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Borderlands 4 is out now on PC, but while its early Steam figures have quickly shattered records set by previous entries, a sizable chunk of early players have reported experiencing performance issues with the port.
At the time of writing, Borderlands 4 has 1,176 user reviews on Steam with an average score of 41% positive, putting the game in "Mixed" territory. Its review volume and score are changing rapidly. Not long ago, it was at 577 reviews with a 35% score, so things do seem to be improving.
According to SteamDB, Borderlands 4 already has more than 200,000 concurrent players on Steam, surpassing the peaks of Borderlands 2 (124,678) and Borderlands 3 (93,820). Borderlands 3 was notably an Epic Games Store PC exclusive at launch, which affected its Steam figures.
Obviously, with the game being so new, reviews covering the content don't really mean anything. We saw the same thing with Silksong: either people are really fast, or they haven't actually played much of the game they're reviewing. (For that, check out our Borderlands 4 review, as we've actually had time to play the whole thing.)
But early user reviews can provide valuable data where performance is concerned, and that's a recurring bugbear here. The reviews are "Mixed" for a reason, of course. Some people are playing the game without issue. But enough people are making a stink about technical issues, and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford seemed so quick to mention "realistic" performance expectations amid a day-one patch, that it feels worth highlighting.
Several reviews pushed up by Valve's unknowable review algorithm mention sub-par performance on systems packing hardware at or above Gearbox's recommended specs, even with the graphics settings toned down.
"I have a 5080/9800X3D, and can't hit 60fps at 1440p without DLSS, and Frame Gen," writes Clumsybeast.
I've seen a curious number of people mention the game crashing on startup, character select, or during or after the intro sequence, including some users who've refunded the game.
User Rej minces no words: "Another Unreal Engine 5 casualty. Not worth buying in its current state unless you have a NASA PC." (I do think the Unreal Engine 5 boogeyman is sometimes overplayed, because plenty of UE5 games do run well on PC, but it's hard to argue at times like these.)
"Runs like garbage on a 4080 Super," writes Ozzy.
"4070ti," reports Battlemanish (DK), "~55 FPS with settings bottomed out."
"None of my friends can get past the main menu," says – checks notes – Hannibal Lector.
"Randy I sold my car for this. Why can't I run it?" wonders ttvmummy3037.
"Even with a 9800X3D and a 5080 using DLSS 4 on performance and frame gen, I am getting dips below 60," says Krypto the Superdog, and I believe Krypto the Superdog.
The list goes on: shader compiling errors, texture rendering issues, stuttering, the works. The few people actually talking about the gameplay seem pretty positive, but the launch has been bogged down by performance complaints.
There's plenty of hyperbole going around, of course – "My nan runs better than this and she's crippled with arthritis," claims Levi, and I'm sorry about your nan – and this is still a fresh and relatively small sample size for user reviews, but there are enough reviews sharing enough performance problems that we can reasonably conclude that Borderlands 4's PC port is well below ideal.
Gearbox affirmed the game's beefy system requirements but promised "solid performance on older PC hardware," and as you may have guessed that quote has now been put on a sharpened stick and used to beat Borderlands 4. We'll just have to wait and see if early patches can get the performance up to the standard of the gameplay.
People do seem to like the game: Borderlands 4 Metacritic score ties it as the second-highest rated entry in the looter shooter's mainline series, only losing out to Borderlands 2.
