The Raspberry Pi 5, a popular choice for retro gaming emulation, has traditionally struggled with anything beyond the PlayStation Portable or Dreamcast. Even PlayStation 2 emulation is inconsistent. So, the idea of running PlayStation 3 titles on a Pi 5 seemed far-fetched. However, RPCS3 now has a working arm64 build for the Pi 5, and it performs surprisingly well.
The PS3's unique Cell processor, with its single high-performance PPE core and eight efficiency SPE cores, has made emulation notoriously difficult. Therefore, achieving PS3 emulation on a Raspberry Pi 5 is a significant accomplishment.
The arm64 build of RPCS3 runs under Arch Linux on the Raspberry Pi 5. While there are limitations, such as PSP-equivalent resolution, a 30fps cap, and compatibility issues with more demanding games, titles like God of War 2, Demon's Souls, Outrun Arcade, Naruto, and Oblivion are reportedly playable.
While a Raspberry Pi 5 starter kit costs $149.99 on Amazon, and there are more cost-effective ways to emulate PS3 games, the arm64 build opens doors for emulation on other ARM devices, including Apple Silicon, where performance is significantly better.
