Steam Deck users should be wary when purchasing Steam’s big new release with the intent of playing it, because the Steam game in question has some serious issues on the handheld Valve machine. Currently, the listing for the PC game indicates Steam Deck compatibility as “Unknown,” which means Valve has not tested the game for compatibility. Early adopters have done this work for it, though, and the results aren’t great.
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As Steam Deck HQ notes, Borderlands 4’s minimum requirements on Steam are pretty demanding. In other words, right off the rip, it’s not ideal for the Steam Deck. And this may mean it won’t be Steam Deck Verified in the future, though Gearbox has provided zero guidance on this matter. Whatever Gearbox’s plans are for the future, it is obvious that it didn’t pay the Steam Deck much attention during development, because the handheld does not run Borderlands 4 well at all.
Can’t Even Handle Lowest Settings
According to Steam Deck HQ, the opening areas of the game are typically running in the 22 FPS zone, which is obviously not great, but wouldn’t be the end of the world if everything were stable. The frame rate is not stable, though, with frequent drops and spikes. In fact, when loading into new areas, the frame rate supposedly drops to single digits. And this is all while running the looter shooter at the lowest settings.
Steam Deck users are also warned to avoid frame generation, in particular, as it will make the game virtually unplayable, producing substantial input lag and stuttering.
Right now, it appears Borderlands 4 is playable from start to finish, so it will likely have the “Playable” tag soon. However, something being playable is not the same thing as it being enjoyable. The good news is Gearbox can improve performance with future patches. And for what it is worth, the game suffers from poor optimization across the board, though this hasn’t really impacted its Metacritic score much. However, it’s hard to imagine the Steam Deck will ever run the shooter very well, given its underpowered innards and the beefy requirements the game has.
For those looking for something new and Verified, one of September 2025’s fellow biggest releases is Steam Deck Verified. Meanwhile, a 2012 classic just got Steam Deck Verified 13 years later.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forums.
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