Borderlands 4 CPU Performance: Unraveling the Mystery of Core Requirements

Decoding Borderlands 4's Processor Puzzle

Launch Day Challenges and Initial Performance Headaches

The release of Borderlands 4 has been met with mixed reactions, largely due to its unexpectedly high hardware demands. Players and critics alike have noted that the game's performance can be quite taxing, prompting developers and publishers to release optimized settings guides. These guides often recommend enabling upscaling and frame generation technologies, highlighting the game's intensive nature even on high-end graphics cards.

The CPU Conundrum: Beyond the Eight-Core Mandate

A significant point of contention has been the updated minimum system requirements, which now stipulate an \"8-core (or equivalent)\" processor, such as an Intel Core i7 9700. This recommendation has raised concerns among gamers with more common 6-core or even 4-core CPUs. Initial tests with an Intel Core i7 9700K, a processor similar to the suggested minimum, revealed frequent 100% CPU utilization in open-world environments, even at lower graphical settings.

Investigating Core Counts: Intel's Arrow Lake Architecture

To understand the true impact of core count, extensive testing was conducted using an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K system. Remarkably, even when limiting the active cores to just four P-cores (effectively four threads, as Arrow Lake does not support HyperThreading), the game maintained acceptable performance. While occasional stutters were observed and the 1% low frame rates weren't ideal, the overall playability was surprisingly robust. This unexpected outcome is attributed to Borderlands 4's ability to distribute its workload across numerous threads, none of which individually heavily burden a single core. Analysis using PIX on Windows confirmed the game generates a multitude of background worker threads for tasks like asset loading and video compression.

The Nuances of CPU Design: Ring Bus Behavior in Arrow Lake

The inconsistent performance decrease with core count in the Intel Arrow Lake architecture can also be linked to its intricate design. Unlike older, more uniform CPU layouts, the 285K's P-cores and E-cores are distributed in a way that disabling certain cores can lead to unusual behavior on the ring bus, which manages data traffic. This architectural complexity contributes to the observed variations in performance when manipulating core configurations.

Traditional CPU Designs: The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D's Efficiency

Further tests were performed on an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, representing a more traditional CPU design with a block of identical cores capable of handling two threads each. The results were even more impressive: four cores and four threads on this chip delivered performance comparable to or even better than the Intel setup. The Ryzen 9800X3D's substantial and fast L3 cache likely plays a crucial role here, ensuring that cores are not left waiting for data. What's truly striking is the minimal difference in performance between using just four cores/four threads and eight cores/16 threads, suggesting efficient utilization of available resources.

Concluding Thoughts: Challenging Minimum Requirements

While the precise reasons for Borderlands 4's demanding nature on older CPUs remain somewhat elusive, ongoing investigations aim to shed more light on the game's interaction with various hardware platforms. It's plausible that older chips may not interface as effectively with Windows 11's thread scheduler, or that the Unreal Engine 5's characteristics are a contributing factor. Nevertheless, these tests strongly suggest that 2K Games' recommended 8-core minimum may be overly cautious. Modern 6-core processors, in particular, appear to be more than capable of running Borderlands 4 effectively, offering a silver lining for many gamers who might otherwise feel compelled to upgrade their entire system.