A tech YouTuber has successfully run PS3 games on PS5 hardware. The possibility of natively running PS3 games on PS5 has been widely debated for years, but this latest test proves that, from a technical perspective, this next-generation console does have such capabilities.
As it stands, PS5 is backwards compatible with PS4 games, and through the PlayStation Plus premium membership subscription service, the number of compatible PS1, PS2 and PSP classic games is also growing. This has made players increasingly clamor for official PS5 simulations of PS3 games, which has always been a controversial topic. On PS5, PS3 games can currently only be played through cloud streaming. Many technical experts believe that adapting PS3's highly complex CELL architecture to PS5's x86 architecture requires a lot of work. This also makes Sony have concerns when considering its financial feasibility.
However, third-party PS3 emulators like RPCS3 have made significant progress on PC, proving that adapting the console's CELL architecture to the x86 architecture is feasible. Now, technology YouTube creator LowestLogan has gone a step further, proving through a demonstration that the PS5 hardware itself can run PS3 games natively. In a recent video, LowestLogan showed off an AMDBC-250 mining card, which uses the exact same chip as the PS5 and is equipped with 16GB of GDDR6 memory. However, these mining cards are modified from defective PS5 chip production, so compared to the PS5 console, they have two fewer CPU cores and 12 fewer GPU cores.
Putting aside the issue of lower performance headroom, the AMDBC-250's underlying architecture is no different than the PS5, making it a suitable platform to test the system's hardware capabilities. With the concept established, LowestLogan loaded up the RPCS3 emulator on the BC-250 and was able to run Gran Turismo V: Prologue, one of the best racing games on the PS3, with just a few minor shader glitches. The beloved PS3 platform game "LittleBigPlanet" can also run smoothly at 30 frames per second on this streamlined PS5 chip with few problems. "Watch Dogs" has more performance issues, but LowestLogan believes this is more due to the open world game's poor optimization for PS3.
Demo video:
Interestingly, this creator found that the BC-250's memory runs at a sluggish 450MHz clock speed, meaning PS3 games could have much higher performance headroom if properly optimized for PS5 hardware. It's also worth noting that LowestLogan is running an older Linux kernel on his BC-250, while the PS5's custom operating system is built on FreeBSD. Well, at least at the hardware level, PS5 is obviously capable of running PS3 games natively. Only time will tell whether Sony will make PS3 emulation a reality on PS5, but until then, LowestLogan's video provides a solid rebuttal to those who claim it's impossible.