Forget Forza 7. Move over GT Sport. For hardcore racing enthusiasts, there's only one true champion to the sim crown - Project CARS. Now Slightly Mad Studios is back with Project CARS 2, promising the most authentic and detailed racing simulator yet. Everything has been painstakingly recreated in frankly ridiculous detail, and it shows in the official Project CARS 2 PC system requirements.

Project CARS 2 Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit (and unspecified versions of Windows 7)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-8350 3.6GHz
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 2GB Video Memory
• GPU: GeForce GTX 680 or Radeon R9 280X
• HDD: 50 GB available hard drive space
• DX: DirectX 11

Project CARS 2 Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 4.0 GHz
• RAM: 16 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 8GB Video Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 or AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
• HDD: 50 GB available hard drive space
• DX: DirectX 11

OK, so there's a fair bit to unpack here. First of all, let's start with the OS. The official requirements for Project CARS 2 suggest Windows 10 as a minimum, accompanied by the caveat that some versions of Windows 7 are also supported. SMS haven't specified the exact versions, but we'd hazard a guess it's 64-bit Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 and the convenience roll-up installed.

Moving on to the CPU demands for Project CARS 2 and these are lofty indeed. Compared these to the original Project CARS and they aren't even the same ballpark. In fact, overall, Project CARS 2's minimum specs are higher than the recommended specs for Project CARS. Now you'll need a capable quad-core CPU with 3.4+GHz clock speed.

The CPU needs to be joined by a video card with at least 2GB VRAM for minimum graphics settings in PC2, while you'll need a hefty 8GB VRAM to meet the recommended specs. Curiously, SMS recommend either a GeForce GTX 1080 or Radeon RX 480 8GB, with the Nvidia card being hugely more powerful than AMD's RX 480. The 8GB VRAM is likely the major sticking point here though, and Project CARS 2 is sounding like it could be quite the performance hog on this front. Still, it's undeniably strange to equate a $250 RX 480 to a $600 GTX 1080. 

Aside from this, you're looking at 8GB RAM minimum, 16GB recommended. That's fairly standard procedure for a AAA title in 2017, as is the 50GB installation size.

As ever, remember you can always check out how well your PC can run the Project CARS 2 System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the Project CARS 2 GPU benchmark chart and we also have a Project CARS 2 Frames Per Second system performance chart for you to check.