How to improve FPS in Borderlands 4 (PC)
Borderlands 4 is one of the worst-optimized releases of recent years: it demands far more hardware than its cel-shaded visuals justify. It's built on Unreal Engine 5 with Nanite and Lumen, and neither can be turned off from the menu. The good news is that the game's most expensive setting, Lighting Quality, is also the one you'll notice least when you lower it: dropping it from Very High to Medium hands back 27% FPS. With the full set of tweaks in this guide you recover around 60% compared to the Badass preset.
This is what you'd gain with a NVIDIA RTX 4060
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Calculations based on our FPS model combined with the % gain of each setting (measured in public benchmarks).
1. Quick wins (no visual loss)
Start here. Each one adds a little, but together they give +13% free FPS.
Motion Blur
Motion blur muddies fast-paced gunfights, which is exactly what defines Borderlands. Turning it off gives you a sharper image and frees up some GPU headroom.
HLOD Loading Range
Controls the loading of very distant objects, not overall draw distance. With the game's constant fog, the difference between Medium and Far is nearly impossible to spot.
Post-Process Quality
Dropping from Very High to High doesn't introduce the flickering that shows up at Medium or Low. It's a safe, free downgrade.
Volumetric Cloud
The game's cloud quality isn't its strong suit and you'll rarely stare at them anyway. Medium keeps a decent look; below that, grain appears at the edges.
Volumetric Cloud Shadows
These are the shadows cast by clouds passing in front of the sun. Turning them off leaves the world with constant, less dynamic lighting, but it's one of the most cost-effective downgrades in the game.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Lighting Quality
This is by far the most important setting: it controls Lumen's software-based global illumination. Between Very High and High the visual difference is minimal, and between High and Medium it's only noticeable in caves and areas with lots of bounced light. Lowering it to Medium frees up 27% performance; if you have a powerful card, High still gives you 12%.
Shading Quality
Affects surface detail (rust, corrosion) and a form of ambient occlusion that's most noticeable indoors. Medium is the sweet spot; Low gives you 12% but visibly simplifies water and ground textures.
Reflections Quality
Very High and High are nearly identical. Medium introduces grain in some scenes, and Low disables Lumen reflections entirely, leaving only SSR, which fails at many angles.
Volumetric Fog
High is nearly indistinguishable from Very High and also improves your 1% lows. Below High, the fog loses definition with barely any extra gain.
Directional Shadow Quality
These are the sun's shadows, key for outdoor areas. High looks practically the same as Very High; Medium gives 5% but with more jagged edges on moving tree shadows.
Shadow Quality
Affects shadows from artificial light sources like fires and spotlights. The top three options look very similar; Low removes softening and leaves hard shadows, but gives 5-6%.
Texture Quality
Doesn't affect FPS as long as textures fit in VRAM — it only changes memory usage. Going from Very High to Low saves about 2.5 GB. With 12 GB you can leave it maxed out; with 8 GB at 1440p you'll need to drop it to Low and adjust other settings too.
Foliage Density
On the standard benchmark route it barely changes anything, but in dense vegetation areas Medium recovers 3% and Low 5% or more. Avoid Low or below in general — the ground revealed underneath is low quality.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
DLSS 4 Quality (NVIDIA RTX)
+35% FPSUpscaling isn't optional in Borderlands 4. DLSS 4 delivers better quality than native TSR and far better than FXAA. Use Quality at 1080p, Balanced at 1440p, and Performance at 4K.
FSR 4 Quality (AMD RDNA4)
+33% FPSFSR 4 comes very close to DLSS 4 in image quality. Same recommendations by resolution: Quality at 1080p, Balanced at 1440p, Performance at 4K.
XeSS Quality (Intel Arc)
+28% FPSXeSS is the option on Arc cards and performs better than the game's built-in TSR. Keep your Intel drivers up to date.
Frame Generation (only with a good baseline)
+0% FPSWatch out with this one: frame generation does NOT fix poor performance and it also adds latency. If you're starting from 40 FPS, don't turn it on. It only makes sense if you're already running comfortably and want to take advantage of a high-refresh monitor.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Turn NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency On: the game supports it and it offsets some of the latency the engine adds.
- •DLSS 4 in Quality mode at 1080p is practically indistinguishable from native and is the first lever you should pull.
- •With 8 GB of VRAM you'll run into trouble even at 1080p with upscaling: drop Texture Quality to Low before anything else.
AMD
- •FSR 4 is only available on RDNA 4; on earlier cards you'll have to settle for FSR 3.
- •The RX 6800 XT is the official recommendation for 1440p at 60 FPS with the Medium preset.
- •Radeon Anti-Lag helps with responsiveness, which is a real problem in this game.
Intel
- •The Arc B580 is the officially recommended Intel GPU; the A580 is the minimum.
- •XeSS performs better than the game's built-in TSR on Arc hardware.
- •Keep your drivers up to date: Intel has been rolling out improvements for UE5 titles.
Sistema
- •Install it on an SSD: it's an official requirement, not a recommendation.
- •32 GB of RAM is the figure recommended by 2K, and with 16 GB you'll notice stutter in open areas.
- •Traversal stutter is an engine problem that no setting can fix.
5. Known game issues
Stutter while traveling the world (traversal stutter)
This is the typical Unreal Engine 5 shader compilation and streaming issue. Lowering settings won't fix it — it depends on Gearbox patching it.
Cutscenes capped at 30 FPS
The game locks cutscenes to 30 FPS and there's no menu option to remove the cap.
8 GB VRAM cards struggling
Even at 1080p with upscaling, 8 GB cards can run tight with textures maxed out. At 1440p they need Low textures and additional cutbacks.
6. Frequently asked questions
Which setting gives the most FPS in Borderlands 4?▾
Can I play Borderlands 4 with an 8 GB card?▾
Does frame generation fix performance?▾
Why does it run so poorly for what it looks like?▾
Want to know exactly how many FPS YOUR PC will get?
Enter your GPU and CPU in our calculator and measure the real impact of each setting.
Calculate FPS for Borderlands 4 →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →