Given a non-negative integer n and a ring R with identity, we construct a hereditary abelian model structure on the category of left R-modules where the class of cofibrant objects coincides with $\mathcal{GF}_n(R)$ the class of left R-modules with Gorenstein flat dimension at most n, the class of fibrant objects coincides with $\mathcal{F}_n(R)^\perp$ the right ${\rm Ext}$-orthogonal class of left R-modules with flat dimension at most n, and the class of trivial objects coincides with $\mathcal{PGF}(R)^\perp$ the right ${\rm Ext}$-orthogonal class of PGF left R-modules recently introduced by Šaroch and . The homotopy category of this model structure is triangulated equivalent to the stable category $\underline{\mathcal{GF}(R)\cap\mathcal{C}(R)}$ modulo flat-cotorsion modules and it is compactly generated when R has finite global Gorenstein projective dimension.

The second part of this paper deals with the PGF dimension of modules and rings. Our results suggest that this dimension could serve as an alternative definition of the Gorenstein projective dimension. We show, among other things, that (n-)perfect rings can be characterized in terms of Gorenstein homological dimensions, similar to the classical ones, and the global Gorenstein projective dimension coincides with the global PGF dimension.

We construct a flat model structure on the category ${_{\mathcal {Q},\,R}\mathsf {Mod}}$ of additive functors from a small preadditive category $\mathcal {Q}$ satisfying certain conditions to the module category ${_{R}\mathsf {Mod}}$ over an associative ring $R$, whose homotopy category is the $\mathcal {Q}$-shaped derived category introduced by Holm and Jørgensen. Moreover, we prove that for an arbitrary associative ring $R$, an object in ${_{\mathcal {Q},\,R}\mathsf {Mod}}$ is Gorenstein projective (resp., Gorenstein injective, Gorenstein flat, projective coresolving Gorenstein flat) if and only if so is its value on each object of $\mathcal {Q}$, and hence improve a result by Dell'Ambrogio, Stevenson and Šťovíček.

We define the projective stable category of a coherent scheme. It is the homotopy category of an abelian model structure on the category of unbounded chain complexes of quasi-coherent sheaves. We study the cofibrant objects of this model structure, which are certain complexes of flat quasi-coherent sheaves satisfying a special acyclicity condition.