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games @hexbear.net TheronGuard [he/him] @hexbear.net

What sort of PC specs do you need for Switch emulation?

I completed the Xbox 360 version of Read Dead Redemption on Xenia Canary some months back with the only enhancements being a 60 FPS unlock patch (I don't think my rig ever really hit 60, in empty wilderness scenes I got around 40-55 FPS and in towns and heavy combat I got maybe 22-30) as well as some antialiasing and smoothing filters applied to hide jaggies since I didn't think my RX 6600 could've handled resolution upscaling.

I still have Undead Nightmare to beat, but the PS4 and Switch versions got announced while I was getting to the end of the main game, and now that they're out I'm wondering if I should try Switch emulation for the DLC.

I did some quick googling and it seems emulating the Switch version on RyujinX has better performance visuals and less graphics glitches than Xbox 360 emulation, but I'm not sure if my Ryzen 5 5600 and RX 6600 are enough to make it a better option than the 720p with unstable FPS and lighting glitches you get on Xenia.

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11 comments

  • It depends a lot on the game. I've played a lot of switch games with no problems on my 12600k and 6800xt. The new Zelda game was really hard to play, though, even with all of the various performance tweaks and mods available 3 months after the launch. Frame rate drops, glitches, timing flaws, bugs, etc. It's probably in a better state now, but I got sick of trying the latest settings and mods and still having issues.

  • I have a similar setup to yours, and can offer my experience:

    Got a regular clocked ryzen 7 3700x and a radeon rx 5700. I use ryujinx, but only played TotK on it.

    my pc just laughed at the 60fps mod but got 30fps at 720p resolution nearly always above ground, and usually in the depths though the depths especially had intermittent times where i was chugging along at only 10fps. I think it was something to do with the cache, but i never isolated the cause.

    I would say you'll probably have slowdowns but will generally perform better than my rig which is acceptable if not great for switch emulation

    EDIT: other specs that might affect performance:

    • 64G ram

    • Crucial M.2 hdd

    • VERY pretty LEDs

  • If it can emulate PS4, it'll handle Switch like a breeze. Your specs are overkill for that level. Switch runs on what is effectively potato hardware compared to most new entry level PCs and it's a couple generations behind consoles.

    That said, I unironicly think it's the best system ever built.

    • I don't think anyone is emulating PS4 in any meaningful sense currently- AFAIK PS4 emulation only runs homebrew and maybe 2D indie games at the moment.

      The Xbox 360 is even farther behind than the Switch and it's not trivial to run on my system. Then again, Switch emulation has much more interest and work put into it, so it may even out

  • Using Ryujinx I think you should be more than fine with those specs relative to the Xenia experience (but if for some reason they're not please let me know)

    • Just tried it for a bit and the performance seems slightly better than on Xenia. Crucially though, the game just looks much cleaner right out of the gate presumably since the game just looks nicer on Switch than it did on the 360. I'll try a 60fps unlock patch and see what that does.

      The worst part is the wack Nintendo button layout. It's like I'm playing Japanese PS1 games.

      • I can't remember if Ryujinx merged texture replacement yet, but if so be on the lookout (probably on the Ryujinx discord server unfortunately) for a button texture replacement pack for RDR.

        Glad to hear it sounds like a better experience though!

    • Well, I'm going to give it a shot, let's see how it shakes out.

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