Striving for the best Borderlands 4 settings on PC can feel like an uphill battle. The game is currently grappling with widespread performance hiccups across all platforms, leaving many players frustrated. Even with top-tier hardware, you might find yourself struggling to maintain a smooth and stable frame rate.
Achieve Optimal Performance with These Borderlands 4 PC Settings
While Borderlands 4 undergoes further optimization, these recommended settings offer a solid balance between visual quality and a playable frame rate:
- 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
Applying these settings on our test PC (featuring an RTX 4070, detailed later in our ‘How We Tested’ section) yielded impressive results. At 1080p, we observed an average frame rate of 134fps, with 1% lows comfortably sitting at 51fps. Moving up to 1440p, the average dipped slightly to 126fps, maintaining strong 1% lows of 50fps. Even at 4K, the game remained quite playable with an average of 85fps, though the 1% lows dropped to 33fps.
We highly recommend enabling frame generation if your GPU supports it (DLSS for Nvidia, FSR for AMD, XeSS for Intel). Our tests showed a noticeable uplift in 1% lows across all resolutions after a recent update, making it a valuable tool for boosting your average frame rate, especially at 1080p and 1440p.
Despite the gains in average frame rate and 1% lows with frame generation, repeated testing at 1080p and 1440p revealed consistent dips in demanding areas. This suggests that while frame generation helps overall fluidity, significant stuttering and other visual glitches like blinking lights and texture pop-ins persist, indicating that the game still has room for improvement despite recent patches.
Exploring Borderlands 4’s Graphics Presets
Borderlands 4 offers five distinct graphics presets to choose from:
- Low
- Medium
- High
- Very High
- Badass
Interestingly, the “Badass” preset doesn’t automatically max out every graphical option. This leaves room for players with powerful rigs to push the visuals even further, if desired. We did note that switching between presets caused the game world to visibly reload all assets and textures, which could be a bit jarring. Furthermore, due to Borderlands’ signature art style, the visual differences between the ‘Low’ and ‘Badass’ settings aren’t as drastic as you might expect in other titles.
Comprehensive Accessibility Options
Borderlands 4 includes a robust accessibility menu designed to cater to a wide range of players. It covers essential features such as subtitles, various color and background adjustments, specific colorblind modes, and customizable input toggles. Many of these options are introduced during your initial game launch, but they can always be accessed and tweaked via the dedicated menu at any point during gameplay, without the need to restart your session.
Our Testing Methodology for Borderlands 4
Our rigorous testing process for new game releases, including Borderlands 4, relies on dedicated gaming rigs to pinpoint optimal performance settings. Our specific test setup for this analysis featured an Intel Core i7-11700F CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card, 32GB of DDR4 3,200MHz RAM in a dual-channel configuration, and an MSI B560 motherboard, all running on Windows 11 64-bit.
We conducted tests at multiple resolutions: starting at 1920 x 1080 to establish baseline optimal settings, then moving to 2560 x 1440 with the same configuration to assess performance scaling. Finally, we pushed the system with 4K resolution tests. To ensure accurate and consistent data, we utilized industry-standard tools for frame data capture and session comparison.
Is an SSD Essential for Borderlands 4?
Yes, an SSD (Solid State Drive) is a mandatory requirement for Borderlands 4, as indicated by the game’s system specifications. With a substantial download size of 100GB, ensuring adequate storage space on a fast drive is crucial for optimal loading times and in-game performance. If you’re still relying on an older mechanical hard drive, upgrading to an SSD is highly recommended for a vastly improved experience.
Easily Monitor Your Borderlands 4 Performance
Keeping tabs on your in-game performance is straightforward, regardless of your graphics card brand. For Nvidia users, simply ensure the Nvidia App is installed and the in-game overlay is active. Then, press Alt + R during gameplay to access your performance monitor. If you’re running an AMD card, the Radeon overlay offers similar functionality, accessible via Ctrl + Shift + O.
For a universal solution, consider free third-party software like CapFrameX or Nvidia FrameView. These tools provide a clean, simplified benchmarking experience compatible with any graphics card. Handheld gaming PCs typically feature a dedicated button for quick access to a performance monitoring menu.
Join our vibrant community to discuss Borderlands 4 and share your system’s performance experiences with fellow gamers!