RPCS3 has introduced a workaround for what its developers describe as an NVIDIA driver bug that was hurting PlayStation 3 emulation performance on GeForce hardware.
The change can improve frame rates by between roughly 10 percent and 37 percent depending on the game and system, while also reducing VRAM usage in some cases.
The problem reportedly affects both newer RTX graphics cards and older GTX models, suggesting the issue is not limited to one NVIDIA GPU generation.
Red Dead Redemption sees a 25 percent gain
One of the more noticeable improvements appears in Red Dead Redemption, where testing showed an increase of around 25 percent.
A separate system using a Core i9 13900 processor and an RTX 3080 reportedly improved by nearly 20 percent after the workaround was applied.
Older Pascal hardware also benefited.
A laptop equipped with a Core i7 7700HQ and GTX 1060 saw Saints Row IV performance improve by around 20 percent. Saints Row: The Third showed a smaller but still meaningful gain of about 10 percent.
| Test case | Reported improvement |
|---|---|
| Red Dead Redemption | Around 25 percent |
| Core i9 13900 and RTX 3080 system | Nearly 20 percent |
| Saints Row IV on GTX 1060 laptop | Around 20 percent |
| Saints Row: The Third | Around 10 percent |
| Gran Turismo 5 on Ryzen 7 9850X3D and RTX 5070 | Nearly 37 percent |
| Gran Turismo 5 on Core i9 12900K and RTX 5070 | Around 12 percent |
The developers caution that the result varies depending on the title and hardware configuration, so not every system should expect the maximum gain.
Gran Turismo 5 shows the biggest improvement
The largest reported increase came from Gran Turismo 5.
A system combining a Ryzen 7 9850X3D with an RTX 5070 delivered nearly 37 percent higher frame rates after the workaround was enabled.
The same test also showed VRAM consumption dropping by roughly 32 percent.
That is particularly important for emulation because excess memory usage can create additional performance pressure, especially on graphics cards with more limited VRAM capacity.
Another Gran Turismo 5 configuration using a Core i9 12900K and RTX 5070 recorded a smaller improvement of around 12 percent.
The difference between those two systems reinforces that the performance impact depends heavily on CPU, GPU and game behavior.
The issue appears to be in the NVIDIA driver
The RPCS3 development team attributes the slowdown to a bug in NVIDIA's graphics driver rather than the emulator itself.
Contributor Yahfz developed the workaround to reduce the impact of the problem until a proper driver side fix becomes available.
According to the team, attempts have been made to report the issue through developer channels and NVIDIA forums, but communication has reportedly been difficult.
The developers want a more direct method of reporting driver problems that specifically affect emulators and other specialized applications.
The workaround helps both new and old GeForce cards
The important part of the update is its broad reach.
Performance improvements have been observed on RTX 50, RTX 30 and GTX 10 series hardware, indicating that the underlying driver behavior can affect several generations of NVIDIA GPUs.
For players using RPCS3, the workaround can therefore provide a meaningful improvement without requiring new hardware.
The exact benefit will depend on the game, but gains of 10 to 25 percent appear possible in several tested titles, with the best reported case reaching 37 percent.
Until NVIDIA addresses the driver issue directly, the RPCS3 workaround gives GeForce owners a practical way to recover performance that was previously being lost to the bug.
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