YouTuber Gets Native PS3 Emulation Running on PS5 Hardware

Summary

• A recent test conducted by a tech YouTuber proves that the PS5 can run PS3 games natively on a hardware level.
• To test PS3 compatibility, the YouTuber used an AMD B-250 mining card, which is basically a cut-down version of the PS5 silicon.
• PS3 games like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and LittleBigPlanet ran well on the scaled-back PS5 hardware, and could be optimized further for much better performance.

A tech YouTuber has managed to successfully run PS3 games on PlayStation 5 hardware. The prospect of running PS3 games natively on PS5 has been widely debated for several years, but this recent test proves that the current-generation console is indeed capable of the same on a technical level.

As it stands, the PS5 is backwards compatible with the PS4 and a growing list of PS1, PS2, and PSP classics by way of the PS Plus Premium subscription service. This has intensified requests for official PS3 emulation on PS5, which has long been a point of contention. PS3 games are only playable via cloud streaming on PS5, and many tech experts reckon that making the PS3’s highly complex CELL architecture comply with the PS5’s x86 architecture would require extensive amounts of legwork, putting into question its financial viability for Sony.

However, third-party PS3 emulators like RPCS3 have made major strides on PC and proven that it is possible to adapt the console’s CELL architecture to x86. Now, tech YouTuber Lowest Logan has taken it one step further by demonstrating that the PS5’s hardware itself is capable of natively running PS3 games. In a recent YouTube video, Lowest Logan showed off an AMD BC-250 mining card, which features the exact same silicon as a PS5 and 16GB of GDDR6 RAM. These cards are repurposed from faulty PS5 chip yields, though, so they have two fewer CPU cores and 12 fewer GPU cores compared to the console.

YouTuber Proves that PS3 Games Can Run Natively on PS5 Hardware

Lower performance headroom aside, the AMD BC-250’s underlying architecture is no different to a PS5, making it a suitable testing ground for the system’s hardware capabilities. Having established this notion, Lowest Logan loaded up RPCS3 on the BC-250 and was able to run one of the best PS3 racing games, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, with mostly minor shader glitches. Beloved PS3 platformer LittleBigPlanet also ran with little to no issues at 30fps on the cut-down PS5 silicon. Watch Dogs displayed more problematic performance, but Lowest Logan opined that it had more to do with the open-world title’s iffy optimization for the PS3.

Interestingly, the YouTuber found that the BC-250’s memory was running at a sluggish 450MHz clock speed, implying that the performance headroom for PS3 games could be much higher when properly optimized for PS5 hardware. It’s also worth noting that Lowest Logan was running an older Linux kernel on his BC-250, whereas the PS5’s custom operating system is built on FreeBSD. At least on a hardware level, then, the PS5 is clearly able to run PS3 games natively. Only time will tell if Sony makes PS3 emulation a reality on PS5, but until then, Lowest Logan’s video is an effective rebuttal to those who claim it’s impossible.