Best-Looking Borderlands Title, But Heavily Graphically Demanding

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Borderlands 4 is the latest looter-shooter from Gearbox and one of the best-looking entries in the series. However, it is also the most resource-intensive title to date. This article provides PC benchmarks for the game.

### Overview
– **Series Background**: Borderlands is the fourth installment in a popular franchise known for its cel-shaded graphics and endless variety of weapons.
– **Looter-Shooter Core**: The series remains true to its core, offering countless weapons and items to loot.

### PC Benchmarks

#### In-Game Settings

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– **Basic Panel**:
– Display Mode: Fullscreen, Windowsed, Borderless
– Resolution Options
– Display Stats (None, FPS, All)
– Frame Rate Limitation (Off, On, Custom)
– Vertical Sync
– Calibrate Display and HUD Area
– Field of View (Default 90-110)

– **Advanced Panel**:
– Five Graphics Presets: From “Basic” to “Badass,” which turns everything to max.
– Auto-Detect Preset based on PC specs
– Anti-Aliasing Options

#### Upscaling and Frame Generation
– Several upscaling methods are available, including TSR, NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, Intel XeSS. Quality can be set from “Ultra Performance” to “Full Resolution Native.”
– Frame-Generation is supported across all GPUs; RTX 50 series get MFG in 2x, 3x, and 4x modes.

#### Environment Settings
– HLOD Loading Range
– Geometry Quality
– Texture Quality
– Textures Streaming Speed
– Anisotropic Filtering Quality
– Foliage Density
– Volumetric Fog and Clouds
– Shadow Quality (Directional Shadows, Volumetric Cloud Shadows)
– Lighting and Reflection Quality

#### Post-Processing Settings
– Post-Process Quality
– Motion Blur Amount and Quality

### Performance Analysis

– **4K Resolution**: None of the GPUs, even the flagship RTX 5090, can achieve 60 FPS natively. The average is around 48 FPS.
– **1440p**: Some cards like RTX 5090 and RTX 4090 can manage over 60 FPS, with others in the mid-30s to low-20s range.
– **1080p**: Cards such as RTX 4070 Ti and above deliver around 60 FPS, while mainstream GPUs offer mid-30s to mid-20s.

### Frame Generation
– Using frame generation is essential for high-refresh-rate monitors. Especially on RTX 50 series cards in 3x or 4x mode.
– VRAM Utilization: Varies by resolution but can be significant, especially at higher resolutions like 4K.

### PC Impressions

– **Hardware Intensive**: Borderlands 4 is both the best-looking and most resource-intensive title to date. It might take top-tier hardware to run smoothly.
– **CPU Usage**: The game heavily uses CPUs, often keeping them around 85 °C. Shader compilation takes about a minute.
– **Performance Issues**: Traversal stutters are noticeable, and the game is CPU-heavy. Intel chips running below default settings may crash or reset.

### Conclusion

– For high-end hardware users, upscaling and frame generation can provide a great experience in Borderlands 4 despite performance drawbacks.
– Mid and low-end hardware users will face significant challenges, impacting the gaming experience for many fans of the series.