For a long time, people thought that emulating the PS3 on a PC would be impossible since the console’s architecture is very different from that of the PC. However, the team behind the RPCS3 emulator has proven that nothing is impossible, and in this article, we are going to teach you what you should do if you want to play PS3 games on your PC in a simple way and, just as important, for free.
RPCS3 is an open-source PlayStation 3 emulator for PC, meaning that it is free to use and anyone can contribute to the project or modify it – giving appropriate credit – as well as participate in a funding campaign if they want. But in principle, it is completely free for users and is ready to run without you having to do anything other than download and install it on your PC.
This support is important because RPCS3 has been one of the few attempts by the community to develop an emulator for one of the most controversial consoles in terms of hardware that we can remember. The PS3 architecture is a headache for many of those who have tried to emulate it and although now the panorama is much more friendly than five or six years ago, its improvement has come from the work that dozens of users have done around this particular emulator. So the results we can achieve are very meritorious.
Download RPCS3 PS3 emulator
Obviously, the first step is to download the software, which you can access from the project’s website. The software is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD and is also updated quite frequently, so we recommend that you always check if there is a new version available, since as you can imagine, with each new update they fix the problems of the previous ones, something especially useful if in the version you have some games that give you problems.
Once downloaded, if we use Windows Defender as an antivirus, it claims that the Wacatac.B!ml Trojan is inside, however, this is a false positive, so we will have to access the Microsoft Defender configuration options to delete the file to unzip the file and be able to run it. The proof that this is a false positive can be found on Virus Total, a website that allows us to analyze any file we want to check with a large number of antivirus programs if it is really dangerous or not.
You don’t actually need to install RPCS3: what you download is a .7z file compressed with 7Zip that you simply need to unzip onto your hard drive and you can run it directly from the rpcs3.exe file. We recommend, however, that you unzip it in an organized way, creating a dedicated directory on the hard drive or SSD of your choice (SSD recommended for better performance and faster loading screens, etc.).
Once you have done this, you will simply need to run the rpcs3.exe file and the emulator will start. Now, using it is not as simple as this because as you can see in the screenshot above, to get it working you will first need to download the console firmware, or, in other words, the operating system of the console, which is what will ultimately allow us to run PS3 games on the PC.
How to configure RPCS3
RPCS3 emulates the PlayStation 3 hardware, but the console’s operating system is not included in the package because it is copyrighted. So you will need to download the console’s original firmware as well for all of this to work as part of the equation.
To do this, simply download the system update you want from the official website. The update is available under How to reinstall PS3 system software by clicking the Download PS3 update button.
A file called PS3UPDAT.PUP will be downloaded, which takes up approximately 200 MB. We recommend that you save the file in the same location where you unzipped RPSC3.
Now that we have both the emulator and the console firmware, let’s configure it.
- Run RPCS3 and go to File -> Install Firmware.
- A window will open in which you will need to select the PS3UPDAT.PUP file that you just downloaded.
- If, as we have recommended, you have placed the file in the same directory as the emulator, you will be able to select it on the first screen without having to search for it.
- The installation process takes no more than a couple of seconds, after which a confirmation message will appear saying that the installation was successful.
- Then the emulator will get to work installing the libraries necessary for its operation in an automatic process, and this does take a little more time.
It’s ready and we can start using the emulator. Simple, right? Of course, what we’re missing now are the games, so let’s see how PS3 games run on this emulator.
Installing the games
This emulator supports games in both digital and disc formats, but in this case you must have the game previously on your hard drive in ISO format or in uncompressed folder format. In other words, you will not be able to play directly with PS3 discs, but you will have to have previously downloaded the game or converted it. Therefore, it is not necessary to have a BluRay drive installed on your computer. This means that, if you want to try out several of these PS3 releases, you will take up a lot of space because the titles from that generation already counted their weight in gigabytes. Many, so not having them in optical format can be a problem for your computer.
- To run a game in PKG format (the usual one) you will need to install it first by selecting the File -> Install .pkg menu; after a short while, it will appear in the list of games in the emulator.
- The process is similar to the one we have already done to install the console firmware and there is not much mystery to it, you simply load the game files and they appear in your “library”.
Setting up the PS3 DualShock 3 (or any other)
Once you have your game set up, there’s one more step you’ll need to take before playing, and that’s telling the emulator which controller you’re going to use. RPCS3 supports keyboard and mouse play, but it’s best to play with a PS3 controller plugged into your PC since PS3 games are naturally optimized for use with a console controller, though it also supports the PS4 controller and even the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller.
In any case, go to the “Pads” menu at the top and select the appropriate one. Of course, we are on a PC and you can configure all the buttons as you wish.
Finally, double-click on the game to start enjoying it on your PC. However, as we have indicated above, this open source emulator is not free of problems and errors, so if a game gives you problems, do not despair, they will surely fix it soon (which is why we always recommend that you check the website to see if there are new versions).
RPCS3 Requirements
The difficulty in emulating the PlayStation 3 lies in its processor, the so-called Cell Broadband Engine, a highly complex piece of hardware. In the case of its graphics chip, the so-called RSX, being a 2006 NVIDIA graphics card for PCs with hardly any changes, it is not complicated, since with a simple interpreter of the graphics commands it is possible to execute the graphics at any time.
However, the CBEA (Cell Broadband Engine) was used for pre-and post-processing purposes and the most advanced games on the platform use it in tandem with the NVIDIA GPU and, believe us, it is necessary to have good hardware installed for everything to run as it should. So don’t think that you can run this emulator with a decent computer. You need to put a lot of power into it.
Still, in general, the recommended requirements for our computer that the community suggests to us are the following:
Recommended Requirements
- Intel 6-core/12-thread CPU or higher with Skylake or newer architecture.
- AMD CPU with 6 cores and 12 threads or higher, Zen 2 or newer.
- 8 GB of RAM or higher.
- AMD GPU compatible with Vulkan – RX 400 or newer.
- Vulkan compatible NVIDIA GPU – GTX 900 or newer.
- Operating System: Windows 10H2 or higher, Linux version 6.1 LTS or higher, macOS 12.6, and FreeBSD 13.2.
This will allow you to enjoy the classics from that console without performance issues and even in many cases with a smoother and higher resolution than on the original console. This will allow us to improve those memories that we all have of classics that made us have a great time and that, due to the advance of technology, are inevitably left behind.
Minimum requirements
The recommended requirements to enjoy the PS3 emulator RPCS3 are somewhat high, however, they are not the minimum necessary to enjoy PS3 games on a PC. If our equipment does not meet the recommended specifications, if they meet shown below, it will be able to run PS3 games, however, the quality and performance will not be the best.
- Intel 4-core, 8-thread CPU.
- AMD CPU with 4 cores and 8 threads.
- 4 GB of RAM or higher.
- AMD GPU supporting OpenGL 4.3 or higher – HD5000 Series or higher.
- NVIDIA GPU supporting OpenGL 4.3 or higher – GTX 400 or newer.
- Operating system: Windows 10, Linux with version 5.4 LTS or higher, macOS 12.6 and FreeBSD 12.4.
If we play on a laptop, the recommended specifications for installing RPCS3 are:
Dedicated graphics card compatible with Vulkan and 4GB of VRAM
CPU: Intel and AMD with 8 cores and 16 threads
Memory: 16 GB RAM
