Many players moan about Borderlands 3 stuttering on Reddit, the Steam forum, and elsewhere. For example, one player said this about BL3 stuttering: “No matter what I do, BL3 will not run smoothly on my PC. It will stutter drop by between 5-20 FPS all the time, whenever I shoot something elemental or crit or anything even slightly out of the ordinary.” Excessive stuttering can make playing Borderlands 3 difficult and negatively impact gameplay quality. These are some ways to remedy the Borderlands 3 stuttering on Windows PCs.
Lower Graphical Settings in Borderlands 3
First, try reducing the graphical settings in Borderlands 3, which is the first thing I often do to enhance gaming performance. To do so, select Options > Visuals > Advanced in your Borderlands 3 game. Then set graphical settings like this:
- Texture Streaming: Very Low
- Screen Space Reflections: Off
- Camera Motion Blur: Off
- Object Motion Blur: Off
- Volumetric Fog: Off
- Overall Quality: Select a lower option (Very Low for best results)
Graphics settings in Borderlands 3
Select DirectX 12
If you have a decent graphics card that better supports DirectX 12, changing the API to DX12 might effectively remedy your Borderlands 3 stuttering. However, the results of applying this potential fix can vary considerably for different GPUs. Nevertheless, you can always revert to DirectX 11 if this potential fix doesn’t work on your PC. You can select DirectX 12 with the in-game settings like this:
- Start your Borderlands 3 game.
- Click on Options to access a settings category menu.
- Select the Visuals category.
- Click on the Advanced tab.
- Then, change the Graphics API setting to DirectX 12.
The DirectX 12 graphics setting
Disable Control Flow Guard
Disabling Control Flow Guard is a widely confirmed way to fix Borderlands 3 stuttering. That anti-exploit feature evidently hinders gaming performance. This is how you can disable Control Flow Guard:
- Bring up the utility for file searching by using the Windows logo + S hotkey.
- Enter exploit protection inside the search box and click the matching search result.
- Next, click on Program settings.
- Click the Add program to customize > Choose exact file path options.
- Select the Borderlands3.exe game file in the Borderlands 3 > OakGame > Binaries > Win64 installation folder.
- Press the Open button.
- Select the Override system settings checkbox for Control Flow Guard.
The Control flow guard setting
- Set the toggle switch for Control Flow Guard to off if configured differently.
- Click the Apply button to set the exploit protection option as selected.
Select Maximum Performance for Power Management
Selecting the High-performance power setting might remedy Borderlands 3 stuttering for some players, because it prioritizes performance. Your PC’s CPU will run at a maximum speed with that option selected. These are the steps for selecting that power management option:
- Right-click Start to select Run, enter powercfg.cpl in the text box, and press Enter.
- Select the High performance radio button in the window that opens. If you can’t see that option, click Show additional plans to expand settings.
The High performance radio button
- If your PC has a NVIDIA GPU, select the Prefer maximum performance option as well. To do that, right-click any part of your desktop without icons and select Show more options > NVIDIA Control Panel.
The Power management mode setting in NVIDIA Control Panel
- Select Manage 3D settings in the left sidebar.
- Then, select Prefer maximum performance for the Power Management option on the Global tab.
- Click the NVIDIA Control Panel’s Apply button.
Set a Higher Priority for Borderlands 3
Setting a higher priority option for Borderlands 3 will prioritize more system resources for the game. Thus, that can sometimes help to reduce game stuttering, but it’s not the most foolproof potential fix. You can select a higher priority for Borderlands 3 like this:
- Launch your Borderlands 3 game.
- Press the Windows key (or Alt + Tab) to access the desktop without exiting the game.
- Open Task Manager by right-clicking an area of the taskbar and selecting its shortcut.
- Click Details in the Task Manager tab bar.
- Right-click the Borderlands3.exe process and select Set priority > High.
The Set priority > High option
- Return to your game.
Selecting High doesn’t permanently set that priority for Borderlands 3. If this potential fix works, you’ll need to select the High priority option every time you start the game.
Update Your GPU’s Graphical Driver
Have you updated your PC’s graphics driver recently? If not, try installing the latest compatible driver for your GPU. There are different ways you can do that, and this KeenGamer article includes guidelines for updating graphics card drivers.
The NVIDIA driver page
No troubleshooting method is guaranteed to fix Borderlands 3 stuttering. However, those potential remedies suggested above are some of the more effective ways to fix the stuttering in BL3. So, they’re certainly worth trying when Borderlands 3 is a stuttery mess.
