If you’re playing Borderlands 3, chances are that you’re trying to search for fixes to performance-hampering issues with disregard to platform. There are several in this regard, mostly on PC but also on the more powerful console variants, PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X. Gearbox Software will naturally be releasing a patch to fix those issues. However, until then, the players themselves have managed to find some temporary solutions to keep their frame-rates afloat.
ADS FPS Drops
While aiming down sights, you might see your frame-rates dip considerably. The rather odd fix to this issue is to head into settings and set the “Overall Quality” preset to anything but “High” in Borderlands 3. You can then tweak the graphic settings individually, but only after discarding the overall preset.
You’ll still find some frame-rate stuttering when aiming down sights for the first time, but there won’t be any more afterwards. Remember to restart the game once after saving the new settings. Surprisingly, using a full zoom with scopes will still result in frame-rate drops. It could be related to a memory leak, or at least that’s the present assumption.
Friendlist FPS Drops
It gets even weirder. Apparently, having a lot of friends playing Borderlands 3 in your Epic Games Store friendlist can cause issues with your frame-rates. It’s because for some strange reason, Borderlands 3 connects to every single profile in the friendlist every couple of seconds. This constant hogging of resources bogs down your own game-performance. The more players you have added, the worse frame-rate drops you’ll experience.
The fix here is relatively simple. Just forget about mailing or receiving any loot and remove those players from your friendlist.
Social FPS Drops
Continuing with the same friendlist issue, another fix to maintain stable frame-rates in Borderlands 3 is to head into social settings and change group privacy to local only. Also, disable all social notifications. This has proven to be a rather popular solution on PlayStation 4.
Split-Screen FPS Drops
Don’t even think about trying out split-screen in Borderlands 3. The game stutters so hard that opening the inventory drags the frame-rate down into the red for all connected players. Sometimes, entering a new zone will take anywhere from five to ten seconds before the screen refreshes.
This issue is the same even when playing on performance mode on PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X. There’s a fix for it though. You just need to change the resolution to 720p instead of 1080p or higher. If you’re on consoles, then you need to change the screen output from your console settings.
Heating FPS Drops
Plenty of Xbox One players have seen their console power itself off when they get into a cut-scene. As soon as the camera pans, the frame-rate falls into the red and the console switches off. What’s worrying is that when you turn it back on, you get a message that the console overheated. This isn’t true and while it’s unknown as to why the console is switching off, it has nothing to do with overheating.
No Pre-Order Bonuses
This isn’t a frame-rate issue but is still an odd one from the lot. Strangely enough, installing Borderlands 3 for the first time doesn’t install the pre-order bonuses. Hence, you need to do it manually. On PlayStation 4; head into settings, then account management, and restore licenses. On Xbox One; select Borderlands 3, head into manage game and add ons, ready to install, and hit install all.
Borderlands 3 could have been released in a much better state. It doesn’t seem like a single patch will be able to solve each and every issue because there are gameplay-related bugs as well. It’s not all too bad though. You can still grind your way through the campaign until a proper stability update arrives. Until then, you can also take a look at our guide section to help with collectibles, treasures, bosses, graphic tweaks, and etc.
