Borderlands 4 system requirements

The Borderlands 4 system requirements are surprisingly demanding, even if you just want to meet the minimum specs. On the plus side, it looks as though Gearbox isn't relying on you enabling DLSS or FSR upscaling to get the game running smoothly using the quoted specs, which is a big positive compared to the likes of FBC Firebreak and Hell is Us.

You aren't going to need the best gaming PC from our buying guide to run Borderlands 4; let's make that clear from the start. However, the specs start a little higher than a lot of other modern 3D games, meaning some upgrades could be required if your system is getting a little long in the tooth now. This doesn't bode well for Borderlands 4 Steam Deck verification, but time will tell whether Gearbox is able to pull a rabbit out of the hat with full Deck support.

Here are the Borderlands 4 system requirements:

At first glance, the Borderlands 4 system requirements appear to be high, but they still sit below the likes of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle or Doom The Dark Ages. We also don't yet have any high or ultra specs lists, which could reveal more about how well the game is optimized for the very latest hardware.

The fact that you'll need an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT confirms that no form of ray tracing is set to be forced, as it's unsupported by the latter GPU. Performance targets are also absent, but we assume that these specs will net you 30fps at 1080p on the lowest graphical preset.

When looking at the recommended specs, the GPU demands jump up to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. While no performance target is listed again, we'd estimate that these specs are for playing at 1440p with 60fps on the high graphical preset. What's interesting here is that the requirements say that you need at least 12GB of VRAM, but the standard RTX 3080 only has 10GB of memory, meaning it looks like you'll need a (rarer) RTX 3080 12GB card in order to meet the recommended specs.

Gearbox has also recently added Intel GPUs to the specs lists, with the Arc A580 required to meet the minimum spec, and the newer Arc B580 Battlemage GPU listed in the recommended specs.

The iconic art style of Borderlands is set to return, and while it doesn't use true cel shading, it shares many similarities with the art style that sacrifices realism in the name of a more cartoonish appearance.

One common misconception is that Borderlands' art style should make it easier to run on PC. However, Gearbox has stated that its graphical style still uses traditional lighting techniques on heavily stylized 3D models and textures.

When it comes to your processor, you'll need an eight-core CPU to meet both the system requirements tiers, but a newer, faster model will be needed for the recommended settings. Even so, we're not looking at a new Socket AM5 chip - you only need a Zen 3-based AMD Ryzen 7 5800X or Intel Core i7 12700 to meet this spec.

On the RAM front, you'll need at least 16GB even if you're aiming for the minimum specs, meaning it's a good time to upgrade to some of the best gaming RAM that is compatible with your existing build if you're still using 8GB.

Finally, as stated in the notes section of the Borderlands 4 system requirements, you'll need an SSD onto which you can install the 100GB game file, with no exceptions given, even to the minimum requirements. If you don't already have the best SSD you can afford for your gaming PC, buying one will see your game load times reduce substantially compared to using a hard drive, while also making your PC feel much more responsive in use.

If you're in the market for a new graphics card, you can grab yourself a Borderlands 4 free with select Nvidia cards right now. Alternatively, you can try your hand at winning a custom Borderlands 4 RTX 5090, ideal for any dedicated vault hunter.

Take our Borderlands 4 system requirements PC benchmark test to answer the question… Can I run Borderlands 4?

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