Is emulating the original PS3 on the PS5 an impossible task? Technical limitations may thwart Sony’s plans

PlayStation 3 emulation on PlayStation 5 may face significant technical difficulties, mainly due to the unique Cell processor that powers the PS3.

Experts from Digital Foundry point out that the SPU (Synergy Processing Units) coprocessors in the Cell processor are problematic to emulate on modern x86 processors. Games that heavily use the SPU may experience serious performance issues, as is the case with the RPCS3 emulator for PC.

One possible solution is to release less complex titles that do not rely on the SPU. However, this approach does not solve the problem with more technically demanding first-party games, such as Killzone 2, which It may never work properly on PS5..

Some games can run better on PS5 than on the original console, especially those that only use the main Cell processor core. Improvements could include better performance and better image quality.

Digital Foundry suggests that Sony could work on individual games instead of trying to emulate the entire PS3 library.Currently, PS3 games are only available on PS5 via streaming. Let’s hope Sony finds a way to do native emulation, allowing you to play classic games on modern hardware.