How to improve FPS in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 (PC)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 brings back two of the series' most beloved maps with Unreal Engine 5, keeping the arcade formula of combos, grinds, and reverts against the clock. Unlike a photorealistic remake, the art here is colorful and stylized, so the engine can afford to go easy on the GPU if the options are set right. What really matters is framerate consistency: speedrunners and leaderboard players notice a real difference between 60 and 144+ FPS when chaining reverts and manuals with frame-perfect precision. On modest hardware the game already runs well, but fine-tuning the settings makes the difference between "playable" and "competitive."
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Calculations based on our FPS model combined with the % gain of each setting (measured in public benchmarks).
1. Quick wins (no visual loss)
Start here. Each one adds a little, but together they give +12% free FPS.
Motion Blur
Motion blur adds nothing to a skate game with a fast camera and constant turns; if anything, it makes it harder to see the board's angle when jumping. Disabling it frees up some performance and improves visual clarity during fast grinds.
Depth of Field
Depth of field is mostly noticeable in menus and replays, but during active gameplay it distracts more than it adds in a fast-reaction game.
Chromatic Aberration
It's a purely cosmetic filter inherited from UE5's post-processing base that adds colored fringing at the edges of the screen. It has no gameplay effect, and some players find it annoying in long sessions.
Film Grain
Film grain adds visual noise that clashes with the clean, colorful aesthetic of classic THPS levels. Removing it makes flat textures much more legible.
Crowd Density
NPCs populating levels like Mall or School add CPU load without affecting the skating itself, since they rarely interact with your combo lines. Lowering crowd density is an easy win.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Shadow Quality
UE5's dynamic shadows are among the engine's most expensive, but on levels with flat, saturated palettes like THPS's, the jump from Ultra to Medium is barely noticeable in motion.
Reflections
Reflections on polished surfaces in pools and skateparks use screen-space reflections that hurt performance quite a bit for a minor aesthetic benefit, since the camera is focused on the skater most of the time, not the ground.
Anti-Aliasing (TSR/DLAA)
TSR, UE5's own temporal antialiasing, has a noticeable rendering cost in scenarios with a lot of geometric detail like rails and gaps. Dropping from High to Medium reduces the cost without generating much perceptible aliasing.
Texture Quality
Textures aren't the main bottleneck in this title thanks to the VRAM available on most current GPUs, so it can stay high without penalizing framerate much.
View Distance
Draw distance mainly affects open levels like Downhill Jam or School, where distant elements are rendered that are almost never used for tricks.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
NVIDIA DLSS 3
+35% FPSDLSS 3 with Frame Generation lets you effectively double the perceived framerate on RTX 40-series GPUs, ideal for reaching 144Hz or 240Hz monitors with headroom. In Quality mode, image quality is practically indistinguishable from native given the game's flat art style.
AMD FSR 3
+28% FPSFSR 3 works on any modern GPU, not just AMD, and provides a notable FPS boost with Frame Generation included. It's the recommended option for those with entry-level NVIDIA cards or AMD GPUs without DLSS support.
Intel XeSS
+25% FPSXeSS delivers solid results both on Intel Arc GPUs and on cards from other brands, though its performance gain usually falls somewhat short of DLSS under equal conditions.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable Reflex in the graphics menu to reduce input latency, something you'll notice directly when chaining reverts and manuals.
- •Use DLSS in Quality mode instead of lowering native resolution; the game scales better with upscaling than with reduced internal rendering without it.
- •Update to the latest Game Ready drivers, since Iron Galaxy has released several performance patches that rely on driver-level optimizations.
AMD
- •Enable Anti-Lag to offset the latency added by Frame Generation if you use FSR 3 with frame generation.
- •Radeon Chill can be disabled during competitive matches to avoid unwanted framerate variation in pause or loading menus.
- •On RDNA2 GPUs or older, prioritize lowering Reflections and Shadow Quality before enabling FSR, since raw rasterization headroom is usually enough.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an SSD; loading times between levels and texture streaming in the hub improve noticeably compared to an HDD.
- •Enable Windows' high-performance mode and disable GPU power saving to avoid clock drops during long practice sessions.
- •If you use a 144Hz or higher monitor, cap FPS just a few frames above your refresh rate to avoid tearing without losing input responsiveness.
5. Known game issues
Micro-hitches when loading new level sections
Some players report small stutters when asset streaming loads new areas of the map while moving at high speed, especially on large levels like Mall.
Estado: July 2025 patch
Irregular frame pacing with Frame Generation enabled
Combined with high FPS, both DLSS 3 and FSR 3 with frame generation can show irregular pacing perceived as subtle micro-stutters, more noticeable on 240Hz screens than on 144Hz.
Framerate drop in Create-A-Park mode with lots of objects
Custom parks heavily loaded with objects and ramps can noticeably reduce framerate compared to official levels, since the editor's asset optimization is less aggressive.
6. Frequently asked questions
Do I need 144 FPS to play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 well?▾
Which graphics setting should I lower first if my PC doesn't reach the desired FPS?▾
Do DLSS or FSR give a competitive advantage in this game?▾
Is the game more CPU-bound or GPU-bound?▾
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Calculate FPS for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →