PS5 RetroArch — Alpha 2 🎮
This release adds PPSSPP, the first core that renders on the PS5's GPU. It runs through PS5_Vulkan with its JIT enabled. RetroArch also now outputs at 120 Hz when your display supports it.
✨ What's new
- PPSSPP (PlayStation Portable), hardware-rendered. The tested games run at 10× internal resolution (4800×2720) with 16× anisotropic filtering, at full speed with correct
colours. - 120 Hz output, with a 60 Hz fallback. Cores that run at 60 FPS keep their normal speed at 120 Hz.
- Save states and fast-forward work, including in PPSSPP. Loading a PPSSPP save state dropped from about 20 seconds to a fraction of a second, and creating one no longer freezes the game.
- Closing content and loading another game works reliably, including closing a PSP game and opening it again.
- Smoother gameplay. Logging and shader work no longer stall frames.
- The last frame stays on screen while the video driver reinitialises, instead of going black.
- Fixed a crash when starting games that check free disk space.
🕹️ Included cores
| Core | Systems | Rendering |
|---|---|---|
| FCEUmm | NES / Famicom | Software |
| mGBA | Game Boy / Game Boy Color / Game Boy Advance | Software |
| Snes9x | SNES / Super Famicom | Software |
| FinalBurn Neo | Supported arcade systems | Software |
| Genesis Plus GX | Genesis / Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear, SG-1000 and Sega CD | Software |
| PPSSPP v1.20.4 | PlayStation Portable | GPU (Vulkan) |
🎮 PPSSPP notes
- Put your PSP games (
.iso,.cso,.pbp) in/data/homebrew/PPSA99169/content/. PPSSPP needs no BIOS. - PPSSPP starts with these settings: 10× internal resolution, 16× anisotropy, auto max-quality texture filtering, hardware transform, no frameskip and no speed hacks. If you already have a
PPSSPP.opt, it is set aside once asPPSSPP.opt.before-ps5-profile. - If a heavier game slows down, lower Internal Resolution under Quick Menu → Core Options.
- To use fast-forward, bind Fast-Forward under Settings → Input → Hotkeys (for example, to L2).
📥 Installation / updating
You need a PS5 already configured to run homebrew, with FTP access and a launcher that supports folder-based titles.
- Back up
config/,savefiles/andsavestates/from/data/homebrew/PPSA99169/. - Download and extract the release ZIP.
- Copy the entire
PPSA99169folder to/data/homebrew/PPSA99169/, replacing the old files. Your live configuration, saves and games are kept. - Check that the executable is at
/data/homebrew/PPSA99169/eboot.bin, then launch RetroArch through your homebrew launcher.
Don't nest a second PPSA99169 folder inside the first one. File locations are the same as in Alpha 1. Inside RetroArch, the title folder appears as /app0/.
🚧 Alpha limitations
- PPSSPP is tested with the two games above, not the whole PSP library.
- PPSSPP's MSAA (anti-aliasing) setting is not supported yet.
- Beetle PSX HW, N64 and Dolphin are not included.
- 4K upscaling, HDR and VRR are not validated in RetroArch. RetroAchievements and netplay are unavailable.
- Cores from desktop RetroArch or other PS5 distributions are not automatically compatible.
🐛 Reporting issues
Please include the core, the game, the steps to reproduce the problem and any settings you changed. Save retroarch.log and trace.txt from the application folder before reopening RetroArch. Screenshots or videos help most with rendering problems.
❤️ Credits
Developed by Mihawk, building on:
- RetroArch and the libretro community.
- PPSSPP by Henrik Rydgård and contributors.
- BlackBearReloaded's ProsperoLight and native PS5 application foundation.
- John Törnblom and the ps5-payload-dev contributors.
- The authors and contributors of every included emulator core.
Full credits, documentation and the roadmap are in the project README.