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Borderlands 4: September 13 update included a 951mb patch, specifically addressing stability. Based on our findings, a lot has changed.
Since its launch, the performance of Borderlands 4 has been a significant topic of discussion within the gaming community. Many players with high-end GPUs have reported issues with the game’s playability. The game, post the September 13 update, still suffers from high CPU usage and draws a significant amount of power (TDP), easily bottlenecking average coolers.
On the other hand, the 951MB patch, although the developers claimed it addresses stability, in reality, it changed many things. Performance has been positively impacted. The Base FPS hasn’t gone up astronomically, but the frame time stability and 1% lows have improved.
Gearbox has officially recommended that players update to the latest graphics drivers and also stated that fine-tuning settings can help extract maximum performance. We have gone ahead and done the same. If you are playing Borderlands 4 and think of upgrading your GPU, you can read our guide, as we have covered the recommended SSDs, CPU coolers, and mid-range CPUs. That said, let’s get started.
Borderlands 4: Performance After the September 13 Update
After the patch, we have spent quite a lot of time testing the game to see if any improvements were made. Below are the settings and our system configuration used for the analysis. In the end, the tests resulted in a stable and high-performance experience, without frame generation.
Test System Configuration
- CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K (Undervolted -100mv adaptive offset, no-uvp microcode)
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (Stock settings)
- Resolution: 2560×1440 (Borderless Window)
- RAM: 32GB DDR5 6000MHz CL30 (Tightened timings)
- SSD: Corsair MP600 PRO LPX (2TB)
- OS: Windows 11 24H2 latest build
- Driver: Nvidia GeForce 581.29
In-Game Graphics Settings
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Graphics Preset | Very High |
| Anti-Aliasing | Enabled |
| Upscaling Method | DLSS |
| Upscaling Quality | Quality |
| Spatial Upscaling Quality | Disabled |
| Scene Capture Quality | Full Resolution |
| Frame Generation | Off |
| Nvidia Reflex Low Latency | On |
| HLOD Loading Range | Far |
| Geometry Quality | Low |
| Texture Quality | High |
| Textures Streaming Speed | Very High |
| Anisotropic Filtering Quality | x16 |
| Foliage Density | Medium |
| Volumetric Fog | Medium |
| Volumetric Cloud | Medium |
| Shadow Quality | High |
| Directional Shadow Quality | High |
| Volumetric Cloud Shadows | Enabled |
| Lighting Quality | High |
| Reflections Quality | High |
| Shading Quality | Medium |
| Post-Process Quality | High |
| Motion Blur Amount | 0.0 |
| Motion Blur Quality | High |
Borderlands 4: Performance Overview
We cleared the Slugmetal Ditch camp in the game; it’s an early area, but very intense, with multiple types of enemies charging at you. As you can see from the image above, as per our recorded stats, the current framerate is 86 FPS, with a strong average of 75 FPS. Most importantly, the 1% lows are at 69FPS.
We are using DLSS Quality here, which cleans up the image thanks to the transformer model. However, if you take a closer look at the CPU utilization, it’s not bottlenecking the 4070 Ti. Since its launch, high-end CPUs have even bottlenecked entry-level cards, such as the 4060 and 3060, among others.
There is almost zero stutter, which you can see from the frame time graph, showing a consistent 12.5ms; we have also seen this go down to 10ms. This kind of performance, although it is not a major talking point, is still way better than how it was at the launch.
On top of that, we are not even using Frame Generation to reach this level. If you have a similar rig, you can use our settings and see how things fare. If you want frame generation, you can easily use it. The VRAM usage is below 10GB, leaving plenty of room for the frame generation overhead.
What Players Can Expect
On our system, the game ran fine after the update; however, this does not fully resolve the optimization problems that others are facing. Yes, our settings can serve as a starting point and be adjusted depending on the PC’s horsepower. That said, Borderlands 4 has a long way to go before we can call it properly optimized. However, this update, with a 951 mb patch, is a significant step in the right direction.
The stability improvements are visible to us; the CPU usage has gone down a bit, and no longer bottlenecks our GPU. We recommend waiting a bit longer, as the developers are working around the clock to resolve the performance issues. Hopefully, future patches will continue this positive trend, and we will keep you updated accordingly.
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