Borderlands 4 PC: When Your 'Badass' Setting Summons More Stutter Than Style
AI Gaming News Author · IGN South Africa ·
Tech experts at Digital Foundry have slammed *Borderlands 4*'s PC performance, highlighting significant stutter issues (especially shader compilation) and advising against the 'Badass' graphics setting, which they deem 'placebo level' inefficient. Despite developer Randy Pitchford's social media 'clapping back,' the game's current state on PC is leaving many players frustrated, marking it as 'worse than usual' for an Unreal Engine 5 title.
Right, so another big game launches, another big game comes with a side order of 'PC performance woes.' It's like we're all caught in some sort of temporal loop, eh? Every time a new AAA title drops, especially one built on a shiny new engine, there's that collective sigh of dread among PC gamers. And fair dinkum, *Borderlands 4* seems to be the latest victim of this rather irritating enchantment.
Now, I've been tinkering with this story all morning, and bloody hell, it’s wilder than it first appeared. You'd think after all this time, and with the sheer power packed into modern rigs, we'd be past the era of games feeling like they're running on a potato wired to a toaster, wouldn't you? Apparently not. The buzz around *Borderlands 4* — which, let's be honest, we were all pretty hyped for, thinking it might reclaim the looter-shooter throne – has quickly turned into a cacophony of complaints about its PC performance. Even on those mythical, liquid-cooled, RGB-infused beasts that cost more than a small car, players are getting less than stellar framerates and, more critically, a whole lot of stutter.
This isn't just your mate down the pub grumbling, mind you. The tech wizards over at Digital Foundry, bless their analytical hearts, have cast their expert gaze upon *Borderlands 4* on PC, and their initial findings are... well, they're not exactly showering Gearbox with praise. According to DF's Alex Battaglia, the game suffers from significant stutter problems, a familiar demon to anyone who's been following the discourse around Unreal Engine 5 performance in recent years. It’s like the engine itself sometimes forgets how to do basic tasks, causing a momentary hiccup in the otherwise smooth flow of reality. That, my friends, is shader compilation stutter. You know, that little loading bar that pops up, dutifully compiling shaders while you wait? Turns out, it's not always a one-and-done deal. The engine can still hit a snag when it encounters something new in a fresh area – be it a new weapon skin popping into existence or an enemy performing a never-before-seen death animation. It’s like a magical spell that needs to be re-calibrated every time you encounter a slightly different variant of a goblin.
Now, here's where it gets interesting, and a tad bit frustrating. PC gamers have been raising the alarm about Unreal Engine performance for ages. And last month, even Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney – the bloke who *makes* Unreal Engine, by the way – suggested that perhaps the way developers were *using* UE5 was to blame. It's a bit of a 'who's on first' routine, isn't it? Is it the chef or the ingredients? Whoever's holding the hot potato, Battaglia noted that for *Borderlands 4*, this stutter simply "makes the experience feel less polished." And 'less polished' when you're shelling out top dollar for a premium gaming experience feels a bit like finding a rubber duck in your meticulously crafted potion.
But wait, there's more! DF also spotted some rather odd visual quirks. Apparently, vegetation in the game has this weird habit of only *truly* animating as you get closer, doing a very obvious "flip" that looks suspiciously like classic pop-in. Except, it's not traditional pop-in, it's just the animation deciding to kick in. "I have no idea why they did it this way," Battaglia confessed, and honestly, mate, neither do I. It's a bit like a magical illusion where the trees only wave hello after you've practically bumped into them. Slightly jarring, to say the least.
Then we have the peculiar case of the 30fps real-time cutscenes. In a first-person shooter where you're hopefully zipping around at 60+ fps, abruptly crashing to 30 for a narrative moment feels, as DF chief Rich Leadbetter put it, "a bit bizarre." It breaks the immersion faster than a goblin tripping over its own feet. Leadbetter also highlighted that Battaglia experienced stutter "on the fastest gaming CPU that money can buy." If even that top-tier hardware is struggling, then fair warning: this isn't just about needing to upgrade your GPU. This is deeper.
And let's talk about the 'Badass' setting. Ah, the siren call of ultimate graphical fidelity! We all want to crank things up to 'Badass,' don't we? It just sounds so... well, badass! But Digital Foundry's advice here is blunt: don't. Battaglia warned against it, even if your rig *should* be able to handle it, because the visual returns simply don't justify the performance hit. "It is woefully inefficient on the Epic setting. It is not good to use. That’s really placebo level stuff, usually." Placebo, mate! You're telling me I'm effectively just looking at an empty vial labelled 'super graphics boost'?! It's like pouring an extra-strength potion of visual wonder, only for it to do absolutely nothing but make your PC groan in protest. DF's John Linneman chimed in, stating that *Borderlands 4* seems to be "running worse than usual for an Unreal Engine 5 game," even compared to its problematic brethren.
In the face of these grumbles, Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford has been, shall we say, 'engaging' with disgruntled fans on social media. 'Clapping back' is the phrase that comes to mind. While I appreciate a developer wanting to defend their work, sometimes a bit of humble acknowledgement goes a longer way than a rhetorical duel, wouldn't you reckon? They *have* posted an Nvidia Optimization guide and, rather tellingly, advised players to keep playing for at least 15 minutes after changing any graphics settings because shaders need to recompile. Which, again, circles back to that pesky shader compilation issue.
So, what does this all mean for us, the curious gamers just wanting to blast some bad guys in a vibrant, loot-filled world? It means a bit of patience, a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to those top-tier graphical settings, and a prayer to the PC performance gods for some meaningful patches. Gearbox has promised ongoing updates, and we can only hope they arrive sooner rather than later to smooth out these digital wrinkles. Until then, maybe stick to 'Very High' and save your 'Badass' energy for the actual in-game mayhem, eh?
*Original reporting by IGN South Africa. Title: Tech Experts Say Borderlands 4 on PC Runs 'Worse Than Usual for an Unreal Engine 5 Game,' Advise Against Badass Setting. Author: Unknown.*
Tags: Borderlands 4, PC Performance, Unreal Engine 5, Digital Foundry, Gaming News
Original article: IGN South Africa