Randy Pitchford has confirmed that Borderlands 4 suffers from performance problems during extended play sessions on PS5 Pro. The Gearbox CEO acknowledged the issue publicly and offered a simple workaround while the team prepares a proper fix.
“Known issue of perf dropping on PS5 pro after several hours of continuous play,” Pitchford stated. His suggested solution? “Quit game and restart. Sorry for the friction!”
The problem isn’t limited to Sony’s premium console. Players across Xbox Series X and PC report identical symptoms. Frame rates gradually deteriorate the longer you play, turning smooth gameplay into a stuttering mess after just a few hours.
On Xbox Series X, the situation gets worse when using Quick Resume. Players report that waking the game from suspension accelerates the performance decline. Some have started force-quitting the game after every session to avoid the feature entirely.
PC players face their own version of the problem. RAM usage steadily climbs during extended sessions, eventually leading to crashes on some systems. The symptoms point to a classic memory leak where the game fails to properly clean up resources over time.
Beyond frame rate drops, players report bizarre UI bugs during marathon sessions. Gun icons refuse to load, menu cursors jump to the wrong items, and healing effects persist on screen until restarting. Even the game world seems affected, with opened chests and scattered loot staying in place far longer than intended.
The Band-Aid fix that actually works
The temporary solution remains frustratingly simple across all platforms. Completely close the game and restart it. On consoles, returning to the main menu isn’t enough—you need a full application restart. PC players should close the game entirely rather than alt-tabbing.
Split-screen performance adds another layer of frustration. Xbox Series X players report sub-30 FPS in co-op mode even immediately after launching the game. This separate issue compounds the long-session degradation, making local multiplayer particularly rough.
Gearbox hasn’t provided a timeline for the permanent fix. Until then, players looking to enjoy extended vault hunting sessions should set reminders to restart every couple of hours. It’s not ideal for a brand-new AAA release, but at least the workaround is reliable.
