RPCS3 gets a big performance fix: PlayStation 3 emulator benefits from an up to 25% FPS boost with NVIDIA GPUs

A popular PlayStation 3 emulator is now considerably more performant on PCs with NVIDIA graphics cards thanks to a bug being squashed.

As VideoCardz noticed, the developer of RPCS3 posted on X to note that an NVIDIA driver bug which was previously holding back performance has been fixed.

Apparently in testing with an Intel Core 13900K and an NVIDIA RTX 3080, a 20% boost in frame rate was witnessed after the cure had been applied - and there was an even bigger boost of 25% with an RTX 5090 (coupled with an AMD Ryzen 9800X3D).

Far more modest systems get considerable gains, too, and an old laptop with a GTX 1060 GPU (and Intel Core i7-7700HQ) exhibited around a 20% boost in Saints Row IV (and 10% in Saints Row: The Third).

As ever, the performance mitigation will vary based on the game in question and your exact hardware configuration, but you can expect gains in the order of 10% to 20%, maybe even a bit more. And this has gone down predictably well with those who use RPCS3 with a PC that has NVIDIA graphics.

In case you were wondering, there's no difference with an AMD graphics card, and this fix is purely for those with a GeForce GPU.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Question #1

Which RPCS3 games showed the biggest FPS gains with the NVIDIA fix?

Among the named games, Saints Row IV showed the biggest FPS gain, with around a 20% boost on a GTX 1060 laptop test. Saints Row: The Third saw a smaller gain of about 10% on the same machine. The story also mentions an overall 25% boost in testing with an RTX 5090, but it does not tie that figure to a specific game.

Question #2

Does the performance boost vary between older GeForce cards like the GTX 1060 and newer GPUs like the RTX 5090?

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Question #3

What kind of PC hardware setup saw the 20% FPS gain with the RTX 3080 test?

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Question #4

Is the RPCS3 fix tied to a specific NVIDIA driver version or is it already available in current drivers?

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RPCS3 also recently benefited from a revamped PS3 Trophy Manager with a separated game and trophy list, and it now shows if a trophy is from the base game set or from DLC. It's also possible to run a text search to find a game.