The Borderlands 4 controversy ignites again in regards to system requirements following reports of a R1,300 (or around $70) price tag. The official PC specifications have now made their way to Steam and they seem pretty large for a ‘Minimum’ list at first glance.
The specifications provided state that you’ll need an 8-core CPU, 8 GB VRAM, graphics card equivalent to an Nvidia RTX 2070 or AMD RX 5700 XT, 16 GB RAM, and installation on an SSD. But there’s just one problem — they may not be as necessary as they sound.
Take the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, for instance. Although a modern, capable gaming CPU, this one is “technically” below the ‘minimum’ spec—on paper at least. Still, it’s not likely to struggle, which suggests that the requirements are likely conservative.
What the Specs Say (and What They Might Actually Mean)
Gearbox’s wording for its minimum requirements appears to be a bit vague. It’s not clear if the game needs eight real cores or if eight software threads will do the trick. Many quad-core CPUs with hyper-threading could do the latter.
In a similar way, the RX 5700 XT does not support ray tracing while the RTX 2070 does. This means support for ray tracing might not even be necessary. It means we might even be able to run the GTX 1070 and other older GPUs.
But, the 8 GB VRAM and 16 GB RAM requirements may be more stringent. Most of the current PCs already have the SSD & it isn’t a roadblock unless a person is still using HDD.
Official Borderlands 4 PC Requirements
Minimum.
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit).
- Intel Core i7 9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU
- Graphics card requirement is Nvidia RTX 2070 or AMD RX 5700 XT.
- VRAM: 8 GB.
- RAM: 16 GB.
- Storage: 100 GB SSD.
Recommended.
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit).
- Intel Core i7 12700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X for CPU.
- Nvidia RTX 3080 or AMD RX 6800 XT required.
- VRAM: 12 GB.
- RAM: 32 GB.
- Storage: 100 GB SSD.
Recommended Specs Look Even More Intimidating
The jump from minimum to recommended specs is pretty steep. If you want to run Borderlands 4 at higher settings, you should have 32 GB of RAM, a Core i7 12700 or Ryzen 7 5800X or something in that power range for the CPU and an upper tier GPU like RTX 3080 or RX 6800 XT.
Still, the dev didn’t confirm what these specs mean in gameplay. At least, it would be aimed at 1080p at medium settings with stable 60 fps. But until actual benchmarks surface, that is more of a guess than certainty.
There’s Still Time Before Launch
Borderlands 4 is set to launch on 12 September. Gamers have a few months to either adjust settings, try out the current rigs or upgrade, if needed. The specs might look scary, and the performance might be better than what the specs suggest.
Keep checking in with us at www.megarom.co.za for more news, hardware comparisons and all things Borderlands in the lead up to the release.