Borderlands 4 Frame Rate Improvement Settings
While Borderlands 4 might be a good game as a whole, it’s hard to deny that the experience is somewhat tarnished by the game’s myriad performance issues.
Even if Gearbox released a patch for the PC version already, it didn’t solve a lot of the game’s issues, which include frame rate problems.
If you’re one of the many suffering from that, this handy guide should work to make everything more stable and optimized.
Borderlands 4 Frame Rate Stability Can Be Achieved With These Settings
One community member has outlined how changing the settings to the one below boosted their frame rate from an inconsistent 50 frames-per-second, to a solid 120fps.
Specs based on: 5800X3D, 3080 10gb, 32gb @ 3600Mhz, 1440p
Standard Game Settings
| Visuals (Basic) | |
|---|---|
| Display Mode | Fullscreen |
| Vertical Sync | Off |
| Visuals (Advanced) | |
| Upscaling Method* | DLSS* |
| Upscaling Quality | Balanced |
| Scene Capture Quality | Full Resolution |
| Frame Generation* | On* |
| HLOD Loading Range | Medium |
| Geometry Quality | Medium |
| Texture Quality | High |
| Texture Streaming Speed | High |
| Anisotropic Filtering Quality | 8x (Can go lower to 4x, 2x, etc.) |
| Foliage Density | Medium |
| Volumetric Fog** | Low** |
| Volumetric Cloud** | Low** |
| Shadow Quality | Medium |
| Directional Shadow Quality | Low |
| Volumetric Cloud Shadows | Disabled |
| Lighting Quality | Medium |
| Reflections Quality | Low |
| Shading Quality | Medium |
| Post-Process Quality | Low |
| Motion Blur Quality | Off |
*If not using the “dlssg-to-fsr3” mod, use FSR over DLSS for 3000-series and older.
**I have an INI change to disable volumetric fog
Enabling FSR Frame Gen Wiith DLSS
DLSS doesnt allow frame gen on older gpu, especially on my 3000-series GPU. This mod enables frame gen for DLSS in-game. That’s why I have the setting set to DLSS in my settings. Other wise, use FSR, for older cards.
- Manual Download the “dlssg-to-fsr3-0.130” file
https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/738?tab=files - Place the two “dll” files
from: \dlssg-to-fsr3-0.130 (Universal)-738-0-130-1742150779\dll_version
into: Steam/steamapps/common/borderlands 4/OakGame/Binaries/Win64 - Make sure Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling is On
Windows Setting: System/Display/Graphics/Advanced Graphics Settings (and restart PC)
Disable Volumetric Fog
Open the “engine.ini” in Documents\My Games\Borderlands 4\Saved\Config\Windows You may have “GameUserSettings.ini” instead of “engine.ini”
Add the following:
[SystemSettings] r.fog=0 r.VolumetricFog=0 r.MotionBlurQuality=0 r.Depth0fFieldQuality=0 r.LensFlareQuality=0 r.Shadow.Virtual.Enable=1
Windows Settings
| Windows Settings | |
|---|---|
| Gaming > Game Bar > Allow your controller to open Game bar*** | Off*** |
| Gaming > Game Mode | On |
| System > Power > Power Mode | Balanced |
***Enable game-bar. If you have a 7900X3D, 7950X3D, 9950X3D, 9900X3D processor.
NVIDIA App Settings
Check and update drivers.
| NVIDIA Settings | |
|---|---|
| Graphics > Global Settings > DLSS Override – Model Presets | Latest |
| Graphics > Global Settings > Low Latency Mode | On |
| Graphics > Global Settings > Shader Cache Size | 10 GB**** |
Important: if you have more storage, turn it even higher to 100 GB
Reddit user powerman123 cites Termx, Luxthos, and Kephren’s videos as the source for the optimization, which I suggest checking out as well for added reference and tips.
Bear in mind, there are different PC configurations, so this is not a catch-all that will solve every frame rate issue you might have for Borderlands 4. That said, various members of the community have vouched that these settings improved their experience greatly, so it’s definitely worth a shot.
If you’re playing Borderlands 4 using a controller — be it consoles or PC — I suggest checking our controller settings guide.
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No! Played the original. Cell shaded graphics where implemented to increase performance. It’s now 2025. Not doing any of this and not getting the game. Been there done that in the 90s and 2000s.
No more boot disks, men maker, no .I 8 file editing, registry tweaks driver or hardware hacks.