RPCS3 Updates GPU Recommendations, Now Starting from AMD RDNA and NVIDIA Turing Series
The team behind RPCS3, the leading open-source PlayStation 3 emulator, has officially updated its recommended GPU list to reflect modern hardware support. According to the latest announcement, RPCS3 now recommends GPUs starting from AMD’s RDNA (Radeon RX 5000 series) and NVIDIA’s Turing (GeForce RTX 2000 series) as the new baseline for optimal performance.
We have updated our recommended GPU requirements to reflect the end of driver support from AMD and NVIDIA for old GPUs
— RPCS3 (@rpcs3) October 27, 2025
AMD: Polaris (RX 400) -> RDNA (RX 5000)
NVIDIA: Maxwell (GTX 900) -> Turing (RTX 2000)
We also clarified that Intel GPUs are not recommended and unsupported pic.twitter.com/ZWedr2KZ1P
The update follows recent moves by both AMD and NVIDIA to end driver support for several of their older GPU generations. As a result, RPCS3 has removed AMD’s RX 400 and RX 500 (Polaris) series and NVIDIA’s GTX 900 (Maxwell) and GTX 1000 (Pascal) series from its recommended list. While these GPUs are no longer “recommended,” the developers emphasized that this change does not mean the emulator has dropped support for them. Players using these older cards will still be able to run RPCS3 without any performance loss or compatibility issues.
RPCS3 clarified that its minimum GPU requirement remains set at NVIDIA’s Fermi-based GTX 400 series, which supports OpenGL 4.3. However, the emulator’s primary rendering API is Vulkan, requiring Vulkan 1.2 compatibility for optimal performance, something naturally supported by AMD’s RDNA and NVIDIA’s Turing architectures. The developers also noted that Intel GPUs are not officially supported, though some users have reported success running RPCS3 with Intel Arc A and B series GPUs, while others continue to experience inconsistencies.
In a statement on X, the RPCS3 team explained that this recommendation update reflects industry-wide changes rather than any internal technical requirement increase. The emulator remains primarily CPU-bound, meaning the performance of PlayStation 3 games in RPCS3 depends far more on CPU strength than on GPU performance. As the developers put it, “as long as you have a modern Vulkan 1.2 GPU, your CPU will have to take care of the rest.”
The timing of this update coincides with the end of official driver support for the now-legacy GPU series from both AMD and NVIDIA. AMD formally discontinued driver updates for its Polaris-based GPUs in late 2023, while NVIDIA ended support for its Maxwell and Pascal architectures earlier this year. These decisions effectively make the RPCS3 update a natural alignment with the latest industry standards.
For players and emulation enthusiasts, the message is clear: there’s no immediate need to upgrade your hardware unless you rely on outdated driver support. RPCS3 continues to evolve rapidly and remains one of the most optimized and CPU-efficient emulators available today, ensuring that most users with Vulkan 1.2-compatible hardware can continue to enjoy PS3 titles seamlessly.
Do you think RPCS3’s move reflects the right balance between modernization and accessibility, or should emulators continue to prioritize support for older hardware?
