Android emulation has come a long way, and you can even play GTA 5 on your (relatively powerful) phone these days!

PS3 emulation, on the other hand, is relatively new and not easy to accomplish. That being said, there have been some exciting developments in the past year alone, and a fully featured port of RPCS3 is now available for Android devices. Known as ARMSX3, this ARM-native port aims to (eventually) make all PS3 games run on phones.

Installing ARMSX3 and importing the games

Easiest part of the whole process

So what exactly is ARMSX3? In a nutshell, it’s an Android port of the PC PS3 emulator, RPCS3. In fact, a lot of the work is based on existing RPCS3 code, and the GitHub page clearly mentions the same. If you’re asking “why?”, then it’s the same answer as running Linux natively on the console: challenges are fun to decipher for the heck of it.

That being said, this is nothing short of a miracle port. PS3 emulation is both computationally expensive and complex for most devices to handle, and porting the existing PC emulator to Android must have been a lot of work, even if it still is nowhere close to the same level of performance (yet).

Here’s how you’ll want to set it up:

• Download the latest APK from the ARMSX3 GitHub page.
• Pick a version compatible with your Android version. Most devices will want the a15 version, which works with Android versions 15 and up.
• Devices with older Android versions should choose from the many alternatives on the same page, or the package’s legacy version.
• Install it like any third-party APK. Ignore the Play Protect warning if it pops up.

With ARMSX3 downloaded and installed, point the app to the directories it needs at startup, including the folder that holds your (legally obtained) PS3 ROMs or converted ISO files.

You’ll also need to grab the latest PS3 firmware file, which is hosted by PlayStation. With that out of the way, you can launch your game by clicking its tile on the Library home screen and emulate PS3 games in real time.

Performance optimizations and hardware limits

You will need a high-end device with lots of RAM

ARMSX3 has a LOT of options to tinker around with. Far too many, in fact, and it is often overwhelming, as some of these settings have a huge impact, and here are the most important ones:

• Set the default renderer to Vulkan, which will improve performance.
• Make sure to apply default, community-provided presets for the games.
• Set GPU Turbo to On if you have a Snapdragon device.
• Set the PS3 Output Resolution to 1280×720.
• Use cheats and patches if you need to (to skip videos, for example)

Download and set a custom Mesa version for your device. ARMSX3 has a downloader baked in, and it doesn’t take too long to set up. Mr Turnip is a good pick for Snapdragon devices, although there are a lot more options. I’d recommend experimenting to see what works best.

As for hardware requirements, ARMSX3 can technically run on any modern smartphone, with the Helio G99 on the list of supported CPUs. However, you’ll ideally want a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or newer CPU to actually play the games at reasonable frame rates.

Another hard requirement is 8 GB of system RAM, but I’d go the extra mile and recommend getting at least 12. ARMSX3 is very resource-intensive and mandates a flagship Snapdragon chip. Do not expect to run this on weaker devices (in its current state).

Now, onto the exciting part: gaming.

So, what games actually work?

Most do, but it’s still a work in progress

ARMSX3 is still very much a work in progress, and performance just isn’t there yet. Most games boot up and run just fine, but there are instances of funky visual artifacts and inconsistent frame rates.

To test it out, I chose three titles: GTA 5, God of War 3, and last but not least, The Last of Us.

The testing methodology was straightforward, and I kept everything at its default, except for the Mesa driver and the internal render resolution, which I set to 720p.

I’m using a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Lenovo tablet with 12GB RAM, which isn’t quite the latest flagship processor, but it’s more than capable for most emulation tasks. I chose the Turnip Adreno driver from Mr_Purple_666, which also happened to be the default recommended option. Everything else was set to the defaults.

This only applies to Adreno GPUs (Snapdragon chips). If you’re on a non-Snapdragon phone chip, ignore and stick to the defaults.

Of the three, God of War 3 ran best, which is a bit surprising since it’s known as one of the more demanding PS3 titles to emulate. As for performance numbers, it was a silky smooth 60 FPS until I entered the game.

The performance tanked to sub-10 FPS during combat, and there are a few visual artifacts to be mindful of. This is also a pattern you’ll get used to quickly, with GTA 5 suffering the same fate. The Last of Us absolutely refused to load in-game for some reason, leaving me with a black screen to stare at, which was a bit disappointing. However, lightweight titles and 2D-based games should work just fine.

The device also gets really hot while playing, especially if you enable GPU Turbo. I’d recommend using a small phone cooler if you have one and want to play for more than a minute or two.

A preview into the future

All of which goes to say that ARMSX3 is still very much in development, and while the past few months have seen some insane strides, expect technical difficulties. I’m super keen to see what sort of performance gains it makes in the next few months, because seeing PS3 games run on my smartphone is nothing short of amazing — things can only get better!