If you’ve been diving into Borderlands 4 on PC recently and noticed some frustrating stuttering, you’re not alone. Developer Gearbox has officially addressed these performance hiccups, advising players to simply wait about 15 minutes for the game’s shaders to finish compiling in the background.
This advice comes after a September 25 update, originally intended to fix Borderlands 4’s persistent performance issues on PC, inadvertently introduced new stuttering problems for many players. Despite efforts to enhance the game, the patch seems to have created a fresh wave of technical frustrations.
The game currently holds a ‘Mixed’ rating on Steam, with a significant portion of negative reviews pointing directly to PC performance. Even respected tech analysts at Digital Foundry previously highlighted severe stuttering in their initial Borderlands 4 PC analysis, suggesting players steer clear of the ‘Badass’ graphics preset.
In response to these mounting complaints, Gearbox took to social media, urging players to let the game run for about 15 minutes. During this time, shaders should continue to compile in the background, ideally smoothing out any stuttering. If the problem persists, their next recommendation is to manually clear your graphics card’s shader cache using your manufacturer’s guidelines. Should all else fail, Gearbox encourages players to submit a support ticket.
The official Borderlands social media account stated: “We’ve received reports that some players are experiencing reduced stability after downloading today’s update. Stuttering issues should resolve over time as the shaders continue to compile in the background while playing. If you’re still experiencing issues after 15 minutes of…” (referring to the troubleshooting steps).
Experienced Borderlands 4 PC players are familiar with the initial shader compilation upon booting the game. However, it seems this initial process isn’t capturing all necessary shader data, leading to in-game stuttering as more shaders are compiled dynamically during play. This continuous background compilation is the likely culprit behind the performance drops.
This isn’t the first time Gearbox has offered similar advice. Earlier on Steam, they suggested that “any time you change any of your graphics settings, your shaders will need to recompile. Please keep playing for at least 15 minutes to see how your PC’s performance has changed.” This consistent guidance implies a recurring issue with dynamic shader compilation, rather than a one-off patch problem.
In the meantime, some savvy players are finding their own workarounds. They suggest visiting specific zones in the game to ‘force’ shaders to compile upfront, hoping to minimize stuttering during desired gameplay.
For example, community member Ki11er Six suggested: “To expand on this: quit the game once after launching and relaunch it. Now travel into a zone and back out (Idolator Sol’s or a Vault will work) this should compile a BUNCH of shaders and start improving the smoothness. Shader compiling is rough.”
If you’re jumping into Borderlands 4, make sure you’re well-equipped! Look for the latest SHiFT codes to grab some awesome loot. And don’t forget to check out community-made interactive maps and planner tools to optimize your Vault Hunter’s journey. Even with the best tools, choosing the right character can be tough – our expert players couldn’t even agree on that one!
This article was reported by Wesley Yin-Poole, Director of News at IGN.