Help:Default Settings

Below is the default configuration for the emulator. Not all options mentioned below are mandatory. For example, options such as Resolution Scale and Anisotropic Filter can be increased if your graphics card can handle the additional load whereas Lower SPU Thread Priority should be used with weaker CPUs. For best performance, read the description for each option carefully and also refer to the specific configurations mentioned for each game page.

CPU configuration

Setting	Default Option	Description
PPU Decoder	LLVM Recompiler	LLVM Recompiler: Recompiles the game's executable once before running it for the first time. By far the fastest option and should always be used. Should you face compatibility issues, fall back to one of the Interpreters and retry. Interpreter (fast): The fastest interpreter. Trades accuracy for speed, and it very rarely breaks games even in comparison to the precise option. Try this if PPU LLVM Recompiler fails. Interpreter (precise): The most accurate Interpreter, but very slow to play games with. You may try this as a last resort if you encounter odd bugs or crashes.
SPU Decoder	ASMJIT Recompiler	ASMJIT Recompiler: Fastest option with very good compatibility. Interpreter (fast): Slower than the SPU ASMJIT Recompiler but significantly faster than Interpreter (precise). Games rarely need this option. Interpreter (precise): Extremely slow but may fix broken graphics in some games. LLVM Recompiler: Experimental. May improve performance, but may also break games.
Preferred SPU Threads	Auto	Some SPU stages are sensitive to race conditions and allowing a limited number at a time helps alleviate performance stalls. Setting this to a smaller value might improve performance and reduce stuttering in some games. Leave this on auto if performance is negatively affected when setting a small value.
Firmware Settings	Load liblv2.sprx only	Load liblv2.sprx only: Closely emulates how games can load and unload system module files on a real PlayStation 3. Some games require this. Automatically load required libraries: Automatically selects the LLE libraries to load. While this option works fine in most cases, liblv2 is the preferred option. Manually load selected libraries: Allows the user to manually choose the LLE libraries to load. If unsure, don't use this option. Nothing will work if you use this. Load automatic and manual selection: Automatically selects the LLE libraries to load and allows the user to choose additional libraries manually. If unsure, don't use this option.
Enable Thread Scheduler	On	Allows the emulator to manually schedule physical cores to run specific tasks on, instead of letting the OS handle it. Very useful on Windows, especially for AMD Ryzen systems where it can give huge performance gains. Not recommended for Linux as the OS schedules the physical cores better on its own.
Lower SPU Thread Priority	Off	Runs SPU threads with lower priority than PPU threads. Usually faster on an i3 or i5, possibly slower or no difference on an i7 or Ryzen.
Enable SPU Loop Detection	On	Try to detect loop conditions in SPU kernels and use them as scheduling hints. Improves performance and reduces CPU usage. May cause severe audio stuttering in rare cases.

GPU configuration

Setting	Default Option	Description
Renderer	Vulkan	Vulkan is the fastest renderer. OpenGL is the most accurate renderer. If unsure, use Vulkan. Should you have any compatibility issues, fall back to OpenGL. DirectX 12 is deprecated and should never be used.
Graphics Device	NA	On multi GPU systems select which GPU to use in RPCS3 when using Vulkan or DirectX 12. This is not needed when using OpenGL.
Aspect Ratio	16:9	Leave this on 16:9 unless you have a 4:3 monitor. Auto also works well, especially if you use a resolution that is not 720p.
Framelimit	Off	Off is the best option as it performs faster. Using the frame limiter will add extra overhead and slow down the game. However, some games will crash if the framerate is too high. If that happens, set value to anything other than Off.
Anisotropic Filter	Automatic	Higher values increase sharpness of textures on sloped surfaces at the cost of GPU resources. Modern GPUs can handle this setting just fine even at 16x. Keep this on Automatic if you want to use the original setting used by a real PS3.
Anti-Aliasing	NA	Doesn't exist (yet).
Default Resolution	1280x720	This setting will be ignored if the Resolution Scale is set to anything other than 100%. Leave this on 1280x720, every PS3 game is compatible with this resolution. Only use 1920x1080 if the game supports it.
Resolution Scale	100%	Scales the game's resolution by the given percentage. The base resolution is always 1280x720. Set this value to 100% if you want to use the normal resolution options.
Resolution Scale Threshold	16 x 16	Only framebuffers greater than this size will be upscaled. Increasing this value might fix problems with missing graphics when upscaling, especially when Write Color Buffers is enabled. Do not touch this setting if you are unsure.
Write Color Buffer	Off	Enable this option if you get missing graphics or broken lighting ingame. Might degrade performance and introduce stuttering in some cases.
Use GPU Texture Scaling	Off	Small to significant performance boost in most games and rarely with side effects. May cause texture corruption in rare cases.
Strict Rendering Mode	Off	Enforces strict compliance to the API specification. Might result in degraded performance in some games. Can resolve rare cases of missing graphics and flickering. Enforces default settings for Resolution Scale and Resolution Scale Threshold. If unsure, don't use this option.
VSync	Off	By having this off you might obtain a higher frame rate at the cost of tearing artifacts in the game.
Stretch To Display Area	Off	Overrides the aspect ratio and stretches the image to the full display area.
Disable Vertex Cache	Off	Disables the vertex cache. Might resolve missing or flickering graphics output. May degrade performance.

Audio configuration

Setting	Default Option	Description
Audio Out	Windows: XAudio2 Linux: PulseAudio	Windows: Always use XAudio, no exceptions. Linux: PulseAudio uses the recommended native Linux sound system and has good compatibility and sound quality. If it is unavailable on your system, ALSA is the next best alternative. OpenAL uses a cross-platform approach but will have poor audio quality and stuttering sound in most games.
Dump to File	Off	Saves all audio as a raw wave file. If unsure, leave this unchecked.
Convert to 16-bit	Off	Uses 16-bit audio samples instead of default 32-bit floating point. Use with buggy audio drivers if you have no sound or completely broken sound.
Downmix to Stereo	On	Uses stereo audio output instead of default 7.1 surround sound. Use with stereo audio devices. Disable it only if you are using a surround sound audio system.

I/O configuration

Setting	Default Option	Description
Keyboard Handler	Null	Some games support native keyboard input. Basic will work in these cases.
Mouse Handler	Basic	Some games support native mouse input. Basic will work in these cases.
Camera Input	Unknown	Camera support is not implemented, leave this on unknown.
Camera Settings	Null	Camera support is not implemented, leave this on null.
Move Handler	Null	PlayStation Move support is not implemented, leave this on null. Fake: Experimental! This maps Move controls to DS4 controller mappings.

System configuration

Setting	Default Option	Description
Console Language	English (US)	Some games may fail to boot if the system language is not available in the game itself. Other games will switch language automatically to what is selected here. It is recommended leaving this on a language supported by the game.
Homebrew: Enable /host_root/	Off	Required for some Homebrew. If unsure, don't use this option.
Console Region	NA	Doesn't exist (yet).

Network configuration

Setting	Default Option	Description
Network Status	Disconnected	Leave as disconnected unless you're debugging. RPCS3 has no online support.

Debug configuration

Below configurations are primarily used by developers. If unsure, don't use these options.

Setting	Default Option	Description
Use Legacy OpenGL Buffers	Off	Enables use of classic OpenGL buffers which allows capturing tools to work with RPCS3 e.g RenderDoc. If unsure, don't use this option.
Debug Output	Off	Enables the selected API's inbuilt debugging functionality. Will cause severe performance degradation especially with Vulkan.
Debug Overlay	Off	Provides a graphical overlay of various debugging information.
Log Shader Programs	Off	Dump game shaders to file.
Use High Precision Z-buffer	Off	Only useful when debugging differences in GPU hardware.
Write Depth Buffers	Off	Never use this.
Read Depth Buffers	Off	Never use this.
Read Color Buffers	Off	Never use this.
Disable ZCull Occlusion Queries	Off	Disables running occlusion queries. Minor to moderate performance boost. Might introduce issues with broken occlusion e.g missing geometry and extreme pop-in.
Force CPU blit emulation	Off	Forces emulation of all blit and image manipulation operations on the CPU. Requires 'Write Color Buffers' option to also be enabled in most cases to avoid missing graphics. Significantly degrades performance but is more accurate in some cases. This setting overrides the 'GPU texture scaling' option.
Disable On-Disk Shader Cache	Off	Disables the loading and saving of shaders from and to the shader cache in the data directory.
Disable Vulkan Memory Allocator	Off	Disables the custom Vulkan memory allocator and reverts to direct calls to VkAllocateMemory/VkFreeMemory.
Disable FIFO Reordering	Off	Disables RSX FIFO optimizations completely. Draws are processed as they are received by the DMA puller.
PPU Debug	Off	Never use this.
SPU Debug	Off	Never use this.
SPU Verification	On	Never disable this.
Set DAZ and FTZ	Off	Never use this.
Accurate GETLLAR	Off	Never use this.
Accurate PUTLLUC	Off	Never use this.
Hook static functions	Off	Allows to hook some functions like 'memcpy' replacing them with high-level implementations. May do nothing or break things. Experimental.

Legacy configuration

Below are the configurations used for previous versions of the emulator. Refer to the linked pull request for a detailed description on why this setting was removed.

Setting	Default Option	Category	Removed By	Description
Bind SPU Threads To Secondary Cores	Off	CPU	PR 4079	If your CPU has SMT (Hyper-Threading) SPU threads will run on these logical cores instead. Usually faster on an i3, possibly slower or no difference on an i7 or Ryzen.
Invalidate Cache Every Frame	Off	GPU	PR 3618	Enable this option if the game has broken shadows. May slightly degrade performance.