The Borderlands 4 system requirements are getting gamers worried about their CPUs

Borderlands 4 brings the franchise’s “largest map” to date but with this comes concerns on how it will run, especially with previous titles not exactly setting the world alight with their optimization.

With the Borderlands 4 system requirements now out in the wild, it is the CPU requirement that is causing concern for a lot of potential players, since it negates the likes of the relatively new AMD Ryzen 5 9600x, or the slightly older 7600x.

Below we’ll get into why everyone needs to just take a step back and relax — those will ‘less powerful’ CPUs will be just fine.

What are the Borderlands 4 system requirements?

Before we get into why your concerns should be kerbed, here are all of the Borderlands 4 system requirements in all their glory:

Minimum Borderlands 4 system requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• Requires SSD
• OS: Windows 10 / 11
• Processor: Intel Core i7-9700 / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT / Intel Arc A580
• Requires 8 CPU Cores for processor and 8 GB VRAM for graphics. 
• Storage: 100 GB available space

Recommended Borderlands 4 system requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• Requires SSD
• OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
• Processor: Intel Core i7-12700 / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• Memory: 32 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / Intel Arc B580
• Storage: 100 GB available space

Why there’s much ado about nothing

If you’re looking at the above Borderlands 4 system requirements and are sweating about that 8-core CPU line, don’t. Let me tell you why.

A lot of today’s games can be pretty CPU-intensive, especially if they’re being built on Unreal Engine. However, in the vast majority of cases, not all cores are used, with others simply sitting there waiting for some form of action.

What this means is that the 8-core ‘requirement’ of Borderlands 4 is a bit of a precaution rather than a necessity. So, for you non-8-core CPU owners, don’t worry, you will be able to play the game just fine.

Granted, it’s highly likely that you won’t be getting the highest performance from Borderlands 4 but we’re pretty sure you will still be able to experience the game in a completely playable state.

If you need any backup confirmation on this, Doom: The Dark Ages runs great on a 6-core CPU, and tech experts Digital Foundry have done tests on Unreal Engine that suggest titles built on it barely scale to 8 threads total, much less 8 cores.

As long as you’ve got a respectable amount of power in your system’s brain and are sporting a solid GPU with sufficient VRAM, you should be able to take control of one of the new Vault Hunters on launch, shooting and looting your way around Kairos with ease.