HANDHELD NEWS – Thanks to the new user interface of the emulator, we can enjoy a more pleasant experience on the Steam Deck, for example.

Considering that it emulates one of the most complex consoles to date, the RPCS3 PlayStation 3 emulator is surprisingly user-friendly. On PC, helpful tooltips explain the basic and recommended settings. Numerous graphics options and checkboxes are available for those who like to experiment. The controller-friendly “big picture” experience used to be unpolished, but that has now changed thanks to the emulator’s latest updates, which have refined the in-game interface.

As the embedded video below shows, the user interface needed to run RPCS3 on handheld PCs, such as the Steam Deck, closely resembles SteamOS itself. The emulator previously had an overlay, but it was nowhere near as functional. To access graphics or audio settings, you had to navigate through multiple menu levels, and not everything could be adjusted while the game was running. Now, when you bring up the overlay by pressing Start + Select, you immediately have access to several useful options, such as taking a screenshot, saving your state, and restarting the game, as well as a settings menu where most settings are available without further digging. The most important graphics settings, such as resolution scaling and frame rate limiting, are easy to find and adjust.

There are also some more specialized settings that might not be intuitive for new users, but the desktop interface has helpful tooltips. The good news is that there’s an easy-to-turn-on-and-off performance panel for monitoring the refresh rate, and most settings can be adjusted without restarting the game. (Even the render resolution required a restart to adjust until the latest update.) In short, configuring performance on the Steam Deck or the Asus ROG Ally is relatively straightforward.

For years, RPCS3 has been an amazing project, capable of running every game in the PlayStation 3 library. It has even brought back online matchmaking for some popular titles. Recently, the developers have been making significant strides in terms of convenience features and performance improvements!

Source: PCGamer

We have achieved a new breakthrough on emulating PS3’s Cell CPU!

Elad discovered new SPU usage patterns and coded ways to generate more optimised PC code from them – benefitting all games!

Twisted Metal, one of the most SPU-intensive games, sees a 5-7% Average FPS improvement. pic.twitter.com/x29X4C5JnV

— RPCS3 (@rpcs3) April 3, 2026