Update: The Borderlands 2 forums are flipping out about this, it seems that this problem requires a patch and/or driver update.

Is anyone else getting ridiculous framerate problems on PC? My setup is way more than enough for the game. I'm running an i7 3770k 3.5ghz, 8GB RAM, and a GTX 670. Some parts of the game will go in the 100+ fps region, but then during combat it can drop to the 40s. Locking the framerate doesn't make it not drop either. My computer is running cool and everything, so what do you guys think is the problem? Is it on my end or is this game poorly optimized? The massive framerate drop happens while the game is maxxed out AND when it isn't.

Edit: I see people having the same or similar problems on various YouTube videos, seems like it is the game and not necessarily the hardware.

Edit 2: For comparison's sake, this PC runs BF3 maxed out with no problems and always maintains more than 60 fps.

Edit 3: Lowering PhysX makes no difference. I'm starting to think it must be a combo of drivers and/or optimization. I'll try older drivers when I get a chance to play tomorrow.

Edit 4: I rolled back my drivers by a version and the performance is only barely better. The game just seems to get massive frame drops on a lot of cards.

I don't have any idea of what the framerate is (no counter) but it seems very stable for me. I have it set to the default setting and haven't seen a single drop yet. My computer is quite a bit worse than yours too.

@wemibelec90 said:

I don't have any idea of what the framerate is (no counter) but it seems very stable for me. I have it set to the default setting and haven't seen a single drop yet. My computer is quite a bit worse than yours too.

That's really strange. I'm poking around on the internet and other people are having similar problems. Share some of your luck good sir!

I too haven't had any problems with framerate on my pc

I think it's a driver issue. I've noticed the same thing and I have a 670 as well. I was watching the GPU and when it gets crazy, sometimes the card doesn't work at 100 percent. My hope is when they mature the drivers for the game, the card will work at 100 percent all the time.

@GoranP said:

@wemibelec90 said:

I don't have any idea of what the framerate is (no counter) but it seems very stable for me. I have it set to the default setting and haven't seen a single drop yet. My computer is quite a bit worse than yours too.

That's really strange. I'm poking around on the internet and other people are having similar problems. Share some of your luck good sir!

I have an ATI card so maybe that's why? Ironically, it would be one of the one instances where I'd be happy to have an ATI card instead of NVIDIA...

@Toadie said:

I think it's a driver issue. I've noticed the same thing and I have a 670 as well. I was watching the GPU and when it gets crazy, sometimes the card doesn't work at 100 percent. My hope is when they mature the drivers for the game, the card will work at 100 percent all the time.

What drivers are you running? I'm using the latest 306 but I may try rolling back to the previous version.

@wemibelec90: Hahahaha, and the game is one of those "best on NVIDIA" branded. How silly.

I have a 670 and the game runs perfectly. I'm on driver version 301.42, which is the latest. Make sure you're up to date.

Turn off hardware PhysX, it's still a killer after all these years.

@Bwast said:

I have a 670 and the game runs perfectly. I'm on driver version 301.42, which is the latest. Make sure you're up to date.

306.23 is the latest on their driver site. But I'll try running 301.42 and whatever my previous one was.

@Korwin said:

Turn off hardware PhysX, it's still a killer after all these years.

I have, and it makes no difference. I'm starting to think it must be a combo of drivers and optimization.

That's weird, I checked for updates with the control panel before I posted that and it said there were none.

yesterday I started playing at native resolution with all settings near max, I would get decent framerate for a while then it would drop to nothing. Then I unplugged my 2nd monitor (a 32" tv) and ran the game having it use "optimal" settings. It ran fine after that with all settings maxed at 1280x720. Odd thing was I bumped it up to 1440x900 it was smooth as smooth can be, then it was smooth in the same parts I had slowdown when I jacked it back up to native (1920x1080). I dunno what was going on here, but I don't think unplugging the monitor made a difference... Just do a rain dance, and hope for the best?

I'm also having about significant frame drop during combat. I just figured it was because, hey, combat, stuff is blowing up everywhere. The game normally sings at 60FPS, but in combat, that'll drop down to around 43-48FPS at any given time. I've got a GTX 580, and even though it is a brand new game, I can't believe it's that demanding.

I have a GTX 670 also and I really haven't had any frame rate problems. I don't know how many FPS I'm getting (I'm new to PC gaming and don't know how to find it out) but the game has been running very smoothly for me.

The one thing I've experienced is the game freezing for about 2 seconds or so at random points but that only lasted for a brief period of time and after I exited iTunes, Origin and my web browser everything went back to normal. The odd part is that the freezes were happening when exploring the environment between gunfights and never happened when there were enemies or explosions or other things I would think put stress on the GPU or CPU.

@bchampnd said:

I have a GTX 670 also and I really haven't had any frame rate problems. I don't know how many FPS I'm getting (I'm new to PC gaming and don't know how to find it out)

Install FRAPS. There are other options, like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision, but they come with a lot of options that you will probably not use. Start FRAPS, start the game and you'll see the framerate counter on the upper left corner of the screen.

Even if you feel the game is running smooth, I recommend checking your FPS for a while. If you're new to PC gaming and you're used to console framerates, you could be getting 40, 45 FPS and feel it's OK. But with a GTX 670, you should be able to max the game and play it at constant 60 FPS. It may seem trivial, but you've paid for expensive hardware, so you should make sure you're getting the most of it, right?

It might be specific to certain configurations of hardware and drivers or something which would require a patch or lots of rolling back and forth till stuff works.

My "last year's" version of your PC, a i5 2500k @4.5 Ghz, a GTX 570 and 8 gigs of ram, runs it flawlessly maxed out. I also don't update my drivers often so I'm probably on some older shit right now.

I've also been getting massive frame rate drops during combat and for long periods of time after. I've found that changing the 'view distance' from any setting to any other setting puts my frame rate back to a solid 60 but the drop will still occur again later.

CPU: AMD1090T GPU 2x AMD 6870's

Driver Version 12.6

I take it this is going to become one of those "benchmark" games, then? Like BF3, Metro 2033, and Crysis 2 are now?

@believer258 said:

I take it this is going to become one of those "benchmark" games, then? Like BF3, Metro 2033, and Crysis 2 are now?

No. It's Unreal Engine 3. No matter how much Gearbox has improved the game's graphics (which, from what I've seen, is not that much), it's still basically the same as Borderlands 1. The UE3 is extremely flexible, but nowhere near as demanding as CryEngine 3 or Frostbite 2.

And Crysis 2 was never a benchmark, really. Crisis? Sure, it's still hard to max it with all the best and whistles. Crysis 2? Nope. (Unless, of course, you count the terrible implementation of tessellation that makes your perfomance tank...)

@JoeyRavn said:

@believer258 said:

I take it this is going to become one of those "benchmark" games, then? Like BF3, Metro 2033, and Crysis 2 are now?

No. It's Unreal Engine 3. No matter how much Gearbox has improved the game's graphics (which, from what I've seen, is not that much), it's still basically the same as Borderlands 1. The UE3 is extremely flexible, but nowhere near as demanding as CryEngine 3 or Frostbite 2.

And Crysis 2 was never a benchmark, really. Crisis? Sure, it's still hard to max it with all the best and whistles. Crysis 2? Nope. (Unless, of course, you count the terrible implementation of tessellation that makes your perfomance tank...)

Tessellation on your tessellation!

@AlexW00d said:

@JoeyRavn said:

@believer258 said:

I take it this is going to become one of those "benchmark" games, then? Like BF3, Metro 2033, and Crysis 2 are now?

No. It's Unreal Engine 3. No matter how much Gearbox has improved the game's graphics (which, from what I've seen, is not that much), it's still basically the same as Borderlands 1. The UE3 is extremely flexible, but nowhere near as demanding as CryEngine 3 or Frostbite 2.

And Crysis 2 was never a benchmark, really. Crisis? Sure, it's still hard to max it with all the best and whistles. Crysis 2? Nope. (Unless, of course, you count the terrible implementation of tessellation that makes your perfomance tank...)

Tessellation on your tessellation!

Admittedly I was going by Tom's Hardware's benchmark tests, and Crysis 2 is almost always in those. For that matter, when I was picking out a graphics card I saw Crysis 2 in almost all of the benchmarks I Google'd for.

I haven't had any problems but that sucks other people are. Hope they figure it out for you soon.

@JoeyRavn said:

@bchampnd said:

I have a GTX 670 also and I really haven't had any frame rate problems. I don't know how many FPS I'm getting (I'm new to PC gaming and don't know how to find it out)

Install FRAPS. There are other options, like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision, but they come with a lot of options that you will probably not use. Start FRAPS, start the game and you'll see the framerate counter on the upper left corner of the screen.

Even if you feel the game is running smooth, I recommend checking your FPS for a while. If you're new to PC gaming and you're used to console framerates, you could be getting 40, 45 FPS and feel it's OK. But with a GTX 670, you should be able to max the game and play it at constant 60 FPS. It may seem trivial, but you've paid for expensive hardware, so you should make sure you're getting the most of it, right?

Thanks for the tip. I installed FRAPS and it's showing that I'm pretty much locked in at 60 FPS during gameplay (with a rare stutter here and there to 58 or 59 before going back to 60).

Having this issue myself. Running a GTX 570 and am noticing weird lapses at odd times. Its not a huge deal but is rather weird.