Borderlands 4 Players Report Performance Issues on PS5 Pro, Gearbox CEO Confirms Patch

Borderlands 4 released on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on September 12, and despite its positive critical reception, players across platforms have reported severe performance issues. PC players have pointed out poor optimisation that is causing the game to run poorly even on high-end systems. It seems Borderlands 4 is also suffering from technical problems on consoles, specifically on PS5 Pro, with developer Gearbox acknowledging the issue.

Borderlands 4 Performance Issues

Several players have reported performance issues while playing Borderlands 4 on PS5 and PS5 Pro, with some claiming worsening frame rates the longer they play the game. On Borderlands subreddit, a player claimed the game seemed to be suffering from a memory leak.

One player suggested switching lobby settings to Local Mode improved the game's stability on PS5 Pro, while another advised players to restart the game after a few hours of play. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, who has been defending the game's optimisation on PC since launch, also suggested the same in his response to a PS5 Pro user on X.

Replying to complaints of bad performance on PS5 Pro this week, Pitchford said it was a known issue on the console.

“Known issue of perf dropping on PS5 pro after several hours of continuous play,” Pitchford said. “Workaround until we patch: Quit game and restart. Sorry for the friction!”

Borderlands 4 PC Performance

On PC, Borderlands 4 is faring far worse on the technical front. Several players, even those with high-end hardware, have reported severe performance bottlenecks, stuttering, and instability. One user complained about inconsistent frame rates even on the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU. Pitchford was seen personally suggesting graphical tuning for the user to get more consistent performance. The Gearbox chief has suggested lowering the volumetric fog option and utilising DLSS frame generation.

Earlier this week, in a long thread defending Borderland 4's PC performance, Pitchford said the looter shooter was performing optimally and PC users had to accept tradeoffs between frame rate, features, and resolution.

“Every PC gamer must accept the reality of the relationship between their hardware and what the software they are running is doing,” Pitchford said.

“We have made an amazing and fun and huge looter shooter campaign game. The game is pretty damn optimal - which means that the software is doing what we want without wasteful cycles on bad processes.

“With Borderlands 4, every PC gamer has a LOT of tools to balance their preferences between FPS, resolution, and rendering features. If you aren't happy with the balance between these things you are experiencing, please tune to your preferences using the tools available to you.”

However, Pitchford, who has a bit of a reputation for his controversial statements, accepted that a “very, very small percentage of users” were facing a few real issues, and Gearbox had fixed some of those and was working on fixing others. “We are also doing significant work on PC performance and, well, everything else that is coming at us,” he said.

Despite the technical issues, Borderlands 4 has been a hit since its launch. The game has crossed a peak concurrent player count of 300,000 on Steam in less than a week and is the series' biggest launch ever on the platform.

According to data from the market research firm Alinea Analytics, Borderlands 4 has sold over a million copies on Steam and two million copies across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X. The has reportedly generated $150 million in revenues.