New tests have confirmed that the base PlayStation 5 is capable of emulating PlayStation 3 games at the hardware level. YouTuber Lowest Logan conducted these tests using an AMD BC-250 mining card, which utilizes the same silicon as the PS5.
The AMD BC-250, likely built from repurposed PS5 chips, has some limitations compared to the retail console. Two CPU cores are disabled, and only 24 of the 32 compute units are active. Additionally, the GPU driver only recognizes a single memory clock state of 450 MHz, putting it on par with an RX 480, significantly weaker than the RX 6700-equivalent GPU found in the PS5.
Despite these limitations, Lowest Logan successfully ran PlayStation 3 games using the RPCS3 emulator on the AMD BC-250. Titles like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Little Big Planet ran smoothly at both native and higher resolutions, maintaining stable frame rates. This demonstrates that even with reduced hardware capabilities, the PS5 architecture is powerful enough for PS3 emulation.
Currently, PS3 games are accessible on PS5 only through game streaming with a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription.
