The PlayStation 5 Can Handle PS3 Emulation, New Test Proves
A recent test has shattered the long-held belief that emulating PlayStation 3 games is beyond the capabilities of the PlayStation 5. In a fascinating experiment, YouTuber Lowest Logan showcased the potential of the PS5 hardware, using an AMD BC-250 mining card—essentially a repurposed version of the PS5 silicon with some limitations—to emulate PS3 games via the RPCS3 emulator.
Key Findings
Repurposed Hardware: The AMD BC-250 card used in the test features the PS5’s silicon but has certain limitations, such as two disabled CPU cores and 24 compute units instead of the full 32 available on the PS5.
Challenges Overcome: After overcoming issues with Windows and Linux, the hardware successfully emulated PS3 games like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Little Big Planet at native and higher resolutions with smooth framerates.
Performance Insights: Despite the BC-250’s memory clock state being locked at 450 MHz (on par with an RX 480 GPU rather than the RX 6700-level PS5 GPU), the games ran efficiently. This demonstrates the PS5’s capability to handle PS3 emulation with significant performance left untapped.
Currently, PS3 titles on the PS5 are accessible only through game streaming via PlayStation Plus Premium, with no option for native emulation. However, this experiment highlights that native emulation of PS3 games is within the PS5’s hardware capabilities. If Sony were to invest resources into building a native PS3 emulator, it could potentially open up the console’s library to a treasure trove of legacy games, free from the constraints of streaming.
Check out Lowest Logan’s video for a detailed breakdown of the experiment and gameplay footage of PS3 games running on the AMD BC-250 card:
Would you want to see native PS3 emulation on the PS5? What classic PS3 games would you revisit? Let us know in the comments!
