RPCS3 is an open-source emulator (and debugger) for the Sony PlayStation 3, making it possible for users to play and debug PlayStation 3 games on non-PS3 hardware, like Intel/AMD desktop PCs and laptops running Windows, macOS, or Linux.
Now, RPCS3 is available for the Raspberry Pi 5 too.
A major new version of of RPCS3 was released this week adding native ARM64 support for Linux, macOS (Apple Silicon) (although not ready yet) Windows too. As no architecture ‘translation’ tools are involved, gaming performance is better.
“How far can we challenge the limits of emulating the console known for being the most resource demanding to emulate still 18 years after its release? To put this to the test [one of our developers] acquired a Raspberry Pi 5 device,” the team say.
This video shows a variety of PlayStation 3 games running on the Raspberry Pi 5 (albeit with some noticeable caveats, which I’ll get to in a sec):
The team’s other video shows the performance of RPCS3 on Apple Silicon natively (versus it running through Apple’s Rosetta2 translation layer for x64 apps) is impressive, I’d expect it to be: it’s running on expensive hardware way faster than a real PS3!
Underscoring that is the fact PS3 games run nearly as on Apple Silicon with Asahi Linux, not just macOS.
The Raspberry Pi 5 is a more humble target since it’s far weaker – so how’d they pull it off?
With a fair bit of difficulty, it seems:
[We learned] the Broadcom VideoCore VII GPU in the Raspberry Pi 5 is not only unbelievably weak, but was also several times weaker than the PlayStation 3’s own GPU – the RSX. This means that Raspberry Pi 5 is not capable of rendering these games at 720p […] even 360p rendering of these 3D games proved too much for this GPU
RPCS3
As such, the video shows PlayStation 3 games running on an overclocked Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB) at 272p and 30FPS, i.e., PSP resolution. Gameplay is smooth even if the graphics are blocky1 and sound sometimes clips.
For a deep-dive on how the RPCS3 developers pulled off emulating PS3 games natively on the Raspberry Pi 5 (and Apple Silicon), and some of the things still to do, read their official announcement blog post – it’s a cracking read.
Download RPCS3
Keen to go hands on for yourself? You’ll need a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB RAM, ample fast storage connected, and the latest RPCS3 Linux ARM64 binary, which can be had from the website’s RPCS3 downloads page.
You’ll also need something to “play”. I shan’t go in to that side for obvious reasons. Also, not every game is going to work well – trial and error will be required.
Knowing how to overclock a Raspberry Pi 5 CPU and GPU is also important. The exact steps can vary depending on Linux distribution. Overclocking never “takes” on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS — 24.10 performance on the Pi 5 is awful — but it works on Raspberry Pi OS – YMMV.
The RPCS3 team set up their Raspberry Pi 5 with Arch Linux for ARM and overclocked the CPU by 400Mhz (2900MHz) and the GPU by 100MHz (1060Mhz). A good template to follow.
If overclocking you must be cautious; only overclock in small increments. You must also ensure you have an active cooler as Pi 5 runs toasty under normal loads normally – cranking up core speeds will increase heat generation further.
Finally, if you love what the team is doing here (be it on ARM64 or regular Intel/AMD) you can contribute to development by joining their Patreon.
- The graphics will look far worse on larger screens, but passable on smaller ones. ↩︎