Borderlands Three efficiency: How to get the very best settings

Borderlands 3 might have been 2K’s quickest promoting game within the historical past of perpetually, but it surely positive hasn’t been very fast about fixing its numerous efficiency issues over on PC. While final week’s hotfix patch squashed a few performance-related points, a correct resolution for eliminating issues like stuttering and its DX12 load time issues has but to materialise. Still, whereas we’re ready for Gearbox to complete placing collectively the game’s subsequent huge patch, right here’s how you can get the very best Borderlands Three efficiency in the meanwhile.

Below you’ll discover the very best settings for getting probably the most from Borderlands Three on PC, and I’ve additionally been testing Borderlands 3’s efficiency in each DX11 and its DX12 beta mode to see if there’s truly any profit to switching which model of DirectX it runs on. Last however not least, I’ve had a take a look at what AMD’s picture sharpening FidelityFX tech brings to the desk as properly.

Borderlands Three PC necessities

The excellent news is that the PC necessities for Borderlands Three are literally pretty low. As you’ll be able to see from the specs packing containers beneath, the minimal PC necessities embody graphics playing cards which might be a minimum of eight years outdated proper now, so even barely ageing PCs ought to be capable to get the game up and operating at an inexpensive velocity.

Minimum PC necessities:
CPU: AMD FX-8350 / Intel Core i5-3570
RAM: 6GB
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7970 (2GB) / Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 (2GB)
OS: Windows 7-10

Recommended PC necessities:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 / Intel Core i7-4770
RAM: 16GB
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 590 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB)
OS: Windows 7-10

Borderlands Three efficiency: How to get the very best settings

In the Advanced tab of Borderlands 3’s Visuals menu, you’ll discover six completely different graphics presets: Very Low, Low, Medium, High, Ultra and Badass. That provides us fairly a little bit of room to play with in relation to getting the very best settings for Borderlands 3, particularly in relation to getting it operating on lower-end PCs. Sure, it could not look significantly fairly, but when even my outdated AMD Radeon R9 270 card can handle a mean of 50fps on Very Low at 1920×1080, then older HD 7000 sequence playing cards ought to undoubtedly be capable to address the game so long as you decrease the decision barely.

I also needs to level out that, on the different finish of the graphics settings scale, there isn’t truly that a lot distinction between Ultra and Badass. In reality, save for 2 settings (Volumetric Fog, which controls how a lot fog there may be in a scene, and Screen Space Reflections, which is all to do with the standard of the game’s reflections), they’re each precisely the identical. The solely distinction is that Volumetric Fog and Screen Space Reflections are merely set to High on Ultra, whereas Badass bumps them as much as Ultra like every part else. As such, aiming for Badass isn’t essentially the be all and finish all for these seeking to get the very best efficiency – as you’ll be able to see from the pictures beneath (click on to develop).

 
Unsurprisingly, Very Low is absolutely fairly ugly. Your weapons and stuff look high-quality, however the wider setting has no anti-aliasing and no different particular results to talk of. Textures look muddy, and textual content – comparable to that Children of the Vault signal – may be very low res.

Low, however, is already lots sharper and extra outlined – principally as a result of it incorporates some good Medium settings into its default profile, comparable to Terrain Detail and Shadows. It nonetheless doesn’t have further results comparable to Volumetric Fog or Screen Space Reflections, but it surely’s actually not a foul start line for lower-end GPUs.

Medium, in the meantime, provides much more element into the scene, such because the graffiti in your hideout. This additionally has a few High settings, comparable to Material Complexity and Texture Streaming (which controls how rapidly your PC’s capable of load in textures), and however retains every part else on Medium, together with Volumetric Fog and Screen Space Reflections.

High is fairly commonplace. As you’d most likely count on, nearly each possibility is ready to High on this case, but it surely’s additionally the primary graphics preset that switches over to Temporal anti-aliasing as an alternative of the lower-end FX anti-aliasing. It’s additionally the primary preset to have AMD’s FidelityFX tech switched on by default.

Ultra, as said above, can be fairly commonplace, bumping every part as much as Ultra besides Volumetric Fog and Screen Space Reflections, whereas Badass bumps these remaining two settings as much as Ultra. It’s additionally price noting, nevertheless, that you simply’re pressured to have Object Motion Blur switched on when taking part in on Ultra or Badass, as this feature turns into greyed out when you go above High.

As for a way these settings translate into precise efficiency, listed here are the benchmark outcomes I obtained with my PowerColour Radeon RX 580 (8GB) graphics card at 1920×1080, which is slightly below the beneficial PC necessities for Borderlands Three however properly inside its minimal necessities (and, in my eyes, continues to be one of many best graphics cards you should purchase at present for strong 1080p gaming).

The greatest gulf, as you’ll be able to see, is between Medium and High the place efficiency nearly halves because it tries to cope with Borderlands 3’s higher-end graphics settings. I ought to notice, it’s nonetheless a heartening image for anybody whose graphics card doesn’t meet the beneficial necessities for Borderlands 3, as a mean of 80-odd fps on Medium at 1080p undoubtedly isn’t one thing to be sniffed at.

Still, for these determined to get a clean common of 60fps on the very best graphics settings potential, probably the greatest methods to try this is to flip off Volumetric Fog. This bumped up my RX 580’s High common to a stunning 60.86fps once I re-ran the benchmark for a second time, and even introduced its Ultra common as much as 46.12fps. No different particular person game setting has this a lot of an affect in Borderlands 3, so that is undoubtedly my go-to resolution for anybody fighting their game’s body price.

Sure, High volumetric fog is a superb mood-setter…

…however turning it off positive does prevent a heck of lots of frames (and arguably provides you even moodier temper lighting by making it appear to be it’s all of the sudden the midnight).

Other settings that made a teensy little bit of distinction embody lowering the Material Complexity and Draw Distance choices, however even switching from High to Low on each these settings solely clawed again an additional couple of frames once I re-ran the game’s inside benchmarking device, so that you’re seemingly going to have to mix this with switching off different settings if you wish to give your body price extra of a lift.

If you’re nonetheless struggling, you’ll be able to benefit from the game’s Resolution Scale function, which could be discovered within the Basic tab of the Visuals menu, however I wouldn’t suggest it. Normally, this setting could be actually useful in relation to taking among the load off your GPU, because it successfully lowers the in-game decision a bit whereas upscaling it to your chosen decision, comparable to 1920×1080 or 2560×1440.

However, the Resolution Scale possibility in Borderlands Three is fairly inflexible in comparison with different decision scaling options I’ve seen in different games, because it at the moment solely helps you to select between 50% and 75%. If you’re concentrating on 1920×1080, for instance, which means it is going to render the game at both 960×540 or 1440×810, which actually doesn’t look superb within the flesh. Yes, operating the game at 75% of 1920×1080 on Ultra introduced my common body price as much as 49.49fps within the game’s benchmarking device, however when operating it at 100% of the sharper, extra basic decision possibility of 1600×900 on Ultra nonetheless will get me a mean of 46.35fps, I don’t assume it’s actually price bothering with.

Borderlands Three efficiency: DX12 vs DX11

All of the outcomes to this point have been utilizing the game’s secure DX11 (or DirectX 11) mode. However, the game additionally has assist for DX12, albeit in a so-called ‘beta’ model proper now.

If you’ve tried operating the game in DX12, you’ve most likely been greeted by a five-minute load loading display screen operating at what appears to be a single digit body price (or only a single body, full cease). At the second, there’s no method to repair this sadly, however in the event you persist the game will finally load like regular and run completely high-quality. Well, nearly.

Performance-wise, I truly discovered Borderlands Three ran worse in DX12 than it did in DX11 – or a minimum of it did on greater high quality settings. Once I bought right down to Medium or beneath, DX12 produced some fairly juicy efficiency boosts. See the graph beneath for a full set of outcomes from my RX 580.

In-game, nevertheless, DX12 was a little bit of a horror present. Below are simply among the bugs and visible defects I encountered whereas taking part in Borderlands Three in DX12, together with noticeable chunks of the display screen simply going black for no cause, and plenty of little flashing lights alongside the underside of the HUD (which might flash like burning solar spots if I turned the digicam the incorrect method). There have been additionally instances once I was pressured to navigate its settings menu utilizing solely my mouse as a result of urgent Enter on my keyboard simply made it go into windowed mode the place it flat out refused to open up the Options display screen.

Performance could also be higher on decrease high quality settings in DX12, however with defects like this I don’t assume it’s price placing your self via its atrocious loading instances.

Another frequent bug I noticed whereas taking part in in DX12 have been all these little gentle flares.

As a end result, I actually don’t assume it’s price making an attempt to play Borderlands Three in DX12 proper now, particularly once you’ve bought to place up with its appalling load instances, too. Instead, stick with DX11 the place it’s good and secure and also you’ll have a a lot better time with it.

Borderlands Three efficiency: AMD FidelityFX defined

Finally, you’ll have seen there’s a FidelityFX setting in Borderlands 3, which is certainly one of AMD’s new open supply picture sharpening options they unveiled alongside their new RX 5000 Navi GPUs. Since it’s open supply, it truly additionally works on Nvidia playing cards as properly, so that you don’t even want an AMD card to benefit from it.

Before you get too excited, although, you’ll rapidly see that any such “image sharpening” it offers is fairly minimal. According to AMD’s website, it really works by successfully combining plenty of results right into a smaller variety of shaders as a way to cut back the load in your GPU, however I actually needed to squint and get proper up near my monitor display screen to make out any discernible variations right here, and even then I had a tough time recognizing them.

 
There are some very tiny variations in the event you actually search for them. In the primary set of pictures with the Outrunner, for instance, the element of the rock texture behind it’s ever so barely sharper with FidelityFX turned on than it’s turned off. There’s additionally a slightly grittier impact to among the rusted paint work on the Outrunner itself, too, however once more, you actually need to search for it.

The identical goes for the rock textures within the second pair of pictures, too. The hive itself is just about an identical (a minimum of so far as my eyes are capable of inform, a minimum of), however the darker spots on the rock beside it are undoubtedly sharper in the event you flick between the 2 pictures.

The third set of pictures, nevertheless, are much more troublesome to inform aside. Yes, the Children of the Vault textual content within the very again of the picture is a fraction sharper with FidelityFX switched on, as is the graffiti on the correct hand aspect subsequent to the mini map, however good grief it’s so miniscule that I’d barely even discover something was going of if I wasn’t finding out plenty of completely different screenshots with a high-quality toothcomb.

The excellent news, a minimum of, is that turning it on has zero impact in your PC’s efficiency. When I examined it with AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT, for instance, it managed a mean of 72.5fps on Badass at 1080p with FidelityFX turned off, and a mean of 72.8fps with FidelityFX turned on, so chances are you’ll as properly have it enabled even when the impact itself is barely noticeable in movement.

I’ll be updating this Borderlands Three efficiency information with extra data as quickly as Gearbox get spherical to releasing their subsequent huge patch for the game, however hopefully the information I’ve described above will provide help to get the very best efficiency you’ll be able to from it in the meanwhile.

Of course, in the event you’d like extra data on the very best methods to play Borderlands 3, then try our guides crew’s in-depth Borderlands 3 characters & skill trees information in addition to their Borderlands 3 weapons guide. They’ve bought every part you might want to learn about the very best builds for its 4 fundamental characters, in addition to all of the Borderlands 3 Shift Codes & VIP Codes you possibly can probably need.