Borderlands 4, Nvidia's latest bundle game, demands 100GB but runs well on mid-range PCs

[Daniel Sims]

Highly anticipated: Borderlands 4, one of 2025's most anticipated games, launches in a couple of days. Nvidia is bundling the first-person shooter with most RTX 50 series graphics cards, and Gearbox recently published the system requirements along with a full list of in-game customization features.

Other than the 100GB storage requirement and the recommendation that users have 32GB of RAM, Borderlands 4's spec sheet indicates that the game is well-optimized for modern mid-range PCs. However, the shift to Unreal Engine 5 makes it far more demanding than Borderlands 3 or Tiny Tina's Wonderlands.

For comparison, the last Borderlands title, released just three years ago, recommended a quad-core CPU and an Nvidia GTX 1060, a graphics card released in 2016. Borderlands 4, the first entry to drop support for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, requires at least an 8-core processor and an RTX 2070. The recommended GPUs are the RTX 3080, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, and Intel Arc B580. Nvidia's press releases do not mention hardware-accelerated ray tracing, but the game utilizes Unreal Engine 5's Nanite and Lumen rendering technologies.

Also Read: Most Anticipated PC Games of 2025

Click to enlarge

Gearbox has joined the welcome trend of publishing every graphics and accessibility setting so players know what they can toggle before spending $70 on the game. Borderlands 4 allows players to activate custom frame rate limits, in-game performance metrics, motion blur, audio accessibility options, adaptive triggers, text scaling, multi-frame generation, and much more. DLSS 4, FSR, XeSS, and TSR upscaling are also supported, and support for Borderlands 4 has been added in the latest AMD and Nvidia drivers.

Nvidia offers free Borderlands 4 Steam codes to customers who purchase a desktop or laptop RTX 5070, 5070 Ti, 5080, or 5090 before September 22. Redeeming a code requires installing the Nvidia app, and users must do so before October 22.

The latest entry in Gearbox's looter shooter series closely resembles its predecessors but takes players to a new world and introduces new playable characters. New tools, such as a grappling hook, will enhance traversal.

Borderlands 4 launches on Steam, the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series consoles on September 12 at midnight in most territories. However, the PC version launches several hours earlier, at noon ET on September 11. The Nintendo Switch 2 version launches on October 3.

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Borderlands 4, Nvidia's latest bundle game, demands 100GB but runs well on mid-range PCs

 

[Anton Longshot]

So OK I can run this on my box.
I'm not happy about super large 100GB-ish) games though.
While I might think they stuffed tons of MOVIES (I prefer real movies...) in there I've always suspected this is really a half-hearted attempt at preventing pirating.
"Pirates must be poor so they cannot afford large SSD's right?" <<< Not sure this is how it works.

 

[J95qRP7]

Is 100GB for a game, a lot of space? In August 2023, I bought a Lexar NM790 4TB for $268 AUD, That's like $165USD. Even at 500GB SATA SSD will get you 4 games and it's mostly the same performance, according to HUB and TPU. How many games do people need installed?

 

[letsgoiowa]

8 core required or just a fast enough 6 core? They should specify because there's currently not any other game out there that absolutely needs 8.

 

[corrosive23]

Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: Denuvo

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: Denuvo

Looks like as waiting till sale without it.
- less DRM
- less bugs
- lower price

 

[emmzo]

Requires at least an 8-core processor? So, my Ryzen 5 9600x, 6 core is already not good enough, although being better than an i7 9700k?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Looks like as waiting till sale without it.
- less DRM
- less bugs
- lower price

Don't forget, by running the game you give 2k the right to scrape your PC for personal information, and give them the right to ban your copy of the game if you mod, talk about performance issues, or upset somebody.

 

[Trapped Nowhere]

First time seeing an intel product in one of these min/rec sheets before. didn't know they do non integrated gfx

 

[LordVile95]

Requires at least an 8-core processor? So, my Ryzen 5 9600x, 6 core is already not good enough, although being better than an i7 9700k?

“Or equivalent” if it performs the same or better then you’re good.

 

[bviktor]

So OK I can run this on my box.
I'm not happy about super large 100GB-ish) games though.
While I might think they stuffed tons of MOVIES (I prefer real movies...) in there I've always suspected this is really a half-hearted attempt at preventing pirating.
"Pirates must be poor so they cannot afford large SSD's right?" <<< Not sure this is how it works.

No need for conspiracy theories. More visual clarity = more disk space used. You have to store those visual details somewhere, you don't pull it from thin air. Game graphics are getting better, and so are their space requirements getting bigger. End of story.

 

[Athlonite69]

No need for conspiracy theories. More visual clarity = more disk space used. You have to store those visual details somewhere, you don't pull it from thin air. Game graphics are getting better, and so are their space requirements getting bigger. End of story.

But the graphics aren't really that much better than BL3 though looking at the screenshot above you can only make a cartoon look so good before you need to use other types of realistic textures (which this game does not) since the time of the S3 Virge graphics cards we've been waiting for photo realistic textures

 

[Starfals]

Is 100GB for a game, a lot of space? In August 2023, I bought a Lexar NM790 4TB for $268 AUD, That's like $165USD. Even at 500GB SATA SSD will get you 4 games and it's mostly the same performance, according to HUB and TPU. How many games do people need installed?

Idk about others, but I got around 350 games installed on SSDs. I like all of them and play them when I feel like it. Its like watching your fav movies or tv series on Netflix. You just wanna do it and you do it. I dont wanna download and install, wait and configure the settings and controls again. I just want them ready to go when im in the mood, a mood that can be gone in any time. I get it, play 1, finish and delete. Nah, not me. I keep the quality games. Yes, all 350 games are quality to me, many of them are older of course but still. I got 14TB of SSDs and they are already 95% full. All modern games push 100GB too, so ill probably need more. I could delete a few that aint 100% my fav, but the issue remains. I got more than 300 games that aint going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

All modern games push 100GB too ....

I am afraid I do not play modern game.
It has "only" 80GB

 

[VvvPpp]

Runs on mid-range PC? Not according to just about every review on Steam with people complaining of stutter, crashes and poor optimization.

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

Runs on mid-range PC? Not according to just about every review on Steam with people complaining of stutter, crashes and poor optimization.

What do you call midrange?

rtx 5060 Ti 16GB at FullHD (1920x1080) on Low does not give 60 fps without upscaling according to TPU and Techspot tests.