Ever since the launch of PlayStation Classics on PlayStation 5, gamers have been asking for proper PlayStation 3 emulation rather than the cloud-based versions currently available.
Last year, we heard reports that Implicit Conversions, the developer behind the PlayStation Classics ports, was working on native PS3 emulation, but nothing has come of it to date. And there seems to be a very good reason, as only the PlayStation 6 with its Zen 6 CPU architecture could have the horsepower to properly handle Cell architecture emulation at full speed.
Over the weekend, the tech experts at Digital Foundry shared their PlayStation 3 on PlayStation 5 emulation test, which was made possible, much like their path tracing test, thanks to a new Linux loader. Using RPCS3, the best PlayStation 3 emulator currently available, the test highlighted one major bottleneck which is likely preventing native emulation of PlayStation 3 games: CPU bottlenecks.
While games that did not push the Cell processor's complex SPU architecture like Ridge Racer 7, Resistance: Fall of Man and Heavenly Sword, run great on PlayStation 5 with higher resolution and better performance, others that do, like Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and God of War: Ascension suffer from severe performance issues due to heavy utilization of SPUs for open-world simulation and morphological anti-aliasing. Increasing the resolution doesn't impact performance, highlighting how the performance issues are caused by the PlayStation 5 CPU.
Other tested games like Killzone 2 and Killzone 3, and the MotorStorm trilogy, also highlight that only the PlayStation 6, with its Zen 6 CPU, should have the horsepower to handle proper PlayStation 3 emulation, as disabling any SPU-driven feature, such as the aforementioned morphological anti-aliasing, delivers much better emulation, while, in Killzone 2's case, increasing the resolution actually increases the CPU load, as post-processing was handled by SPUs.
Although an official PlayStation 3 emulator would benefit from having the full system's documentation, which the RPCS3 team does not have, it's understandable how the extra work that would be required to address the PlayStation 5's CPU emulation shortcomings may not be worth the effort for Sony so close to the launch of the PlayStation 6. Hopefully, the next-generation system will indeed deliver full emulation of every PlayStation system to date from day one, as its impressive hardware should have the horsepower to pull it off.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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