September 16, Modezone.com — A new compatibility report from Steam Deck HQ has revealed that Borderlands 4 is currently in an “unplayable” state on the Steam Deck handheld. The game suffers from serious performance issues like input lag, stuttering, and very low frame rates when running natively.
What the tests show
- Even with all settings turned to minimum, opening areas averaged around 22 FPS, but performance would frequently drop to 8-9 FPS during scene loads or when new assets/enemies appeared.
- CPU usage is maxed out (~100%) almost all the time, while GPU usage stays around 80%, which suggests the CPU is the main bottleneck.
- Frame generation/upscaling techs (TSR, FSR, XeSS) were tested:
- TSR performed best among the bunch, though visuals suffered (washed out colors, slow lighting/shadow loading).
- FSR had middling performance and visuals.
- XeSS looked visually good in some respects, but its performance was worse than the others.
- During combat or effects-heavy moments, frame rate chaos ensues: drops to single digits occur, making gameplay nearly unmanageable.
- Using frame generation (to simulate higher frame rates) made things worse in many cases — huge input lag, more frequent drops/stutters, sometimes dipping as low as 2-3 FPS in intense scenes.
Other observations & minor positives
- The game does detect HDR on Steam Deck OLED and supports the virtual keyboard pop-up when needed. These “small touches” are noted, but they don’t compensate for the poor performance baseline.
- UI elements are readable; graphical clarity is okay when nothing else taxing is happening. But once enemies, effects or new scenes appear, the system struggles visibly.
Verdict & advice
- As of current testing, Borderlands 4 is not recommended to play on Steam Deck in its present state. The experience is rough unless you are willing to compromise heavily on graphics and accept low FPS frames.
- Players wanting to try it anyway should use the absolute lowest settings, choose the best-performing upscaler (TSR seems the most viable right now), avoid frame generation unless absolutely necessary, and expect frequent performance drops. steamdeckhq.com
- Given these issues, many are hoping for patches/optimizations down the line to stabilize performance and reduce input lag.
The above content is compiled by ModeZone, a fashion and entertainment magazine.
