RPCS3 PS3 Emulator Team releases CPU Tier List

The RPCS3 team has revealed the best CPUs for PlayStation 3 emulation

The team behind RPCS3 have released a “CPU Tier List” for their PlayStation 3 (PS3) emulator, revealing the best processors for playing many Sony classics. Today, many PlayStation 3 games can be played on PC with “triple-digit FPS” thanks to the computational power of modern CPUs.

In most cases, CPU performance is the primary bottleneck for emulation performance. This is especially true when emulating hardware with niche hardware architectures like PlayStation 3.

For PlayStation 3 emulation through RPCS3, CPUs with eight or more threads with AVX-512 support are ideal. This is why AMD’s Ryzen 9000/7000 series and Intel’s AVX-512-enabled CPUs excel when running RPCS3. That said, even without AVX-512 support, Intel’s Raptor Lake 14900K CPU is still considered an S-tier CPU by the RPCS3 team.

A good CPU is by far the most important thing when it comes to emulation, specially PS3 emulation.

We are now able to run benchmark areas across many demanding AAA games at triple digit FPS, thanks to AMD's insane new 9800X3D CPU!

What tier is your CPU?https://t.co/Z7k3ScP9Do pic.twitter.com/VtNGfW3qMk

— RPCS3 (@rpcs3) March 29, 2025

When making their CPU Tier List, the RPCS3 team considers emulation performance and nothing else. Value for money isn’t considered. Included in the RPCS3 team’s S-tier are Intel 12th, 13th, and 14th generation Core series CPUs. For AMD, their Ryzen 9000 and 7000 series CPUs are S-tier.

(RPCS3 CPU Tier List – Source)

Note that no modern AMD or Intel CPU is listed in the RPCS3 team’s F-tier. Only AMD CPUs that predate Ryzen and older Intel CPUs with fewer than 4 cores are F-tier. That said, gamers will want a B-tier or better CPU to have a great experience using RPCS3.

Over time, we expect RPCS3 to achieve higher levels of emulation quality and performance. As such, we expect PS3 emulation to become more viable on lower-end PC hardware.

You can join the discussion on RPCS3’s CPU Tier List on the OC3D Forums.