When you launch Borderlands 4 for the first time or change your graphics settings, the game begins compiling special programs used to render lighting, shadows, also effects: shaders. This ensures the game's smooth performance. It also allows for the game to look as good as it can on your hardware.

This process usually takes until ten minutes. It is the case that an issue of the drivers, the shader cache, or even third-party software means that it freezes or takes longer at “Compiling Shaders.”

Main Causes of Freezing

• Outdated graphics card drivers that aren’t optimized for the new game.
• Corrupted or overloaded shader cache.
• Conflicts with other programs such as overlays (Steam Overlay, Discord, GeForce Experience).
• Antivirus or firewall blocking game files.
• Incompatibility with new hardware, especially the latest Intel processors.

How to Fix the Problem

First, check your graphics drivers. Download the latest version from the official NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel website. Sometimes you specifically need “Game Ready” drivers for new titles to work properly.

If that doesn’t help, restart the game or your PC. Then verify the integrity of the files via Steam or the Epic Games Launcher — this fixes missing or corrupted files.

Try clearing the shader cache. On NVIDIA, you can find it in the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\DXCache and delete it. For AMD, this can be done through the Adrenalin software in the graphics settings menu, where there’s a “Reset Shader Cache” button.

Disable each one of the overlays such as Steam Overlay, Discord Overlay, and GeForce Experience. They often cause conflicts with the game.

Administratively run Borderlands 4. These file access issues this situation may resolve. Check antivirus and firewall too: add the game to the exceptions list, or briefly disable protection to ensure it does not block caching.

If Nothing Works

In this case, hidden conflicts can be eliminated now. The reinstalling of the game may help in achieving that. If the problem persists, contact Gearbox or the publisher’s technical support being ready to provide system information and logs.