Borderlands 4 Update 1.11: Best PC Settings and Steam Deck Guide

Borderlands 4 is well past its rocky launch window now, and Gearbox is still tuning it. Version 1.11 landed on October 22, 2026, and while most of its change notes are about Loveless the Hacker and the FL4K and the Last Resort story content, the Player Experience section at the bottom quietly adjusts three things PC and Steam Deck players actually feel: how foliage and cloth behave in Performance Mode, how much the camera shakes and your controller rumbles, and — for the first time — whether Steam Deck's own FSR option works with the game at all. Here's what changed, what your rig needs to run it well, and how to get the upscaling and Deck settings actually working.

01What Update 1.11 Changes for PC and Steam Deck

Gearbox's own patch notes for Version 1.11 list the relevant changes under a "Player Experience" heading, split into a Steam Deck line and a Performance line. On Steam Deck specifically, the notes say "FSR is now available in the Steam Performance options" — AMD's upscaler is now exposed through SteamOS's built-in Performance overlay for Borderlands 4, which it wasn't before this patch. On the performance side, Gearbox says it "reduced foliage, flags, and cloths popping when in performance mode" and "limited unnatural screen shake and controller vibrations," alongside a general line about "continued improvements to stability and optimization." None of that is marketing copy — it's the literal text of the patch notes, and it's worth treating as a checklist rather than a vague promise.

Gearbox also reminds players to fully restart the client after installing 1.11, specifically to avoid matchmaking connection errors — skip that step and some of these fixes won't apply cleanly, especially for anyone who alt-tabs out of a launcher instead of closing it.

It's worth remembering why this keeps being a recurring section in Borderlands 4's patch notes. The game launched in September 2025 to reviews that were generally positive on substance but repeatedly singled out PC performance as a problem — stuttering, crashes, and inconsistent frame pacing were common complaints at launch, and Gearbox has acknowledged older PC hardware in particular struggled with it. More than a year and over a dozen updates later, 1.11 is part of that same ongoing cleanup rather than a one-off fix, which is why it's worth re-checking your settings against each patch instead of assuming whatever you configured at launch still holds.

02Minimum and Recommended Specs, Confirmed

Before touching any slider, check your rig against Gearbox's current listed requirements on the Steam store page, which is also where the update actually gets delivered. Minimum calls for a 64-bit Windows 10/11 install, an Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, 16GB of RAM, and a GPU at the level of an RTX 2070, RX 5700 XT, or Intel Arc A580 — with an explicit note that the game needs 8 CPU cores and 8GB of VRAM specifically, not just "a card from this list." Recommended steps up to a Core i7-12700 or Ryzen 7 5800X, 32GB of RAM, and an RTX 3080, RX 6800 XT, or Arc B580. Both tiers call for SSD storage and 100GB of free space — this isn't a game that's forgiving about running from a spinning hard drive.

If your GPU has less than 8GB of VRAM, that's the first thing to budget around before you open the graphics menu at all; Gearbox lists it as a hard requirement, not a recommendation.

03Getting DLSS 4 and Frame Generation Working

NVIDIA's own Game Ready driver page for Borderlands 4 (released alongside Dying Light: The Beast) confirms the game supports the full current DLSS stack. DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation is available on GeForce RTX 50 series cards, standard DLSS Frame Generation is supported on RTX 40 series cards, DLSS Super Resolution's transformer model is available to any RTX card, and NVIDIA Reflex — which NVIDIA says can cut PC latency by up to 54% in supported games — works across the GeForce lineup, not just the newest GPUs. The driver NVIDIA shipped for launch was version 581.29; whatever your current Game Ready or Studio driver version is, make sure it postdates that before assuming an upscaling bug is the game's fault rather than a stale driver.

AMD and Intel Arc owners aren't mentioned on that page, but both GPU families are explicitly supported by the game's own minimum and recommended spec list above, which names RX 5700 XT/RX 6800 XT and Arc A580/B580 directly.

Reflex is worth turning on even if you have no interest in Frame Generation. It's a latency reducer, not an image-quality feature, so there's no visual tradeoff to weigh — NVIDIA's own figure of up to 54% lower PC latency applies to supported titles generally, and Borderlands 4's fast-paced melee and gunplay loop is exactly the kind of game where input lag is noticeable if it creeps up. If you do enable Frame Generation on an RTX 40 or 50 series card, pairing it with Reflex is the standard recommendation precisely because Frame Generation adds a rendering step that Reflex is designed to offset.

04Turning On FSR for Steam Deck

The headline Steam Deck change in 1.11 is narrow but useful: AMD FSR is now selectable from SteamOS's own Performance overlay (the quick-access menu you open with the Deck's dedicated button) while playing Borderlands 4, where it wasn't reachable before. That's Valve's system-level FSR implementation, separate from any in-game upscaler setting, and it's the fastest way to claw back frame rate on the Deck's screen without digging through the game's own menus first. If you're coming back to Borderlands 4 on Deck after a break, this is the one setting from 1.11 worth checking immediately — it didn't exist in your save's last session.

05Performance Mode and Screen Shake

If you already play with Performance Mode enabled — the setting aimed at keeping frame rate steady over visual fidelity — Gearbox says 1.11 specifically reduces the amount of foliage, flags, and cloth "popping" (geometry snapping into view) that mode was previously prone to. That's a visual-quality fix more than a performance one: Performance Mode should look less janky at the same frame rate, not necessarily run faster.

Separately, the patch "limits unnatural screen shake and controller vibrations." Gearbox doesn't specify exactly which fights or weapons triggered this, so treat it as a general-feel change you'll notice over a session rather than something tied to one boss. If you still find the shake intrusive, it's one of the few things in this patch Gearbox describes as tuned down by default rather than toggleable, so there isn't a confirmed in-game slider for it as of 1.11.

06Is Borderlands 4 Steam Deck Verified?

Yes — Valve's own compatibility checker currently places Borderlands 4 in category 3, Verified, the top tier. That means the default controller configuration is fully functional, controller glyphs match the Deck's actual buttons, interface text is legible without zooming, and the default graphics configuration is rated as performant out of the box. The one caveat Valve itself flags is that first-time setup needs an active internet connection, which is standard for most always-online-adjacent live-service titles and not specific to Borderlands 4's performance.

Verified status describes the default configuration, not the best one. Pair it with the new Performance-overlay FSR toggle from 1.11 above if you're chasing a steadier frame rate on the Deck's 800p panel rather than just "it runs."

Set Up Borderlands 4 for Update 1.11

1. 1Fully close and relaunch Borderlands 4 after Update 1.11 installs — Gearbox calls this out specifically to avoid matchmaking connection errors.1 min
2. 2Compare your CPU, RAM and GPU against Gearbox's Steam page listing, especially the explicit 8-core CPU and 8GB VRAM minimums.2 min
3. 3Install whatever Game Ready or Adrenalin driver is current for your card. NVIDIA's baseline for Borderlands 4 was version 581.29 at launch — anything older predates the game's own driver support.5 min
4. 4On RTX 40 and 50 series cards, enable DLSS Frame Generation (DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation on RTX 50) alongside NVIDIA Reflex to offset the added latency.2 min
5. 5Hold the Deck's quick-access button during play and enable AMD FSR from the Performance tab — Update 1.11 is what made this option available for Borderlands 4.1 min
6. 6If you play with Performance Mode on, spend a few minutes in a busy area to confirm foliage and cloth popping feels less jarring post-patch.5 min

07Where to Go When Something's Still Wrong

The Version 1.11 patch post itself links out to three resources: a direct 2K Support ticket queue for anyone hitting a blocking bug, a running list of known issues, and a dedicated "Tech Tinkering Tips" support section with Gearbox's own PC troubleshooting and optimization guidance. That's a wider net than Steam's or Reddit's community threads, since it's coming from the people who can actually patch the problem rather than just work around it. If a fix in this article doesn't hold for your specific hardware, that's the more useful next stop than re-verifying your game files a second time.

Borderlands 4 also just crossed 100 million lifetime units sold across the franchise, and Gearbox confirmed a Year 2 content roadmap is in early planning rather than finalized — worth knowing if you're wondering whether this is a game still getting this level of PC attention a year after launch. It clearly is.