Borderlands 4 will be 'unplayable' on PCs that don't meet the requirements

Borderlands 4 is set to launch this weekend for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version set to arrive in a few weeks. Hands-on previews of the game's PC version indicate that, outside of the game itself being a return to form and a worthy successor to the iconic Borderlands 2, the Unreal Engine 5-powered game suffered from performance issues like stuttering, freezing, and even crashing.

The recommended PC hardware specifications for the game list a GeForce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card, paired with 32GB of system memory, and an Intel Core i7-12700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor. This is designed to achieve a "solid balance of smooth performance and graphical detail," with the minimum specification requiring a GeForce RTX 2070 or Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card.

In a response to a preview from Destructoid where the writer played with an in-between minimum and recommended specced PC with a GeForce RTX 3070, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said that Borderlands 4 is "a big, open AAA game and lower-end and older hardware may not perform as well as higher-end, modern PCs."

• Read more: Borderlands 4 - Only 33% of PC gamers meet the requirements to play with recommended settings

The game will debut with a day-one patch that will introduce "key improvements and optimizations." Still, Randy Pitchford, adding, "I just want everyone to have realistic expectations for performance," does make it sound like Borderlands 4 will be the latest Unreal Engine 5-powered game that requires a high-end PC with technologies like DLSS, FSR, and XeSS enabled to achieve the optimal high-refresh-rate experience.

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"The expectation for using a below min-spec machine should be that the game is unplayable," Pitchford wrote in another response about the game's performance on X (via PC Gamer). "It's a big, bold, new, seamless world, and I'm sorry to say that older hardware may not provide buttery smooth performance for the latest gen AAA games, as has always been the case since the dawn of PC gaming."

Here's another look at Borderlands 4's minimum and recommended PC specs.

Borderlands 4 Minimum PC Hardware Requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• Requires SSD
• OS: Windows 10 / 11
• Processor: Intel Core i7-9700 / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT / Intel Arc A580
• Requires 8 CPU Cores for processor and 8 GB VRAM for graphics.
• Storage: 100 GB available space

Borderlands 4 Recommended PC Hardware Requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• Requires SSD
• OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
• Processor: Intel Core i7-12700 / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• Memory: 32 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / Intel Arc B580
• Storage: 100 GB available space