Best Skate settings for optimized performance on PC

Despite holding the sometimes dreaded "early access" moniker, finding the best Skate settings is a relatively simple task. I thought this might not be the case, given the Skate system requirements list upscaling at both the recommended and ultra tiers, but I've found that this wasn't necessary for great performance on our test gaming rig.

You won't need the best graphics card from our buying guide to get great performance out of Skate. We managed great performance across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K on an RTX 4070, which bodes well this early on in development.

• Dynamic Resolution: Off
• Upscaling Method: None
• Anti-Aliasing: FXAA
• Texture Filtering: High
• Texture Quality: High
• Global Illumination: Dynamic
• Lighting Quality: High
• Shadow Quality: High
• Mesh Quality: High
• Visual Effects Quality: High
• Post Processing: High
• Ambient Occlusion Quality: High
• Depth of Field Quality: Medium
• Motion Blur Quality: High

Using our RTX 4070 test rig (full specs in the How We Test section), we averaged 121fps with 1% lows of 79fps at 1,920 x 1,080 in Skate. At 2,560 x 1,440, we had an average frame rate of 109fps with 1% lows of 66fps. At 4K, this dropped to an average of 72fps with 1% lows of 48fps.

Ultimately, Skate was very playable, with decent performance across all resolutions, although we're teetering on the minimum expectations at 4K. We typically like to have an average frame rate of 60fps with 1% lows of 45fps, and we're very close to that 1% low figure at 4K.

However, given that the Skate system requirements had us expecting that we'd need to use upscaling to get this kind of performance, it's a nice surprise to see that the game is well-optimized from the get-go.

Skate graphics presets

There are currently four total graphics presets in Skate.

• Low
• Medium
• High
• Ultra

Thanks to its art style, which focuses less on fine detail and more on bold, vibrant colors, Skate looks great at both the Low and Ultra preset. The main differences between the two presets are the lighting quality, which is far more realistic and less blocky at Ultra, and the depth of field quality, which means the game retains more detail when moving at high speed, and the focus is heavier on your character.

Skate accessibility settings

Skate has a few accessibility settings, including subtitles and input adjustments. However, some of the settings listed in the accessibility menu feel misplaced, including the field of view sliders.

These are typically housed in the visual or graphics menu, but at least now you know where they are, if you've been on the hunt to increase or lower your FOV.

How we tested Skate

At PCGamesN, we use dedicated gaming rigs to test the best settings for performance and gameplay in the latest releases. The test rig used to play Skate includes the following components: Intel Core i7-11700F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, 32GB of DDR4 3,200MHz RAM in dual-channel configuration, and an MSI B560 motherboard. We also test using Windows 11 64-bit.

We always run our testing first at 1,920 x 1,080 to identify the best settings for this entry-level resolution, then again at 2,560 x 1,440 using the same setup to gauge the difference in performance. Finally, we also test in 4K. We use CapFrameX to capture frame data and compare testing sessions.

Does Skate need an SSD?

Skate does not require an SSD, as specified in the system requirements. The download file currently sits at just 25GB, so you shouldn't struggle for space unless you've got your entire back catalog installed on your current storage.

If you are still using an old-school mechanical drive and need to upgrade, or perhaps you need some extra storage space, you can find our current SSD recommendations in our best gaming SSD guide.

How to monitor performance in Skate

If you want to keep an eye on performance in Skate, we have an easy method that works whether you're using an Nvidia or AMD graphics card.

For Nvidia cards, ensure you have the Nvidia App installed and the in-game overlay enabled, and then hit Alt + R in-game to bring up your performance monitor. With AMD cards, you can enable performance monitoring via the Radeon overlay using the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + O.

Alternatively, you can download free software such as CapFrameX or Nvidia FrameView, to get a cleaner, more simplified benchmarking tool that works with any graphics card.

With handheld gaming PCs, most will have a dedicated button to access a quick menu from which performance monitoring, sometimes called real-time monitoring, can be accessed.

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