Borderlands 4 is one of the worst examples of game optimization we have seen in some time. It is not a bad-looking game by any means, but it is far too demanding for the visuals and overall experience it delivers.
For some reason, the developer's CEO, Randy Pitchford, thinks this problem is the players' fault – the very gamers trying to enjoy Borderlands 4. He claims the game is actually well-optimized, suggesting that PC gamers are just a group of people with subpar hardware. Mr. Pitchford should probably stop talking and let the community fix the mess if he is not going to take responsibility himself.
Today we will help you improve Borderlands 4's performance through a set of sensible setting tweaks, and no, we are not just going to suggest enabling frame generation and calling it a day. We will explore every setting in the game and examine how each one affects both visuals and performance.
This will give you a set of optimal settings worth trying. Normally, we call these "optimization guides," but we honestly do not believe setting tweaks alone can bring this game to a truly optimized state. This is more of a "get things running a little faster and hope for the best" guide.
Honestly, this is more of a "get things running a little faster and hope for the best" guide.
Before we get started, here are a few quick notes about the test systems used. All visual comparisons were captured at 4K using the Nvidia RTX 5090 with DLSS Quality enabled. When watching the clips showcasing different settings, we strongly recommend viewing them in YouTube's 4K mode for the highest bitrate.
Performance testing was done primarily on an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB at 1440p with DLSS Quality enabled. The CPU used was the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, paired with 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory.
Borderlands 4 supports modern upscalers like DLSS 4 and FSR 4. We recommend using these, as they provide better visual quality than native rendering with TSR or especially FXAA.
Our recommendations from previous analyses still apply. At 4K, using Performance mode for DLSS or FSR still delivers good image quality. At 1440p, we suggest at least using Balanced mode, but ideally Quality. At 1080p, we recommend Quality upscaling.
Frame generation is often cited as a "fix" for Borderlands 4's performance issues and is widely promoted in Nvidia's optimized settings for this game. However, frame generation does not improve actual performance and can slightly reduce it when enabled. It also does not reduce latency. In fact, the overhead from using frame generation increases latency.
If you are struggling with low FPS and the game feels slow or unresponsive, frame generation will not solve the problem.
If you are struggling with low FPS and the game feels slow or unresponsive, frame generation will not solve the problem. It also will not fix stuttering, which is a common issue with this game.
Frame generation should only be enabled if you are already satisfied with the game's base performance and responsiveness. In that case, it can enhance the smoothness of motion, especially for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, if you are starting at 40 FPS, we do not recommend using it.
Hierarchical Level-of-Detail (HLOD) Loading Range
The first major setting is HLOD Loading Range. Initially, we thought this setting might significantly affect draw distance and object pop-in, but that does not seem to be the case. Instead, it mainly impacts the loading of very distant objects.
Occasionally, you may notice certain objects not loading when set to Near instead of Far, but this is difficult to spot due to the heavy use of fog in the game.
In our benchmarks, we observed a 1% performance improvement when using Medium or Near. The difference between Medium and Far was negligible, so we recommend using Medium to gain a small performance boost without a noticeable visual downgrade.
Geometry Quality
Geometry Quality controls the distance at which dynamic objects are rendered. For example, trees have two possible models: a dynamic, animated version that sways in the wind, and a static version with no movement.
Higher Geometry Quality settings increase the distance at which dynamic models are used, making the world feel more alive.
We did not see much change in average frame rate when lowering this setting. However, there was up to a 4% improvement in 1% low performance when set to Low. Depending on the environment, reducing this setting can be noticeable, so we suggest sticking with High unless you desperately need more performance.
Texture Quality
Texture Quality is an interesting setting because it does not behave in a conventional way. In many other games, lowering this setting causes a universal reduction in texture resolution across the entire game world. Moving from the maximum to minimum setting typically results in blurry textures on every object on screen.
In Borderlands 4, however, this is not the case. For the most part, texture quality – at least while stationary – appears identical between Very High and Low. The main difference is that the Low setting does not load certain secondary detail textures on specific objects, such as the gun you are holding or trash on the ground. This can make some objects look slightly flat or blurry.
For a better representation of image quality comparisons, check out the HUB video below:
The biggest difference becomes apparent while in motion. Lower texture quality settings take longer to load the highest quality textures. It seems that this setting adjusts the overall texture pool size, which causes more frequent swapping at lower settings.
This was most noticeable when grappling to walls. On Very High, the best quality textures were visible immediately, but at Medium, there was a slight delay before the highest quality textures appeared. On Low, the delay was clear and distracting. Low was also the quickest to reduce the quality of other textures while moving, although this effect was more subtle.
This approach is preferable to a universal drop in texture quality at lower settings because the game still tries to present the best visuals possible within the limits you set. This is likely one of the only aspects of the game that is reasonably optimized.
The Texture Quality setting has no impact on FPS performance directly. As long as textures fit within your VRAM, both Very High and Low will deliver the same frame rate. However, there can be a significant difference in VRAM usage between settings. This setting has the largest effect on VRAM consumption, so adjustments may be necessary for GPUs with limited VRAM, depending on your resolution and whether you are using upscaling.
Texture Quality Setting VRAM Usage (GB)
| Setting | Very High | High | Medium | Low |
| 4K Native DLAA | 14.3 | 13.7 | 12.6 | 11.8 |
| 4K DLSS Quality | 12.0 | 11.5 | 10.5 | 9.5 |
| 1440p Native DLAA | 11.6 | 10.9 | 9.9 | 8.9 |
| 1440p DLSS Quality | 10.8 | 10.2 | 9.2 | 8.2 |
| 1080p Native DLAA | 10.7 | 10.1 | 9.2 | 8.3 |
| 1080p DLSS Quality | 10.3 | 9.6 | 8.7 | 7.8 |
Each setting appears to act as an offset, based on testing done with an RTX 5090, which has more than enough VRAM for this game. Across different resolutions, lowering the setting from Very High to High reduced VRAM usage by roughly 0.5GB. Medium resulted in a 1.5GB reduction, and Low reduced usage by about 2.5GB.
Based on testing, Borderlands 4 should be playable on most configurations with a 12GB GPU. For 4K native gameplay, we recommend 16GB of VRAM. At 1440p, you can likely play with 10GB if you use DLSS Quality and Medium textures. High textures may work, but 12GB would be ideal for this resolution.
GPUs with 8GB of VRAM at 1440p will require both Low textures and reductions to other settings. Even at 1080p with upscaling, 8GB cards may struggle to run the game smoothly at the highest texture settings.
We recommend keeping this setting as high as your VRAM allows, ideally on Very High, to maintain the best visual quality.
Texture Streaming Speed
The Texture Streaming Speed setting did not appear to make a noticeable difference during our testing, although this could be because we were using high-end hardware. It did not improve the slow texture loading issue we observed when using Low textures. For example, both the Very High and Medium Streaming Speed settings produced identical loading times.
This setting also had no effect on performance or VRAM usage, so it is safe to leave it on Very High.
Anisotropic Filtering Quality
Anisotropic Filtering Quality works the same in Borderlands 4 as in most other games: higher settings preserve texture detail at greater distances and sharper viewing angles. Lower settings cause textures to appear blurry, especially at 2x filtering or lower, where the visuals start to look noticeably poor.
From a performance perspective, there is little reason to reduce this setting unless you are using extremely slow hardware that likely cannot run the game properly. We had to drop the setting all the way to 2x filtering before seeing more than a 1% performance change, and that difference only affected the 1% lows.
Turning this setting off entirely can recover about a 2% boost to overall frame rate, but the loss in visual quality is not worth it. We recommend keeping this setting on the highest level available.
Foliage Density
The Foliage Density setting is super simple: lowering it reduces the amount of grass and shrubs visible on screen. Very High and High look very similar, while Medium produces a slight reduction in the amount of vegetation.
Settings at Low or below should be avoided, as they drastically reduce the amount of grass, making the world look flat and unnatural. The replacement ground textures that appear at these lower settings are of poor quality and negatively impact the game's visuals.
In our standard benchmark run, this setting had minimal impact on performance, providing just a 1% increase when moving to Medium and around a 3% improvement to 1% lows when dropping to Low or Very Low.
However, in a second test conducted in a dense foliage area, lowering the setting to Medium improved FPS by about 3%, while going to Low or Very Low recovered 5% or more.
For most players with capable GPUs, we recommend leaving this setting on Very High. If you need additional performance, consider reducing it to Medium.
Volumetric Fog
Volumetric Fog controls the resolution of the fog effects throughout the game. Lower settings reduce the resolution, which is especially noticeable when moving, as the fog appears less defined and light penetration looks less natural.
For a better representation of image quality comparisons, check out the HUB video below:
Very High provides the most detailed and cleanest effect, with minimal aliasing. High is a very close match and should satisfy most players. Medium and Low reduce the definition of the fog significantly, although the effect is never completely removed. In some scenes, these lower settings can still look surprisingly similar to Very High.
This is a simple setting to optimize. Lowering it to High offers about a 5% improvement in FPS, along with a noticeable boost to 1% lows. Going below High yields only minor performance gains and is not worth the substantial visual downgrade.
Volumetric Cloud
Volumetric Cloud works similarly to Volumetric Fog but affects cloud resolution. Very High and High look almost identical. However, dropping to Medium or Low results in more visible grain and rough edges, especially along the borders of clouds.
Medium still looks decent, especially considering that overall cloud quality is not particularly impressive in this game, so it is not something you will focus on often while playing.
High provides about a 2% boost to average performance compared to Very High, while Medium offers around a 3% improvement. Because the visual difference is small, we recommend using Medium for most configurations or even Low if you need maximum performance.
Shadow Quality
There are two shadow-related settings in Borderlands 4, the first simply labeled Shadow Quality. This controls shadows cast by artificial light sources, such as fires and electric lights. The first three options look very similar, with only minor differences in shadow accuracy and resolution that you are unlikely to notice during gameplay.
For a better representation of image quality comparisons, check out the HUB video below:
However, lowering the setting to Low removes the soft shadow effect and replaces it with sharp, simple shadows. The Low setting can sometimes look strange, especially if you switch to it immediately after using a higher setting. Still, it does render shadows, and it is a viable option if you are looking for the largest performance boost.
For most players, we recommend starting with Medium. Dropping from Very High to Medium increases FPS by about 3% with minimal visual impact. The Low setting is worth considering in performance-focused configurations, as it provides a 5% to 6% performance boost. Lowering this setting also slightly reduces VRAM usage, by up to 0.4GB when going from Very High to Low.
Directional Shadow Quality
Directional Shadow Quality controls shadows cast by the sun, making it especially important for outdoor areas. The main differences here are shadow resolution and aliasing. Lower settings result in more jagged and grainy shadows in motion, particularly from objects like trees swaying in the wind.
For a better representation of image quality comparisons, check out the HUB video below:
Very High and High appear very similar. Medium shows slightly more aliasing, and Low produces very grainy and unpleasant shadows. Static shadows look similar across all settings, and the distance at which higher-quality shadows are drawn does not change.
Since High and Very High look almost identical, lowering this setting from Very High to High is a safe way to gain about 3% more FPS. Medium is also a reasonable choice, providing a 5% boost to average performance, though Low is not recommended due to the visual downgrade.
Volumetric Cloud Shadows
Volumetric Cloud Shadows controls whether shadows cast by clouds are rendered. In outdoor daytime scenes, this determines whether you see an overcast effect when clouds pass in front of the sun.
With the setting enabled, the world dynamically darkens and brightens as the sun moves behind or out from the clouds. With it disabled, the game world appears to be in constant sunlight. While the game still looks fine without it, keeping this setting enabled makes the environment feel more dynamic and realistic.
The trade-off is performance. Disabling cloud shadows increases performance by about 4% to 5%. We prefer the game with this feature enabled for its added realism, but it is understandable to disable it if you need the extra FPS. Either choice is valid depending on your priorities.
Lighting Quality
Lighting Quality has the most significant performance impact of any setting in Borderlands 4. It controls the level of Lumen software-based global illumination.
For a better representation of image quality comparisons, check out the HUB video below:
This setting determines how accurately light bounces and spreads throughout a scene. Higher settings provide a more realistic look, especially in areas with indirect or reflected light, while lower settings reduce this effect for better performance.
The difference between Very High and High is minimal, making Very High largely unnecessary and a waste of performance. However, the gap between High and Medium is more noticeable, especially in areas with lots of bounce lighting. For example, on High, a gun may reflect light coming from behind the player, whereas on Medium, it appears more in shadow. Similarly, caves look brighter and more naturally lit on High compared to Medium.
Despite these differences, there are many scenes where the two settings look nearly identical. In fact, across most areas, Low and Medium are almost indistinguishable, with only minor improvements seen on Medium.
This makes the choice straightforward. We recommend using Medium for Lighting Quality in Borderlands 4, only increasing to High if you have a high-end graphics card.
- Medium improves performance by a massive 27% compared to the Very High setting used in the Badass preset.
- High still offers a solid 12% boost over Very High with very little loss in visual quality.
Switching to Medium also reduces VRAM usage by around 0.4GB.
Reflections Quality
Reflections Quality is a simpler setting. The first three options – Very High, High, and Medium – control the resolution of Lumen-based reflections.
- Very High and High look nearly identical.
- Medium introduces a slight increase in grain and shimmering in some scenes, which can occasionally be distracting.
- Low disables Lumen reflections entirely, relying only on screen space reflections (SSR).
At certain angles, SSR can display decent reflections, but at others, it completely fails to render them, resulting in reflections disappearing entirely.
Switching to Low improves performance by about 6%, but the visual downgrade is severe, so this option should only be used if you absolutely need the extra performance. Medium is an acceptable compromise, though for most players we recommend keeping this setting on High to maintain a balance between visuals and performance.
Shading Quality
Shading Quality is an interesting setting because, while the game claims it only impacts material quality, it appears to affect multiple elements.
For a better representation of image quality comparisons, check out the HUB video below:
The most noticeable effect is on surface details. At higher settings, some surfaces gain additional imperfections, such as rust or corrosion, even though these settings have no extra VRAM cost. For example, at High, rust and corrosion details become visible, while lowering the setting to Low removes them entirely. Similarly, ground textures lose some of their rocky elements at Low, and water surfaces become visibly simplified compared to higher settings.
In addition, Shading Quality seems to affect a form of ambient occlusion or self-shadowing. This is particularly noticeable in indoor scenes, where the High setting generates additional shadows that add depth and realism. Outdoors, this effect is subtler and can be difficult to notice.
This setting is quite performance-intensive. Lowering it to Medium improves FPS by about 8% on average, while reducing it to Low boosts performance by around 12%. Because Low can noticeably degrade scene details, especially water and certain textures, we recommend using Medium as a good compromise. Low should only be used on performance-constrained systems.
Post-Process Quality
Post-Process Quality is straightforward. It controls effects like the subtle depth-of-field blur applied to your weapon. Higher settings reduce aliasing in these effects, while lowering it to Medium or Low introduces shimmering that is very noticeable.
In our testing, reducing this setting to High provided a 2% performance improvement without a significant drop in visual quality. This makes High a safe and effective choice.
Optimized Settings
After analyzing all the graphics options, we have created our recommended optimized settings. Compared to the Badass preset, we suggest lowering several settings while leaving others maxed out.
Some settings, such as Geometry Quality and Anisotropic Filtering, have little to no performance impact and should remain at their maximum values. More demanding settings, like Lighting Quality and Shadow Quality, are best reduced to Medium.
| Setting | TechSpot Quality |
| HLOD Loading Range | Medium |
| Geometry Quality | High |
| Texture Quality | Very High |
| Textures Streaming Speed | Very High |
| Anisotropic Filtering Quality | X16 |
| Foliage Density | Very High |
| Volumetric Fog | High |
| Volumetric Cloud | Medium |
| Shadow Quality | Medium |
| Directional Shadow Quality | High |
| Volumetric Cloud Shadows | Enabled |
| Lighting Quality | Medium |
| Reflections Quality | High |
| Shading Quality | Medium |
| Post-Process Quality | High |
| Motion Blur | Off |
| Nvidia Reflex Low Latency | On |
| Scene Capture Quality | Full Resolution |
| Lowest Upscaling at 4K | DLSS 4 / FSR 4 Performance |
| Lowest Upscaling at 1440p | DLSS 4 / FSR 4 Balanced |
| Lowest Upscaling at 1080p | DLSS 4 / FSR 4 Quality |
| Frame Generation | Only at Good Baseline FPS |
For even greater performance gains, additional settings can be lowered to Medium or Low, depending on your hardware. However, even on slower systems, we recommend keeping Texture Quality at its highest level if you have enough VRAM.
| Setting | TechSpot Performance |
| HLOD Loading Range | Medium |
| Geometry Quality | Medium |
| Texture Quality | Very High |
| Textures Streaming Speed | Very High |
| Anisotropic Filtering Quality | X16 |
| Foliage Density | Medium |
| Volumetric Fog | High |
| Volumetric Cloud | Low |
| Shadow Quality | Low |
| Directional Shadow Quality | Medium |
| Volumetric Cloud Shadows | Disabled |
| Lighting Quality | Medium |
| Reflections Quality | Medium |
| Shading Quality | Low |
| Post-Process Quality | High |
| Motion Blur | Off |
| Nvidia Reflex Low Latency | On |
| Scene Capture Quality | Full Resolution |
| Lowest Upscaling at 4K | DLSS 4 / FSR 4 Performance |
| Lowest Upscaling at 1440p | DLSS 4 / FSR 4 Balanced |
| Lowest Upscaling at 1080p | DLSS 4 / FSR 4 Quality |
| Frame Generation | Only at Good Baseline FPS |
Our TS/HUB Quality preset provides performance between the game's High and Medium presets, leaning closer to Medium. This configuration offers a 60% performance improvement over the Badass preset and a 40% improvement compared to Very High.
Our TS/HUB Performance preset is slightly faster than the Medium preset. It delivers an 87% increase in FPS compared to Badass and about a 7% improvement over Medium, while maintaining significantly better visual fidelity than the Low preset.
Optimized Settings vs Presets
The visual results of these optimized settings depend on the specific areas you are exploring. Generally, the TS/HUB Quality preset resembles a mix of Very High and High settings. It keeps maximum texture quality and detail, avoiding unnecessary reductions to settings like Anisotropic Filtering, while slightly lowering shadows, volumetric effects, and lighting.
For a better representation of image quality comparisons, check out the HUB video below:
Most of the time, these reductions are subtle and difficult to notice compared to Very High. However, the Badass preset can occasionally produce a more vibrant and dynamic look, so there are still some visual trade-offs.
As we've nerfed Lighting quality down to Medium this does have an impact in some indoor scenes, where lighting may appear less realistic. The game still looks good overall, but this is one area where compromises are visible. Players with high-end GPUs may prefer to raise Lighting Quality to High for better visuals.
The TS/HUB Performance preset is visually similar to Medium but performs better and avoids the severe visual downgrades of the built-in Medium preset. For example, the default Medium preset reduces Anisotropic Filtering to 2X and Texture Quality to Medium, which can make the game look blurry, especially in motion.
Our preset keeps these settings at maximum, only recommending reductions if your VRAM is insufficient – such as when using an 8GB GPU.
Wrap Up
While we have worked to improve Borderlands 4's performance with these optimized settings, this game cannot be considered well-optimized just by lowering settings.
First, our changes do not fix Unreal Engine 5 traversal stutter. This issue must be addressed by the developer. Additionally, there is no setting to remove the 30 FPS cap in cutscenes through the in-game menus.
Even with our improvements, the game still runs poorly relative to its visuals. On a GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB using DLSS 4 Quality upscaling at 1440p with the TS/HUB Quality preset, we typically achieved 60 to 70 FPS in open-world gameplay. While playable, this is underwhelming for a modern mainstream GPU.
For comparison, the same GPU can run Cyberpunk 2077 on High settings at 1440p without upscaling at a higher frame rate. It can also handle a visually superior game like Star Wars Outlaws at a similar frame rate using the Ultra preset with DLSS, and that is before applying our optimized settings for that title.
After carefully analyzing every setting, it appears Gearbox Software implemented Unreal Engine 5 features without considering how they would scale on lower-end hardware. For instance, Borderlands 4 uses Nanite, which is designed for ultra-high detail assets. This feature is unnecessary given the game's stylized, cell-shaded art style and likely contributes to poor performance.
There are also odd design decisions. For example, players can completely disable grass, making the game world look terrible, but there are no options to adjust shadow draw distance or disable grass shadows to improve performance. While lower texture settings are handled reasonably well, lighting settings are punishing at the highest levels, providing minimal visual improvement for basically a placebo increase in visuals. Why isn't there a better balance between these things?
We are not game developers, so there may be good technical reasons why Borderlands 4 uses features like Nanite and why some settings don't scale well. However, given the game's performance, Gearbox would need very strong justification for why these features were implemented as they are which makes the game run like a mess.
Hopefully, these optimized settings are useful and help you achieve a better balance between performance and visual quality. After playing Borderlands 4 a bit while creating this guide, so far it actually seems like a decent game, which makes its poor performance all the more frustrating.