Borderlands 4 developer Gearbox has said improving the performance of the game on PC is its “top priority,” with a patch due out today, September 18.
In a statement issued on social media, the developer said it was aware of the feedback from players on Borderlands 4 across PC and console, with patches coming to improve matters.
Meanwhile, Gearbox said a field of view (FOV) slider for consoles is in testing.
All eyes are on Gearbox right now to see how it deals with an internet backlash to the performance of Borderlands 4 — which has come despite huge player numbers on Steam. The studio released an update for the game on PC over the weekend — without patch notes — that didn’t seem to fix much of anything, so hopefully this new patch is meaningful.
Borderlands 4 is still on a mixed Steam review rating, with most of the negative comments revolving around performance. The tech experts at Digital Foundry have said their initial analysis of Borderlands 4 on PC shows significant stutter problems, and have advised against running the game on its ‘Badass’ graphics setting, which suggests there are indeed problems with the Unreal Engine 5 title.
Meanwhile, IGN has reported that console players have seen Borderlands 4 performance get worse the longer they play, particularly on the more powerful PS5 Pro. Some have said this is the result of a memory leak. Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford has suggested quitting and restarting the game as a workaround.
— Borderlands (@Borderlands) September 17, 2025
Gearbox has posted a Borderlands 4 Nvidia Optimization guide on Steam, advising players how to optimize their graphics settings for “better performance and framerates” on PC with the Nvidia app, although users report mixed results.
Gearbox has also issued a piece of advice to PC gamers that to me reads like an effort to prevent players from making knee-jerk reactions to the game’s performance as soon as they’ve changed their settings: “Please note that any time you change any of your graphics settings, your shaders will need to recompile. Please keep playing for at least 15 minutes to see how your PC’s performance has changed.”
Pitchford has hit the headlines for his determination to address player complaints about Borderlands 4 on social media this week. Since Borderlands 4’s huge Steam launch, the outspoken developer has issued confusing comments on why the console version of Borderlands 4 lacks a field of view (FOV) slider, promised that it would have been impossible to break the Borderlands 4 servers through sheer weight of player numbers alone, told people to “code your own engine and show us how it’s done, please,” and declared Borderlands 4 “a premium game made for premium gamers.” He’s even started telling Borderlands 4 players to refund the game on Steam if they’re that upset.
If you are delving into Borderlands 4, don’t go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We’ve also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players’ choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
