meaning I had to watch the world load progressively, item by item, which was quite frustrating.

Even once this process is complete, there aren't huge sweeping differences between the Low and Badass presets that are easily captured via a still image, and this is largely down to the art style for which Borderlands is known.

Borderlands 4 accessibility settings

Borderlands 4 has a detailed accessibility menu that covers the basics, including subtitles and a range of color/background options, colorblind settings, and input toggles.

Some of these settings are presented to you once the game first boots, but you can otherwise find them in the dedicated menu, with all options being changeable during live gameplay, meaning you won't have to reload a save to see your changes in effect.

How we tested Borderlands 4

At PCGamesN, we use dedicated gaming rigs to test the best settings for performance and gameplay in the latest releases. The test rig used to play Borderlands 4 includes the following components: Intel Core i7-11700F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, 32GB of DDR4 3,200MHz RAM in dual-channel configuration, and an MSI B560 motherboard. We also test using Windows 11 64-bit.

We always run our testing first at 1,920 x 1,080 to identify the best settings for this entry-level resolution, then again at 2,560 x 1,440 using the same setup to gauge the difference in performance. Finally, we also test in 4K. We use CapFrameX to capture frame data and compare testing sessions.

Does Borderlands 4 need an SSD?

Borderlands 4 requires an SSD, as specified in the system requirements. The download file currently sits at 100GB, so you're going to want to make sure you've got enough space if you're only working with a single drive.

If you are still using an old-school mechanical drive and need to upgrade, or perhaps you need some extra storage space, you can find our current SSD recommendations in our best gaming SSD guide.

How to monitor performance in Borderlands 4

If you want to keep an eye on performance in Borderlands 4, we have an easy method that works whether you're using an Nvidia or AMD graphics card.

For Nvidia cards, ensure you have the Nvidia App installed and the in-game overlay enabled, and then hit Alt + R in-game to bring up your performance monitor. With AMD cards, you can enable performance monitoring via the Radeon overlay using the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + O.

Alternatively, you can download free software such as CapFrameX or Nvidia FrameView, to get a cleaner, more simplified benchmarking tool that works with any graphics card.

With handheld gaming PCs, most will have a dedicated button to access a quick menu from which performance monitoring, sometimes called real-time monitoring, can be accessed.

You can discuss Borderlands 4 and how it runs on your system in our community Discord server, where you can chat with members of the team and fellow PCGamesN readers.