Will Borderlands 4 run on the Steam Machine? (anticipated FPS)
Anticipated verdict for Borderlands 4 on Valve's Steam Machine: a playable 1080p Medium ~60 with FSR is likely, but UE5 brings 8 GB VRAM caveats.
Anticipated verdict: Borderlands 4 should be playable on the Steam Machine at 1080p Medium around 60 FPS with FSR Quality. High settings are a stretch on the 8 GB VRAM / RX 7600-class GPU, and Unreal Engine 5 traversal stutter is a real risk. Amber leaning playable.
Estimate: ~58 FPS at 1080p Medium with FSR Quality (anticipated, not yet measured). See our methodology for how we build these projections.
Why this is an estimate
There are no Steam Machine benchmarks for Borderlands 4 yet, so everything here is anticipated from hardware class plus what we know about the engine. The Steam Machine packs an RX 7600 / RTX 4060-class RDNA 3 GPU, a 6-core/12-thread Zen 4 CPU, 16 GB of DDR5 and just 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM (the specs). That puts it roughly in PS5 territory, comfortable at 1080p/1440p with FSR but not built for native 4K.
Borderlands 4 (Gearbox, 2025) is a cel-shaded looter-shooter on Unreal Engine 5. UE5 is the swing factor. Lumen and Nanite are demanding, and traversal stutter as the engine streams new areas is a well-documented UE5 problem. The good news: the cel-shaded art style leans on flat shading and bold outlines rather than photoreal texture detail, so it is genuinely lighter on VRAM than a photoreal AAA title. That matters a lot when 8 GB is your ceiling, and it is the main reason this lands closer to playable than not.
Anticipated Low / Medium / High
All figures are anticipated at 1080p with FSR, not measured on a Steam Machine.
| Preset | Anticipated FPS | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | ~72 | 🟢 anticipated | 1080p + FSR; smooth, headroom for action |
| Medium | ~58 | 🟡 anticipated | 1080p + FSR Quality; the sweet spot |
| High | ~42 | 🔴 anticipated | 1080p + FSR; VRAM-limited, sub-60 |
The gap between Medium and High is mostly the 8 GB VRAM ceiling and UE5's heavier lighting load. Medium is where the Steam Machine should feel like a 60 FPS console; High asks more than the GPU can comfortably give.
UE5, FSR and the 8 GB VRAM
The two things to watch on this hardware are VRAM pressure and traversal stutter. With only 8 GB of GDDR6, High textures and aggressive lighting can spill over and cause hitching, especially in dense towns and during fast-travel loads. Borderlands 4's cel-shaded look helps here, but it does not make UE5's streaming behaviour disappear.
To hold a stable 60, the practical plan is: stay at 1080p, run FSR Quality, set textures to Medium (the single biggest VRAM saver), and dial shadows and volumetric/global illumination down a notch. FSR is doing real work in these projections, reconstructing from a lower internal resolution to claw back the frames a native 1080p render would cost. Capping at 60 FPS can also smooth out frame pacing and reduce the felt impact of any traversal stutter.
Should you buy a Steam Machine for Borderlands 4?
Honest take: if Borderlands 4 is your single reason to buy, wait for real benchmarks. The anticipated 1080p Medium ~60 is a good console-class experience, but it is a projection, and UE5 stutter is the one thing that could pull it from amber into frustrating.
Where the Steam Machine genuinely shines for this game is couch co-op. Borderlands has always been a sofa game, and a SteamOS console under the TV with controllers in hand is a natural fit for four-player chaos. If you want guaranteed day-one stability and a known quantity, a PS5 is the safer pick right now (vs a PS5). If you are buying into the Steam Machine for the broader library and value the open PC ecosystem, Borderlands 4 should slot in nicely as a solid, playable looter.
Frequently asked
Anticipated yes. Based on the RX 7600-class GPU and the game's relatively VRAM-friendly cel-shaded art, Borderlands 4 should run at a playable 1080p Medium around 60 FPS with FSR. This is a projection, not a measured result, and UE5 traversal stutter is a caveat.
Anticipated roughly 58 FPS at 1080p Medium with FSR Quality. Low should reach ~72 FPS and High likely drops to ~42 FPS, held back by the 8 GB VRAM ceiling. All figures are anticipated at 1080p with FSR.
We will publish measured numbers once Steam Machine hardware ships and we can test Borderlands 4 directly. Until then these are anticipated estimates built from hardware class and engine behaviour; see our methodology for details.