Borderlands 4 becomes the new Crysis as Gearbox says it's already running 'optimal' on PC

'Please accept that the game is doing a lot and running pretty optimally,' Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford says about Borderlands 4's PC version.

Borderlands 4 becomes the new Crysis as Gearbox says it's already running 'optimal' on PC
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TL;DR: Borderlands 4 faces mixed Steam reviews due to performance issues on PC, attributed to its demanding Unreal Engine 5 design and reliance on DLSS and Multi Frame Generation for smooth gameplay. Gearbox's Randy Pitchford acknowledges concerns and confirms ongoing efforts to optimize performance and enhance the player experience.

Borderlands 4 currently has a 'Mixed' user review score on Steam, primarily due to a single, significant complaint: performance issues. The consensus among the PC gaming community right now is that it's the latest Unreal Engine 5-powered release that has launched in an unoptimized state. Furthermore, its demanding hardware and system requirements have made it 'unplayable' without enabling technologies like DLSS and Frame Generation.

Borderlands 4 becomes the new Crysis as Gearbox says it's already running 'optimal' on PC 2
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As the head of development studio Gearbox Software, Randy Pitchford is renowned for being extremely vocal about projects that he's attached to or is ultimately in charge of. And with that, he's been highly active on social media platform X, responding to complaints about the game's poor performance on PC and the current state of Borderlands 4.

"The game is pretty damn optimal - which means that the software is doing what we want without wasteful cycles on bad processes," Randy Pitchford says in one post in a long thread. And for those experiencing low FPS or wanting to hit higher than 60 FPS on PC, he adds, "Use DLSS. It's great. The game was built to take advantage of it."

As highlighted in our various GeForce RTX 50 Series reviews, the latest DLSS 4 Super Resolution solution available to all GeForce RTX gamers can be viewed as 'free performance' in that image fidelity and the addition of technologies like NVIDIA Reflex (where available) lead to a smoother experience that is arguably superior to native rendering with TAA.

However, when it comes to poor performance, which includes inconsistent frame rates and stuttering issues in Unreal Engine 5-powered games on PC, the negative sentiment surrounding the game mainly concerns the use of technologies like DLSS as a temporary or band-aid fix. The majority of PC gamers don't have an issue with DLSS 4's Super Resolution technology; however, there's a vocal group that isn't a fan of Multi Frame Generation.

"If you are so attached to the idea that DLSS is bad for your game experience because of something you saw or read on the internet, I am sorry," Randy Pitchford adds. This is in response primarily to the optimized settings that NVIDIA and Gearbox released for the game, which include using Multi Frame Generation at the 4X setting to achieve over 60 FPS on everything from a GeForce RTX 5070 to the flagship GeForce RTX 5090. The fact that MFG 4X is required to hit 60+ FPS or over 100 FPS in a shooter does feel like a band-aid fix.

On the plus side, he does confirm that Gearbox is working to significantly improve PC performance. "We are also doing significant work on PC performance and, well, everything else that is coming at us," Randy Pitchford says. "We're not stopping."