Assetto Corsa PC requirements: minimum, recommended and mods

According to the Steam page, Assetto Corsa’s minimum requirements are Windows 7 SP1 or later, an AMD Athlon X2 at 2.8 GHz or an Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.4 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, a DirectX 10.1 compatible graphics card (around the level of an AMD Radeon HD 6450 or an NVIDIA GeForce GT 460) and 15 GB of free space. The recommended specs are a six-core AMD or quad-core Intel CPU, 6 GB of RAM, a DirectX 11 card on par with an AMD Radeon R9 290X or a GeForce GTX 970, and 30 GB of space. Those are 2014 numbers: if you’re going to play with Content Manager, Custom Shaders Patch and mods, the community recommends a lot more, above all 16 GB of RAM, a CPU with strong single-core performance and an SSD.

Official Assetto Corsa PC requirements

These are the specs Kunos lists on Steam. On PC, the game is Windows only.

There’s one important caveat: the Steam page itself notes that, since January 1, 2024, the Steam client only runs on Windows 10 or later. Even though the requirements still list Windows 7 and 8, in practice you need Windows 10 or 11. On top of that, Custom Shaders Patch requires the 64-bit version 1.16.3 or 1.16.4 of the game, which is what Steam installs today.

Real-world requirements with Content Manager, CSP and Sol or Pure

Hardly anyone plays Assetto Corsa straight out of Steam these days. The usual setup is Content Manager as the launcher, CSP for lighting and dynamic weather, and a weather and graphics mod like Sol or Pure. Kunos doesn’t publish requirements for this combo, so what follows are practical recommendations gathered from community forums (Steam and OverTake), not official figures.

CPU: single-core speed matters more

Assetto Corsa doesn’t make use of many cores, as Pure’s own author points out. A common point on the forums is that, with CSP and heavy modded tracks, the bottleneck is usually the CPU: you can swap your graphics card and still get stutters if the processor is pegged at 100 %. A modern mid-range CPU with a high clock speed performs better than one with lots of slow cores.

RAM: 16 GB as a baseline

The recommended 6 GB falls short once you add mods. The most common community recommendation for playing with CSP is 16 GB, ideally in dual channel. If you play in VR or on servers with lots of cars, fast memory helps prevent FPS drops.

GPU and VRAM: it depends on the mods you install

There’s no official VRAM figure for the modded game. What eats the most video memory is high-resolution textures on modded cars and tracks, full grids of different cars, and huge tracks like Shutoko Revival Project. To give you an idea of the impact, one user on the Steam forums said he went from over 250 FPS at 1440p in the vanilla game to between 100 and 140 FPS after adding CSP, Pure, Sol and filters, on the same PC. Rain is the most demanding scenario with any weather script.

Storage: an SSD and room for mods

Steam asks for 15 to 30 GB, but every car, track or pack you add takes up extra space, and a mod collection grows fast. Install the game on an SSD: it cuts loading times and reduces stutters when loading big tracks.

VR requirements

Assetto Corsa supports SteamVR (OpenVR) and Oculus out of the box, according to Steam. You turn it on in the video options by choosing the OpenVR or Oculus Rift render mode. VR doubles the graphics load: one specialist sim racing store recommends a Core i7 or Ryzen 7, 16 GB of RAM and a graphics card on the level of an RTX 2060 or RTX 3060 for VR.

VR tips that come up again and again in the community:

• Turn on Single Pass Stereo in CSP’s VR settings: it saves a lot of CPU and GPU load.
• Set smoke to minimum or turn it off: race starts with a full grid are the most demanding moment.
• If your GPU can’t keep up with the headset’s refresh rate, the system kicks in reprojection and your FPS drop by half. Before changing hardware, lower the headset resolution, turn off high MSAA and reduce shadow resolution.
• On borderline PCs, Pure with its skydomes (clouds as a texture, which according to its author only use about 128 MB of VRAM) usually performs better than shader-generated clouds.

How to play Assetto Corsa on a low-end PC

The base game is light and runs on modest hardware. If your PC is struggling, try these in order:

1. Start with official Kunos cars. High-poly modded cars and races with lots of different modded cars are what tank your FPS the most.
2. Lower shadows, reflections and mirrors. Shadow resolution, reflection quality and frequency, and mirror resolution are the settings with the biggest impact.
3. Reduce world detail and smoke, and turn off motion blur and post-processing if you don’t need them.
4. Use fewer AI opponents in offline races.
5. Measure before you tweak. The game includes a rendering stats app (Render Stats) that shows what’s using the most resources; not every low setting improves performance equally.
6. Keep an eye on temperatures. If your CPU or GPU runs too hot and throttles, FPS will drop suddenly even with the right settings.

Only install CSP and a weather mod once the base game runs smoothly, and add mods gradually. Our guide to installing mods in Assetto Corsa walks you through the process step by step.

Assetto Corsa quick facts: Steam Deck · price and whether it’s free · download size · on mobile · PS5 and PS4.

Frequently asked questions

Does Assetto Corsa work on Windows 7?

The Steam page still lists Windows 7 SP1, but the Steam client stopped working on Windows 7 and 8 on January 1, 2024. To buy, download and update the game you need Windows 10 or 11.

How much RAM do I need for Assetto Corsa with mods?

Kunos recommends 6 GB for the vanilla game. With Content Manager, CSP and mods, the community baseline is 16 GB.

Do I need a powerful graphics card to use CSP?

Not to turn it on, but CSP and Sol or Pure reduce FPS quite a bit compared to the vanilla game. With a modest card you can still use them by lowering shadows, reflections and extra effects, and turning off CSP’s heaviest options.

Is Assetto Corsa available in Spanish?

Not officially. According to Steam, the interface is only in English, Italian and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional). The game is easy to play in English, and there’s very little text outside the menus.

Can I play it on Mac or Linux?

Steam only offers a Windows version. There’s no official version for macOS or Linux.