Borderlands 4: troubleshooting and optimization guide

The game doesn’t launch on startup
In some cases, Borderlands 4 simply won’t start, or it crashes right after launching (both on Shadow and on a local PC). In many cases, changing a registry key fixes the issue while waiting for an official patch from the publisher.

Open the Registry Editor and navigate to: Computer\HKEYLOCALMACHINE\System\HardwareConfig\Current, then set the value “BIOSReleaseDate” to “12/07/2023”.

You can also achieve the same result by running the following PowerShell command:

reg export "HKLM\SYSTEM\HardwareConfig\Current" "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\BIOSReleaseDatebackup.reg" /y; $k="HKLM:\SYSTEM\HardwareConfig\Current"; $v=(Get-ItemProperty -Path $k -Name BIOSReleaseDate -ErrorAction Stop).BIOSReleaseDate.Trim(); $v=$v -replace "-", "/"; $p=$v -split "/"; if($p.Count -ge 3){$d=[int]$p[0]; $m=[int]$p[1]; $y=$p[2]; if($d -gt 12){$v=("{0:D2}/{1:D2}/{2}" -f $m,$d,$y)}}; New-ItemProperty -Path $k -Name BIOSReleaseDate -PropertyType String -Value $v -Force; reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\HardwareConfig\Current" /v BIOSReleaseDate

The game shows graphical artifacts
Borderlands 4 compiles its shaders the first time you launch it. If something goes wrong at that moment, some shaders may become corrupted, which can cause visual artifacts on screen.

Clear the shader cache: go to C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Local\Borderlands4 and delete the “ShaderCache” folder.

Then restart the game (the first launch will take a bit longer as the game recompiles the shaders).

The game freezes or crashes after some time (local PC)
If you have a 13th or 14th generation Intel processor, you may need to update your motherboard BIOS/UEFI to fix a known issue that can cause these CPUs to freeze under heavy load. Refer to your motherboard’s user manual.

Black screen after launching the game
In some cases, the screen may stay black right after launch. This can be related to the game’s built‑in DRM for players with a Shift Software account. To work around this, link your Shift account with your Steam account so you can launch the game again.

Borderlands 4 gives you full control over graphics settings (you can tweak nearly forty different options !) to get exactly the look and performance you want. However, that freedom can sometimes mean complexity. To help you navigate it, here are the main recommended settings for different Shadow configurations:

Neo :

• V‑Sync: Off
• Anti‑Aliasing: Off
• Upscaling: NVIDIA DLSS (Balanced)
• Frame Generation (DLSS): On
• Multi‑frame generation: x2
• NVIDIA Reflex: On
• HLOD Loading Range: Far
• Geometry Quality: High
• Texture Quality: High
• Texture Streaming Speed: Very High
• Anisotropic Filtering: x2
• Foliage Density: Low
• Volumetric Fog: Low
• Volumetric Clouds: Low
• Shadows: Low
• Directional Shadows: Low
• Volumetric Cloud Shadows: Off
• Lighting Quality: Medium
• Reflections: Low
• Shading: Medium
• Post‑Processing: Medium

Power :

• V‑Sync: Off
• Anti‑Aliasing: Off
• Upscaling: NVIDIA DLSS (Quality)
• NVIDIA Reflex: On
• HLOD Loading Range: Far
• Geometry Quality: High
• Texture Quality: High
• Texture Streaming Speed: High
• Anisotropic Filtering: x4
• Foliage Density: Medium
• Volumetric Fog: Medium
• Volumetric Clouds: Medium
• Shadows: Medium
• Directional Shadows: Low
• Volumetric Cloud Shadows: Off
• Lighting Quality: Medium
• Reflections: Low
• Shading: Medium
• Post‑Processing: Medium

These settings should give you a smooth experience with Shadow PC, but of course you can adjust them based on your personal preferences.