The developers behind PS3 emulator RPCS3 have made a breakthrough in their handling of the console’s notorious Cell CPU. This is already resulting in notable performance benefits when running some of the PS3’s most intensive games, including the 2012 Twisted Metal reboot. Nobody seems more impressed than James Stanard, who served as principal engine developer on the original game.
A big part of the reason PS3 emulation has proven so difficult – and why so few PS3-exclusive games have official modern ports – is because of that complex Cell processor. Our friends at Tom’s Hardware have a more technical breakdown, but in essence, the Cell uses up to seven Synergistic Processing Units, and the instructions run by those SPUs have to be translated into a form that modern CPUs can understand.
“We have achieved a new breakthrough on emulating PS3’s Cell CPU!” the RPCS3 devs exclaim in a recent tweet. A developer known as Elad has “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.”
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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/x29X4C5JnVApril 3, 2026
You wouldn’t necessarily be able to notice a 5% performance increase in the course of normal gameplay, but each incremental improvement to the quality of the emulator compounds with previous gains. For Twisted Metal, the devs say “we’re close to achieving 60 FPS on the highest end hardware that exists today – double the console performance that is locked at 30 FPS.” And while low-end CPUs might not hit that frame rate target, they also stand to benefit from these improvements.
“I wrote 90% of the SPU code in Twisted Metal,” according to James Stanard, responding to RPCS3’s demonstration of the performance gains. (Thanks, Time Extension.) “I’m proud that it got called out for being SPU-intensive. It sure was! We basically maxed out the PPU, SPUs, and RSX all at the same time.”
Addressing the RPCS3 devs directly, Stanard adds, “Amazing work. I was convinced at the time that PS3 would never be emulateable!”
Certainly, the difficulty of emulating PS3 games has been a thorn in the side of preservationists and publishers who simply want to resell their old games. The upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid 4 as part of Konami’s next MGS Master Collection is a moment I wasn’t sure would ever come, but I think the continued breakthroughs in RPCS3 emulation are likely far more important to making sure the PS3’s library is preserved for the future.
It’s getting easier than ever to enjoy the best PS3 games.
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