Last week, 2K Games unveiled the latest installment in the Borderlands franchise, Borderlands 4, which is powered by the cutting-edge Unreal Engine 5. As the gaming community eagerly embraces this new release, a thorough examination of its performance on PC has become essential.
Performance Benchmarks
For the benchmarking process, a robust setup was employed, featuring an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor, complemented by 32GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 6000MHz. The graphics cards tested included AMD’s Radeon RX 6900XT, RX 7900XTX, and RX 9070XT, alongside NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 4090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090. The system ran on Windows 10 64-bit, utilizing GeForce driver version 581.29 and Radeon Adrenalin Edition 25.9.1.
Gearbox has incorporated a variety of graphics settings that allow PC gamers to fine-tune their experience. Players can adjust the quality of textures, shadows, global illumination, and more. Additionally, the game supports advanced technologies such as NVIDIA DLSS 4 with MFG, AMD FSR 4.0, and Intel XeSS 2.0.
Notably, Borderlands 4 lacks a built-in benchmark tool. To conduct the tests, an open-world area was selected, which is known to be more demanding than the one used for previous DLSS 4 benchmarks. This choice provides a clearer picture of the game’s overall performance.
In terms of performance, Borderlands 4 stands out as one of the most demanding non-path-traced games tested to date. At 1080p with Badass Settings, only the NVIDIA RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 managed to deliver a smooth 60FPS experience. The RTX 5080 came close, but frequently dipped to 57FPS. For AMD users, the RX 7900XTX is the only card that can maintain a fluid gaming experience, especially when paired with a FreeSync monitor.
When tested at 1440p with Badass Settings, the NVIDIA RTX 5090 emerged as the sole graphics card capable of exceeding 60FPS. Surprisingly, even the powerful RTX 4090 struggled to maintain this frame rate at native 1440p.
At the demanding 4K resolution with Badass Settings, no GPU could provide a consistently smooth experience. The NVIDIA RTX 5090 managed a minimum of 35FPS and an average of 40FPS, which is far from ideal.
Lowering the in-game settings does not yield satisfactory results either. To achieve a playable 60FPS at native 4K, users must reduce settings to Medium on the NVIDIA RTX 5090. This is particularly concerning given that the game does not utilize path tracing.
Critically, the visuals of Borderlands 4 do not seem to justify the hefty GPU requirements. While it is evident that the game looks better than its predecessor, Borderlands 3, the performance metrics raise eyebrows. Despite employing advanced technologies like Lumen, Nanite, and Virtual Shadow Maps, the performance falls short compared to other Unreal Engine 5 titles. In fact, it struggles to match the visual fidelity and performance of games such as Hellblade 2 or WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers.
Additionally, players have reported peculiar visual glitches. For instance, in one screenshot, the sun’s reflection can be seen on the water, yet the sun itself is mysteriously absent from the sky. Another image highlights low-quality terrain textures that detract from the overall experience.
Borderlands 4 also grapples with significant grass pop-in issues, attributed to its use of Unreal Engine version 5.5.4.0. Epic Games has introduced Nanite support for vegetation in the newer 5.6 version, which could alleviate these problems. Other minor visual anomalies, including shadow inconsistencies and occasional stutters, have also been noted, though they are less severe than those observed in other recent titles.
In summary, Borderlands 4 presents a perplexing scenario. Its performance does not align with the expectations set by its ambitious visuals, leading to a gaming experience that feels underwhelming given the substantial hardware requirements. This issue is not confined to PC players; console users have reported similar performance challenges, indicating that the game’s struggles are widespread across all platforms.
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John, the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming, is a passionate advocate for PC gaming and the modding community. With a rich background in gaming journalism, he has cultivated a deep appreciation for both PC and console gaming, tracing his roots back to the beloved 16-bit era. His expertise in graphics technology is underscored by a higher degree thesis on the evolution of PC graphics cards.
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