Digital Foundry Direct Weekly DF Direct Weekly #232: Dying Light: The Beast, Intel/Nvidia Partnership, Borderlands 4 Controversy
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Sep 23, 2025 Dive into the impressive performance of Dying Light: The Beast on PC and PS5 despite review code challenges. Discover the surprising Intel/Nvidia partnership and how it could reshape the industry. Listen as the team tests a leaked FSR4 INT8 version, revealing intriguing benchmarks across popular games. The controversy surrounding Gearbox's response to Borderlands 4 performance critiques adds drama, while a sneak peek at the pricing for the powerful GPD Win 5 hints at the future of handheld gaming.
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Benchmark Upscalers Per Game
- Test upscalers per-game because FSR4/FSR3/XESS gains differ widely across titles and settings.
- Prefer FSR4 where image quality and performance balance best, but validate with screenshots and frame-times.
Gearbox CEO's Combative Response
- Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford publicly pushed back on Borderlands 4 performance complaints and offered individualized technical help on social media.
- The hosts criticized this approach as poor customer communication amid real performance issues.
Shader Variant Explosions Cause Stutter
- Unreal Engine 5 projects can generate massive shader variant counts causing runtime shader compilation and stutter if not pre-bundled.
- Manual shader gathers and poor precompilation processes are often the root cause, not lazy QA.