RPCS3 highlights its optimisation efforts with 30%+ performance gains
RPCS3 has become a lot more performant over the past three years
The developers behind RPCS3, the world’s leading PlayStation 3 emulator, have highlighted the fruits of their optimisation efforts in a recent post.
Using Red Dead Redemption as an example, the team showcased two benchmark spots using the latest build of RPCS3 and a build from three years ago. The team noted 31.5% and 39.5% higher framerates at these locations using today’s emulator builds. These optimisations make emulated PS3 games more playable using the emulator and lower its hardware requirements overall.
The RPCS3 team has worked hard to improve the performance of their emulator over the past few years. Today, over 69% of the PlayStation 3’s library is classed as “playable” using the emulator. A further 28% of games are classed as “in-game.”
A look back on our performance optimisations!
We have compared the performance of a build from exactly 3 years ago with one from today
Average FPS numbers from 2 benchmark spots
a) 24.1 -> 31.7 (+31.5 %)
b) 17.7 -> 24.7 (+39.5 %)Running on a laptop with R9 5900HX and RX 6700M pic.twitter.com/j6zQkG8ZtK
— RPCS3 (@rpcs3) February 26, 2025
While Red Dead Redemption may now have a PC version, RPCS3’s role as a game preservation tool remains. Today, the only version of Red Dead Redemption 1 with active multiplayer is the game’s PlayStation 3 version. Furthermore, a huge library of PlayStation 3 titles remains unavailable on modern gaming platforms.
Emulation is helping to keep the PlayStation 3’s legacy alive, and continued optimisation efforts are making the PlayStation 3’s library more accessible than ever before. The new ARM version of RPCS3 even works on a Raspberry Pi!
You can join the discussion on RPCS3’s optimisation on the OC3D Forums.
