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Borderlands 4: PC Troubleshooting and Optimization Guide

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Playing Borderlands 4 on Steam or Epic means you may need some troubleshooting or tweaking to make sure your platform is performing at its peak. Here are some tips and tricks for that!

Step one is to always check the system requirements for the game, which you can find at Borderlands 4: PC System Requirements. That has the minimum needed to run the game at 30 FPS, and what we recommend if you want to turn it up and see a sharper Kairos.

These are the expected results for the Borderlands 4 PC Specs:

  • Minimum PC specs - 1080p @ 30FPS with Low Preset settings
  • Recommended PC specs - 1440p @ 60FPS with Medium Preset settings

Other graphics issues:

  • For all performance issues or graphics glitches, always remember to try updating your drivers for your chosen graphics card:

  • We estimate shaders to take ~10 minutes to compile on most PCs. If you find shaders are taking an exceedingly long time to compile, try giving the game and your system a quick reboot.

  • Please note that any time you change any of your graphics settings, your shaders will need to recompile. Keep playing for at least 15 minutes to see how your PC's performance has changed.

    • If that doesn't help, consider clearing the shader cache. 

      • For NVIDIA:
        • Head to %LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\DXCache
        • Delete any of the "big files" in his folder (over 10 mb)
        • Note: This may also clear shaders for other programs
      • For AMD:
        • Open AMD Adrenalin app
        • Select Gaming > Graphics
        • Scroll down to bottom and select the Reset Shader Cache option
        • Note: This will wipe shaders for all programs

For NVIDIA users, follow this link for Optimal Settings charts provided by NVIDIA with suggestions for which graphics settings may work best for your combination of GPU and desired display resolution. You should also use the NVIDIA app to download and install NVIDIA's newest Game Ready Driver (581.29) and Optimize for your system.

Don't worry, we haven't forgotten our AMD users, either - your link is here to the AMD Optimal Settings charts.

Turn on Upscaling (DLSS, FSR, TSR, XeSS) in the Graphics Settings:

Enabling Upscaling using your graphic card's upscaling method will lead to better performance and framerates. Here's how to enable Upscaling on supported GPUs:

  1. Go to the Options menu
  2. Go to the Visuals tab
  3. Go to the Advanced tab
  4. Scroll down to the Resolution Scaling section
  5. On the Upscaling Method option, select the method that matches your system:
    • DLSS from NVIDIA
    • FSR from AMD
    • TSR from Epic Games
    • XeSS from Intel
  6. We also recommend turning your Upscaling Quality to Performance, and setting Frame Generation to On; both of these options are also in the Resolution Scaling section

On Windows 10, you will need to complete an additional step to enable Upscaling. This is toggled on by default on Windows 11.

  1. In Settings, search "Graphics"
  2. Click "Change Default graphics settings"
  3. Make sure that "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" is set to "On"
  4. Reboot your system and you're ready for Upscaling!

Save File locations:

Sometimes we ask you for a save file to help troubleshoot something. If you're looking for the default location for your Steam save files, here's where you want to go:

  • C:\Users\[Window's username]\Documents\My Games\Borderlands 4

As well as the Window's save file location:

  • Documents > My Games > Borderlands 4

Crashing with a 13th or 14th Gen Processor from Intel:

Intel has recently shared information to customers that its 13th/14th Generation CPUs may experience instability under load due to technical errors. This instability might show up on your PC as slowdowns, crashes, overheating, or large spikes of CPU usage while gaming or installing a game. 

You can read more on the official post regarding Intel's 13th and 14th Gen Processors here.

Common PC Troubleshooting Steps:

Verify Game Files - Corrupted or missing files can stop the game from launching.

Steam

  1. Right-click Borderlands 4 in your Library
  2. Go to ‘Properties’ > ‘Installed Files’
  3. Click ‘Verify integrity of game files’

Epic

  1. Find Borderlands 4 in your Library
  2. Click the three dots next to the game title
  3. Choose ‘Manage’ and select ‘Verify’

Disable Overlays - Game overlays can cause performance issues or crashes.

  • Disable Steam Overlay:  Steam > Settings > In-Game > Uncheck "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game"
  • Turn off other overlays (e.g., Discord, GeForce Experience, MSI Afterburner)

Run as Administrator

  1. Right-click the game’s shortcut or .exe file
  2. Click ‘Run as administrator’

Also, try running the game in ‘compatibility mode’ for Windows 10 if you’re using Windows

Check Antivirus/Firewall - Some security software can block game files.

  • Add the game folder as an exception to your antivirus.
  • Temporarily disable antivirus/firewall to test if it’s the issue (be careful doing this).

Other issues:

One of the early troubleshooting steps is to restart the game, as well as uninstalling and reinstalling the game if a simple restart doesn't work. If that doesn't take care of the problem at hand, these aren't your issue, or you're still having problems after trying these steps, we have some other articles that may help you out:

In case those aren't what you need, you can send us a Support Ticket, with helpful information on the trouble you're facing: