Borderlands 4 finally launched a few days ago across all platforms, including PC. However, while the game promises the next big adventure filled with chaos, many PC players have been left disappointed due to performance issues. Early tests showed the game dropping down to only 30 FPS on an RTX 4080 without frame generation, and similar issues appeared after the official release. It’s fair to say that the game isn’t going to run well on many systems if you don’t use upscaling at the very least.

Following the wave of complaints, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford addressed the situation. Instead of promising quick fixes, his response leaned more toward defending the game’s demanding requirements. According to Pitchford, Borderlands 4 is a “premium game made for premium gamers,” meaning it was designed to take advantage of the latest PC hardware.

Outdated hardware isn’t good enough for Borderlands 4

He explained that the minimum and recommended specs had already been published, and anyone trying to run the game on outdated hardware should not expect smooth performance. He compared the situation to trying to run a PlayStation 5 game on a PlayStation 4, saying older PCs simply aren’t built to handle the kind of high-end features and large-scale environments that Borderlands 4 brings.

Pitchford also said that players with weaker systems should use Steam’s refund option if the game doesn’t run well for them, rather than continue to play with a “subpar experience.” This should cover anyone with 2 hours or less of playtime.

While his comments make sense for people with older PCs, the issue is that even players with top-of-the-line hardware are facing problems. For example, PC Gamer tested Borderlands 4 on a system with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU and Nvidia’s flagship RTX 5090 GPU, and the results were still underwhelming. Even with such high-end hardware, the game was still stuttering, and it even crashed at one point.

At the time of writing, Borderlands 4 has mixed reviews on Steam, with most of the negative reviews pointing directly to the performance problems. So far, the developers haven’t outlined any detailed plans to optimize the performance, but Pitchford has at least said the team is “doing significant work on PC performance” – adding that “we’re not stopping”. He also affirms that “a few real issues” affecting a small percentage of players have already been addressed, and more are being investigated.

About the Author

Abdul Haddi

Abdul is a tech writer and Editor for PC Guide, specializing in all things tech, gaming, and hardware.