Skate PC specs lean on upscaling and skip Linux — here’s the gamer reality

Why these specs made me pause

EA and Full Circle finally dropped Skate’s PC system requirements, and on paper they look friendly-until you read the fine print. Recommended and ultra targets (60 fps at 1440p and 4K) assume “balanced” upscaling is turned on. Translation: the headline specs are built around image reconstruction, not native rendering. Add in no Linux or macOS support at launch and a controller-only input setup, and there’s more here to unpack than a simple “can I run it?” chart.

Key takeaways

• Recommended and ultra specs rely on balanced upscaling (likely FSR or XeSS), not native resolution performance.
• No Linux/macOS support and EA’s anti-cheat likely block Steam Deck on SteamOS.
• Controller-only at launch on PC-no mouse and keyboard.
• Install size is a light 25GB and there’s no hard SSD requirement (yet).

Breaking down the announcement (and what it implies)

Minimum specs are mild: GTX 1050 Ti or RX 460, older i5-6600K or Ryzen 3 3100, and 8GB RAM for 1080p/30 at low. Pretty much any halfway recent gaming PC can clear that. The jump to medium (1080p/60) also looks reasonable with cards like RTX 2060 or RX 5500 XT and 16GB RAM.

Where it gets squishy is “Recommended” (1440p/60 on high) and “Ultra” (4K/60 on ultra). The GPU asks-RTX 3060 / RX 6600 XT for 1440p, and RTX 3070 Ti / RX 6900 XT for 4K—sound generous until you notice the caveat: performance estimates include optional upscaling at balanced settings. Without that upscaler, those GPUs probably won’t hit the listed frame rate at the listed resolution and preset.

Balanced modes for modern upscalers render at a substantially lower internal resolution before reconstructing to the target. It can look good—especially in motion—but you’ll usually see softer edges, more temporal shimmer on thin geometry (rails, wires), and occasional ghosting around fast-moving skaters and shadows. It’s a fair trade for performance, but it’s not the same as native.

There’s another wrinkle: the early access build doesn’t list DLSS support. That suggests Skate is leaning on AMD FSR or Intel XeSS at launch. Both are vendor-agnostic (so your RTX card isn’t locked out), but image quality can vary depending on the version and the game’s motion vector implementation. Full Circle didn’t specify versions, so image quality is a big question mark until we test it.

My rule of thumb: if you want true native 1440p/60 on high without upscaling, expect to need a stronger GPU than an RTX 3060 or RX 6600 XT. And native 4K/60 on ultra is a high bar for anything short of top-tier hardware. Wait for benchmarks, but plan accordingly.

Steam Deck and Linux: the anti-cheat roadblock

Skate officially supports only Windows 10/11 with DirectX 12. Normally that doesn’t automatically doom Steam Deck players—Proton can work miracles—but the Steam page flags EA’s anti-cheat. Kernel-level anti-cheat has a history of clashing with Proton, and EA’s own solution has blocked games like EA Sports FC 24 on SteamOS. Unless EA flips the switch for Proton compatibility, Deck on SteamOS is likely a non-starter.

Could you install Windows on your Deck and try anyway? Maybe, but expect friction: anti-cheat validation, driver overhead, and whatever optimization surprises an early access build throws at a handheld APU. The irony is painful—Skate is controller-first by design, which should make it a perfect Deck fit. Anti-cheat says otherwise, at least for now.

Controller-only on PC: authentic or alienating?

Full Circle is going controller-only at launch. As someone who learned flip tricks on dual analog in Skate and poured hours into Session, I get it—the control scheme’s feel is the game. Still, removing mouse and keyboard entirely on PC is a miss. Even if most players prefer a pad, having M&K for camera binds, menus, and accessibility helps. If you’re jumping in day one, dust off an Xbox or DualSense controller and hope the deadzones and haptics are tuned well.

The rest of the spec sheet: RAM, CPU, and storage

There’s some good news: the install is a lean 25GB, and an SSD isn’t required. I still recommend one—open-world streaming in city hubs tends to benefit—but it’s not mandatory. RAM lands at 8GB minimum, 16GB for recommended, and a chunky 32GB for ultra. That last one might be hedging for future content or heavy texture caching at 4K; we’ll see if it actually moves the needle.

CPU asks are middle-of-the-road: i7-9700 / Ryzen 5 3600 for recommended and i7-11700 / Ryzen 9 5900 for ultra. That suggests the bottleneck will be GPU and memory bandwidth more than raw CPU, which tracks for a fast-moving city playground with lots of AI pedestrians and streaming assets.

Why this matters now

We’re seeing a trend: publishers bake upscaling into “recommended” to make targets appear more attainable. At least Full Circle is transparent about the balanced preset—several recent PC launches weren’t. Still, the community deserves two sets of guidance: native targets and upscaled targets. It sets expectations and avoids the “why doesn’t my 3060 hit 1440p/60?” cycle at launch.

The ask here is simple: confirm the upscaler versions, add DLSS, and provide native-resolution baselines. On the platform side, give us a roadmap for Proton compatibility. Skate feels like a perfect Steam Deck time sink—don’t lock it out.

TL;DR

Skate’s “recommended” and “ultra” specs assume balanced upscaling, not native rendering, so plan for stronger hardware if you want 1440p or 4K without reconstruction. Linux/macOS aren’t supported and EA’s anti-cheat likely blocks Steam Deck on SteamOS. It’s controller-only, a 25GB install, and no SSD requirement—for now. Bring a pad, expect upscaling, and wait for real benchmarks before you tweak your build.