Borderlands 3 lag, fps drops, crashing and freezing fix – The biggest and the most anticipated launch of 2019 is finally here, Borderlands 3 has to be the biggest release by 2K in the last few years. But that doesn’t mean the game is free from bugs and glitches.
Performance issues are totally understandable in Borderlands 3 as none of the AAA releases this year have been perfect. Players are complaining about lag, low fps and random stuttering all over the forums. So could these performance issues be fixed? Yes, with few simple steps these problems can be fixed. Here is how to fix lag, fps drops, crashing and freezing in Borderlands 3.
How to Fix lag, FPS drops, crashing and freezing in Borderlands 3 (BL3)
Compare your PC specifications with the system requirements of Borderlands 3
Here are the Borderlands 3 system requirements:
Minimum For 1080p gaming
- OS – Windows 7/8/10 (latest service pack)
- Processor – AMD FX-8350 (Intel i5-3570)
- Memory – 6GB RAM
- Graphics card – AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB)
- HDD – 75 GB
Recommended for 1440P gaming
- OS – Windows 7/8/10 (latest service pack)
- Processor – AMD Ryzen™ 5 2600 (Intel i7-4770)
- Memory – 16GB RAM
- Graphics card – AMD Radeon™ RX 590 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB)
- HDD – 75 GB
As you can see you need a FX-8350 and and a GTX 680 to run Borderlands 3 on the lowest settings at 1080p resolution. Now judging from the fact that a huge amount of players played Borderlands 2 which was a pretty less demanding title back then, many might not have upgraded their system as time went by. So always check the system requirements of the games first then go for the purchase.
If this was a Steam purchase then you would have had the option to refund this game. But since it is on Epic, there is no option to refund games.
Update your graphics card drivers
Outdated drivers could be the reason of performance loss at times. Here are the links to the latest drivers for AMD and Nvidia graphics cards:
Best graphics or video settings for Borderlands 3
Windows 10 OS updates
A recent Windows 10 update (KB4512941) which is suppose to upgrade your present windows build to 1903 18362.329 is causing major problems for Windows 10 users. Just after installing the update people started realizing that their systems are suffering from high CPU usage even when idle. The high CPU usage is being caused by Cortana and Windows search. Though Microsoft has stated that they are currently investigating this bug, it has already been a while since the update dropped there has still been no fix.
Now the question is, can we fix this issue by ourselves or do we have to wait for Microsoft to release an official fix? Well the good news is there is a fix, but the bad news is you will have to mess with the registry of your PC which we cannot recommend. But if you still want to do it, here is how:
[Note: Remember this is an advanced fix as it involves messing with the Registry Editor. This fix was suggested by a Reddit user with the name u/DefinitelyYou. Proceed only if you are willing to take the risk and in case if you end up breaking your OS, we are not responsible.]
- Press Windows+R keys on your keyboard
- Type ‘regedit‘
- Once the Registry Editor window opens go this location : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search
- Delete the Search key
- Restart your PC
Your high CPU high usage problem will get fixed but the search bar or the search feature on your windows taskbar won’t work anymore. So proceed with caution!
Verify the in-game files
Verifying the files of Borderlands 3 could also fix any sort of performance issue that you are having. Here is how to do it:
- Open Epic Launcher
- Go to your Library
- Take your mouse pointer on Borderlands 3
- Click on the Settings icon beside the Launch icon
- Click on Verify
- Restart the launcher after the process is completed
Run Epic Launcher with administrator rights
Launching the Epic Launcher with administrator rights might solve your problems. Here is how to do it:
- Go to the folder where you have installed Epic Games Launcher
- Right-click on EpicGamesLauncher.exe and select Properties
- Go to the Compatibility tab
- Click Change settings for all users
- Under Privilege Level, check Run this program as administrator
- Click Apply
Close Overclocking apps
Recently a lot of games have been facing constant crashes and freezing due to overclocking utilities like MSI Afterburner or the Zotac Firestorm. Try to run your graphics card at base clock speeds and try to avoid overclocking as of now.
Nvidia Control Panel
[Note: This is for Nvidia users only]
The first thing you should do is click on ‘Adjust image settings with preview‘ located on the left side under 3D settings and make sure that ‘Use the advanced 3D image settings‘ is selected. Now:
- Open Nvidia Control Panel
- Click on Manage 3D settings on the left bar
- Click on the Program Settings tab
- Locate Borderlands 3 from the drop down menu under “Select a program to customize”
- If you don’t see the game on the list then click on the Add button and another list will appear
- If you still cannot spot the game then you need to add the .exe file manually.
- Click on Browse
- Locate the folder where you have installed the game
- Select the executable file or the .exe file which in this case should be bl3.exe
- Once you have successfully added the game, you will then see the program settings become available for the game
- Now tweak the following settings:
Threaded Optimization : On
Power Management : Prefer Maximum Performance
Low Latency Mode : Off
Texture filtering – Quality : Performance
Update (Updated Methods)
Now that Borderlands 3 in on Steam, we decided to put up some updated methods that can help you eliminate any sort of lag or stuttering in the game.
Verify the Borderlands 3 files on Steam (For Steam users)
If you have bought Borderlands 3 on Steam then you can verify the in-game files:
- Go to your Steam Library
- Right click on Borderlands 3
- Select Properties
- Click on the Local Files tab
- Click on Verify Integrity of Game Files
The process will take few minutes so be patient.
Adjust your AMD Control Panel Settings (Radeon users)
For AMD Radeon Graphics card users
Click on Global Graphics.
- Radeon Anti-Lag : Disabled
- Radeon Boost : Disabled
- Image Sharpening : Off
- Anti-Aliasing Mode : Use Application settings
- Anti-aliasing Method : Multi-sampling
- Morphological Filtering : Off
- Anisotropic Filtering : Disabled
- Texture Filtering Quality: Performance
- Surface Format Optimization: Enabled
- Tesselation Mode: AMD Optimized
- Wait for V-sync: Off
- OpenGL Triple Buffering: Off
- Shader Cache: AMD optimized
- Maximum Tesselation Level: Off
- GPU Workload: Graphics
- Radeon Chill: Off
- Frame Rate Target Control: Disabled
Updated Nvidia Control Panel settings
The first thing you should do is click on ‘Adjust image settings with preview‘ located on the left side under 3D settings and make sure that ‘Use the advanced 3D image settings‘ is selected. Now:
- Open Nvidia Control Panel
- Click on Manage 3D settings on the left bar
- Click on Global Settings
- Now tweak the following settings:
Image Sharpening : Off
Threaded Optimization : On
Power Management : Prefer Maximum Performance
Low Latency Mode : Off
Texture filtering – Quality : Performance
Windows Update KB4535996
When Borderlands 3 released on the Epic Games launcher, a different Microsoft Windows 10 update was causing problem. And now that Borderlands 3 has been launched on Steam, a different Windows 10 updates is causing issues now.
The Windows 10 KB4535996 update was released a few days ago and it is filled with bugs and is giving a tough time to a lot of problems for Windows users.
If you are not sure whether you have already installed this update or not. Just click on “View Update History” and you will get to see all the latest updates that got installed on your system. If you see an update called KB4535996. You have to uninstall it.
On the Update History window you will notice the option Uninstall updates on top. Click on it and from the list of updates installed select the one you want to uninstall. Right click on it and click on Uninstall.
If you think this guide had helped you then let us know in the comment section below. Also, If you are facing problems that are not mentioned on this article then also you can comment below. We will try come out with a fix. Good luck!
Check out some other Borderlands 3 guides:
That’s all folks!
Last Updated on July 23, 2020
Shoaib, 30, is a simple guy who loves to play video games, and enjoys new cuisines sporadically. He has been gaming since he was 7 years old, and with an experience of 22 years, under his belt, there is not a single AAA game in this world, that he hasn’t played. Despite being a MBA Graduate he decided to follow his passion. And because of his love for gaming, Frondtech came into existence.