Borderlands 4 is here, and it’s the most visually impressive entry the franchise has ever seen — and the toughest on PC hardware. The signature cel-shaded style pops with richer lighting, denser foliage, and big, chaotic fights, but that beauty comes at a steep performance cost. If you’re planning to play on PC, expect to lean heavily on upscaling and frame generation to keep frame rates in the playable range.
A quick note on the series’ look: Borderlands 4 still embraces its comic-book aesthetic, complete with thick black outlines. While it’s possible to remove those lines with manual ini tweaks, they’re a big part of the franchise’s identity and help the art direction shine at higher resolutions.
PC visual settings overview
Borderlands 4 offers plenty of options to tune visual quality and performance.
Basic options:
– Display Mode: Fullscreen/Windowed/Borderless
– Display Resolution
– Display Stats: None/FPS/All
– Limit Frame Rate and Custom FPS Limit
– Vertical Sync
– Calibrate Display and Calibrate HUD Area
– Field of View: 90–110
– Vehicle Field of View: 90–110
Advanced graphics:
– Presets from low to Badass (max), plus Auto-Detect
– Anti-Aliasing toggle (disabled if an upscaler is active)
– Upscaling methods: TSR, NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, Intel XeSS
– Upscaling quality from Ultra Performance to Full Resolution Native
– Spatial upscaling option for older hardware
– Scene Capture Quality controls
– Frame Generation support across GPUs, with RTX 50-series offering MFG 2x, 3x, and 4x modes
– NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency toggle
Borderlands 4 PC performance benchmarks
Native resolution
– 4K: Brutal. Even the RTX 5090 averages around 48 FPS with everything cranked, while other cards fall into the 30s or even single digits.
– 1440p: Only the very top cards, like the RTX 5090 and RTX 4090, reliably clear 60 FPS.
– 1080p: GPUs in the RTX 4070 Ti class and above can hit 60 FPS; mainstream cards land in the mid-20s to mid-30s.
With upscaling (DLSS/FSR/XeSS)
– 4K Quality upscaling: Still heavy. RTX 5090 moves to about 74 FPS; RTX 4090 hovers around 54 FPS.
– 1440p with upscaling: A much wider range of GPUs can achieve 60+ FPS, though heavy combat with explosions can still drag frames into the 50s or 40s.
– 1080p with upscaling: RTX 4060 Ti and above can clear 60 FPS. RTX 5060 and RTX 4060 owners will likely need frame generation or reduced settings to hit that target.
Frame generation
– If you’re chasing high refresh rates, turn on Frame-Gen. RTX 50-series cards benefit the most with 3x or 4x MFG modes.
– Note: Frame generation increases latency. Weapon animations can feel irregular unless you enable V-Sync to smooth things out.
VRAM usage
– VRAM demand scales quickly with resolution and texture quality. Plan on giving the game plenty of headroom at 1440p and especially 4K.
PC impressions and technical notes
Borderlands 4 is a looker, but it’s also one of the most demanding games of 2025 so far. The larger open spaces, denser effects, and relentless action amplify the load on both the GPU and CPU.
– Engine behavior: Built on Unreal Engine 5. Traversal stutters are present, and shader compilation runs at first launch (roughly one minute).
– CPU load: Expect high utilization and heat. On a Core i9-13900K, P-cores are pushed hard and temperatures can hover in the mid-80s Celsius under load.
– Stability: Users running 13th/14th-gen Intel chips with degraded or non-default settings should be cautious; instability and crashes are possible.
– Latency and smoothness: Frame generation helps FPS but can introduce a “floaty” feel. Enabling V-Sync improves consistency.
– Ray tracing: There’s currently no toggle to disable it, which could otherwise help lower-end systems.
Practical takeaways
– 4K: Use upscaling and Frame-Gen, even on the fastest cards. Expect compromises.
– 1440p: Quality upscaling is the sweet spot for most high-end GPUs; occasional dips in heavy firefights are normal.
– 1080p: Aim for Quality upscaling on midrange hardware; enable Frame-Gen or reduce settings if you’re on an RTX 4060/5060 tier.
The bottom line
Borderlands 4 delivers a stunning evolution of the series’ cel-shaded worlds, but it demands modern hardware to shine. Upscaling and frame generation aren’t just nice-to-have — they’re essential if you want smooth gameplay at higher resolutions. While engine hiccups and CPU heat are concerns at launch, future patches will likely smooth out many of the rough edges. If you’ve got a high-end rig, you’re in for a gorgeous, chaotic ride. If you’re on midrange or older hardware, be ready to lean on the game’s excellent upscalers and accept a few trade-offs to keep the action fluid.
