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

GAMING NEWS Fyra Frost - Sep 15, 2025, 12:00 PM - 43 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.

SlDiorite5

Sep 20, 2025, 6:40 AM

Randy really needs a PR specialist by his side at all times. Every time he says something he ends up making people angry at Gearbox.

gennyshark

Sep 18, 2025, 6:54 PM

Many of the reviewers were having issues with extremely powerful setups, one of which had a 5090 and struggled to get above 60 FPS without DLSS, or another who claimed the game ran at a smooth 70 FPS... with most settings turned down and frame generation enabled, for a game that doesn't feel much better or more complex than its six-year-old predecessor, aside from being open world.

razbhoot

Sep 16, 2025, 1:20 PM

the game has had a really rough start, devs really need to check how well others can run the game before releasing it. that said, thos who can play it are having a great time

Athemith

Sep 16, 2025, 1:30 AM

Le jeu est un succès commercial sans être optimisé, mais la question qui me vient c'est : " Pourquoi?" Le jeu semble similaire aux anciens... Upgrade classique par rapport à l'avancée du jeu vidéo mais bon le gameplay reste vieillot, non? Quoiqu'il en soit, les lancements foireux semble être la norme dans cette industrie. Le mieux est d'attendre quelques semaines que les fixs soient optimisés. En attendant, je ne suis clairement pas convaincu, hors performances actuelles.

gif123

Sep 15, 2025, 9:23 PM

Borderlands 3’ün devam oyunu, güçlü satışlara rağmen PC’de ciddi performans sorunlarıyla gündemde. Oyuncular, yüksek sistemlerde bile takılmalar, kare düşmeleri ve çökme problemleri yaşıyor. Gearbox’ın day-one yaması bazı sorunları hafifletse de, özellikle eski donanımlarda oyun hâlâ stabil değil. CEO Randy Pitchford, performansın büyük ölçüde donanımlara bağlı olduğunu ve casus yazılım iddialarının asılsız olduğunu açıkladı. Oyuncular için en mantıklı yaklaşım, geliştiricilerin optimizasyon sorunlarını çözmesini ve gelecek güncellemelerle iyileştirmeler yapmasını beklemek.

68d12206d2c86_jonathansubtile

Sep 22, 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

Sep 20, 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

Sep 19, 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

Sep 19, 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

Sep 19, 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