Il-2: Korea System Requirements Cause Concern Amid Parts Pricing Surge

The ever-elegant Lucille Bluth has seemingly found a new job in the team behind the upcoming flight simulator Il-2: Korea, or at least that's the vibe that transpires if you take a glance at the required specs sheet for the game.

According to the Il-2: Korea FAQ, budding pilots hoping to get in the game at all will need to have at least 24GB of RAM, a quad-core CPU that clocks at or above 3.6 GHz, and a GPU with a minimum of 8GB of VRAM. Oh, and that has to be two generations old tops, so no RTX 2080 allowed.

If the minimum specs feel shinier than a freshly polished F-86, just wait until you see what the recommended hardware has in store for you.

The so-called optimal preset for a 2D screen is an 8-core CPU running at or above 4.5GHz, a modest 32GB of RAM, and a graphics card with 12GB or more of VRAM. Something on par with the RTX 4080 or the RX 7900 XTX, the site specifies. If you want to dabble in VR, make that at least 16GB of VRAM.

It's a powerful GPU and some RAM, Michael. How much could it cost?

Ambitious or Delusional, Pick One

Once the tears dry from just looking at the specs of this game, you start wondering whether this is a case of insanity or just some awful timing on the part of developers 1CGS.

Il-2: Korea has been in development for a couple of years now, and it is unlikely that the project had the tragicomical increase in computer parts that plagued the second half of 2025 in mind when it started out.

If to be charitable, a team of aviation nerds working on a simulator about a conflict that remains relatively obscure (despite Hollywood hits like The Bridges at Toko-Ri in 1954 and Devotion in 2022) was not aware that Sam Altman and his goons would nuke the entire PC Parts supply so that your auntie could generate a picture of her dog on a surfboard.

On the other hand, even if there is an irony of fate at play here, a look at contemporary flight sims makes one question why the specs lean toward the insane.

Take Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, for example. While CPU requirements are in the same ballpark, the minimum specs to run the game are 16GB of RAM, and even ye olde GTX 970 with 4GB of VRAM and a dream can do the job.

Pushing up to recommended gets us 32GB of RAM and at least 8GB of VRAM, but with older cards like the RX 5700 XT and the RTX 2080 being the baseline for MSFS.

The story repeats itself for DCS World, where the VR system requirements are on par with the recommended ones for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

Now, does Il-2: Korea look good? It sure does, check some gameplay footage and see for yourself:

However, all the polished aluminium skin in the world is not worth much if the game is not at least vaguely accessible to players.

With the game's pre-orders starting at $80, the need to then spend another few hundred to bring your computer up to spec could seriously harm the commercial performance of what is the most promising flight simulator in development right now.

Il-2: Korea is set to release in Q2 2026 for PC, and is available for pre-order on its website.