PC1 SMS reveal Project CARS system requirements

Alex Franchini · Apr 15, 2015

Slightly Mad Studios published on their website an update containing further details for Project Cars, including system requirements and other bits-and-pieces.

First and foremost, here are the system requirements for the PC version of the title:

Minimum spec:

CPU: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400, 3.0 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940
Graphics: nVidia GTX 260, ATI Radeon HD 5770
Memory: 4Gb RAM, 1Gb VRAM

Recommended spec:

CPU: 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 3700, 4.0 GHz AMD FX-8350
Graphics: nVidia GT600 series, AMD Radeon HD7000 series
Memory: 8Gb RAM, 2Gb VRAM

They don't look ridiculously high, so here's hoping it's a well-optimized title. Those with a super beefy machine will be able to run the game at up to 12K resolution.

Meanwhile in consoleland, the PS4 version will run at 1080p resolution, while the Xbox One version will run at 900p. Both versions will run at 60 frames per second.

There's no split screen support, and the game will support up to 45 AI opponents on all platforms. In terms of online racing, all versions will have a 16 player limit, except for the PC 64-bit executable, which will feature 32 online racers.

It also looks like SMS is looking into DX12 support, but there are no further news about that for now. Hopefully that will bring additional performance and graphics improvements in the future.

There is still no word about an exact release date, though, other than "mid-May" on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Stay tuned.

Omer Said · Apr 15, 2015

Very good to see the PC version online limit is not dumbed down because of the consoles like some other racing titles do!
And 45 AI, sounds so epic!

Steve Bird · Apr 15, 2015

Recommended specs are a tad conservative for running this game at any decent quality/FPS.

Blkout · Apr 15, 2015

Steve Bird said:
Recommended specs are a tad conservative for running this game at any decent quality/FPS.

A tad is being generous but that's the marketing department. Easier to sell the game when people think they can "run it just fine" on older, slower hardware.

budlix · Apr 15, 2015

Blkout said:
A tad is being generous but that's the marketing department. Easier to sell the game when people think they can "run it just fine" on older, slower hardware.

Same to me.

budlix · Apr 15, 2015

For now PCars seems to be the best rain simulator ever...

James Nance · Apr 15, 2015

Its actually pretty well Optimized. 20 cars in a thunderstorm with full effects is smooth as butter. I only run a medium range PC.

Dinca Andrei · Apr 15, 2015

James Nance said:
Its actually pretty well Optimized. 20 cars in a thunderstorm with full effects is smooth as butter. I only run a medium range PC.

Smooth as butter?...then it must be on a lower resolution or your pc is close to mid-high rather than mid-low...

I`ve tried...and with full effects and in rain..its not that smooth with so many oponents..but maybe my pc is mid-low

James Nance · Apr 15, 2015

Dinca Andrei said:
Smooth as butter?...then it must be on a lower resolution or your pc is close to mid-high rather than mid-low...
I`ve tried...and with full effects and in rain..its not that smooth with so many oponents..but maybe my pc is mid-low

I run it on 1920x1980 single monitor, Ultra settings except for shadows on medium and detailed grass on low(looks good as it is) Then maybe im mid-high? Who knows, technology moves fast. I just know a while back I couldnt play it pretty much at all, was just insane. But for whats happening on screen, cars, effects, time of day, I think its pretty well optimized. Of course theres more to be had but for what it is, its good.

Ryan Soucy · Apr 15, 2015

I did the rain test (a month ago) at Monaco with a 20 car grid and it stuttered only at St. Devote, but by midway through the 1st lap when cars are stretching out and its surprisingly smooth. My 3 yo PC is an i5 2550 running stock, 8GB ram, but with a 1 yo AMD R9-270 card, but running at 1440p. In dry conditions no sweat. Maybe I'm only on High instead Ultra, but it still looks the best.

People with low end PCs simply can't expect to get all the benefits of full graphics, why should they? It would be like me complaining that my Camaro is getting toasted by M5's. What did I expect. A 3 year old LMP car would be waxed by the new cars, even though it was cream of the crop 3 years back.

As for the optimization, the improvements along the way have been quite striking. It has been really impressive to see genuine progress (on this front).

David Wright · Apr 15, 2015

Many of today's sims can really only exploit two cores. Can a pCARs member comment on how many cores pCARs will efffectively use?

Kyle Pearson · Apr 15, 2015

David Wright said:
Many of today's sims can really only exploit two cores. Can a pCARs member comment on how many cores pCARs will efffectively use?

I don't know honestly how anyone outside of the development staff can answer that... We can say that all of the cores have utilization, but I don't think it's possible for use to determine they are being used effectively.

With that, there are scattered reports of different behaviors with members disabling cores and testing. The main correlation seemed to be anything over 4 (the AMD CPU folks) didn't provide any real benefit. Anything under 4 had some issues with how Project CARS clocked it's frequencies for it's internal sync clock. There were some changes made to accommodate dual core processors since there are still many out there, but I don't think anyone (outside of SMS) can say how effectively the cores are being used, only that they are being used.

David Wright · Apr 16, 2015

Thanks for your reply. Your comments concerning issues with dual core and the requirement for a quad core as minimum spec does suggest pCARs probably multi-threads better than the current generation of sims.

Tim Lundy · Apr 16, 2015

James Nance said:
Its actually pretty well Optimized. 20 cars in a thunderstorm with full effects is smooth as butter. I only run a medium range PC.

Dinca Andrei said:
Smooth as butter?...then it must be on a lower resolution or your pc is close to mid-high rather than mid-low...
I`ve tried...and with full effects and in rain..its not that smooth with so many oponents..but maybe my pc is mid-low

What GPU's do you fellas have?