'Even with a 9800X3D and a 5090 it runs like absolute buttcheeks': 2K Games posts Nvidia's Borderlands 4 optimised settings guide, but the community is already in open revolt

In case you missed it, Borderlands 4 was released yesterday. Actually, I'm pretty sure you didn't miss it, because your newsfeeds are now likely full of positive reviews for the game itself, but a seemingly equal amount of backlash towards its poor performance. The game currently sits at a "Mixed" rating on Steam, with the chief complaint from players being the performance and early game crashing issues.

Publisher 2K Games has since updated the Steam community page with several optimised settings charts from Nvidia, but they make for unhappy reading. Maximum Frame Gen (2x for RTX 40-series owners, 4x for RTX 50-series cards), DLSS cranked to the guns—even the mighty RTX 5080, a $1,000+ GPU, appears to need a hefty dose of both to achieve 60 fps+ at 1440p resolution.

For context, this is a GPU that normally excels at 4K gaming with a touch of DLSS and Multi Frame Generation help. If you want to play at that resolution, however, even the $2,000+ RTX 5090 can struggle—as our Nick found out in his early Borderlands 4 performance impressions.

The community response has been unsurprising. A click through to the discussion page reveals a litany of complaints, from one demanding the developers "fix your ******* performance" to others suggesting that early players request a refund to voice their displeasure.

"There isn't a guide that can fix this," says the interestingly-named PeePeePantsCity. "No one on PC wants to play at ~60 fps. They didn't buy 3080s or 4080s to play games at 60 fps 1440p."

(Image credit: 2K Games)

"Even with a 9800X3D and a 5090 (@4K) it runs like absolute buttcheeks," says user Sirleeofroy. "I mean I can play the game, but the horsepower cost is ridiculous."

That being said, it's not entirely doom and gloom. Some players report their machines are outperforming the recommendations, although the consistency of frame rate still appears to be an issue. Some point to reasonable frame rates in many areas, peppered with stuttering and frame drops in others, in some cases dropping from over 100 fps+ to much, much less depending on the scenario.

The comments are also littered with reports of crashing, again, something our Nick has experienced in his testing. A day-one 2.7 GB patch appears to have mitigated the issue somewhat, but Nick reports that he's still battling with the odd crash to desktop at this very moment.

(Image credit: Gearbox)

Dear me. As someone who was looking forward to playing a bit of Borderlands 4 this weekend on an RTX 5070 Ti, this is rather bad news. According to Nvidia's settings guide, if I want to take advantage of my screen's native 4K resolution and play at 60 fps+, I should be setting DLSS 4 to Performance, cranking MFG to its maximum 4x rate, and turning most of my settings to either medium or low.

For reference, I play at 4K with this card on a daily basis in some of the most demanding games currently available. Usually, DLSS Balanced—in combination with a touch of Frame Gen—results in consistent 100 fps+ performance at max settings in most games I've tested to date. The glimmer of hope here, I suppose, is that every major Borderlands game has been released with ropey performance, something that's usually fixed in time with a sequence of patches.

Bring 'em on, that's what I say. By the looks of the reviews so far, Borderlands 4 is a joy to play—but nothing ruins the experience of a shiny new shooter more than terrible frame rates, in my book.