Recently, players noticed that Gearbox Software not only released update 1.11 for the looter-shooter Borderlands 4, but also quietly removed Denuvo protection from the game. Many believe that DRM negatively affects game performance, so tests soon began to be published online.
Community members note that performance gains in some cases amount to tens of FPS. For example, modder EpicNNG reported that on “medium” settings at 1440p resolution, Borderlands 4 delivered 70-80 FPS where it used to be around 50 frames. Nevertheless, the problem with frame rate drops remained.
PlayWithEsh tested Borderlands 4 on a PC with an RTX 3050Ti (4 GB of video memory) — overall playable on “low” settings. It was possible to get 40 – 60 FPS, but sometimes there were drops.
However, the issue may not only be due to the removal of Denuvo. In the description of patch 1.11, the developers of Borderlands 4 noted that they made some performance and stability improvements (details are not provided in the patch notes).
Update 1.11 also included several bug fixes related to gameplay mechanics, sound, and animations. A full description is available at the following link.