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PCSX2 - Frequently Asked Questions

About the PCSX2 Project

Question 1: What is the purpose of the PCSX2 project?

PCSX2 intends to emulate the PlayStation 2 console, allowing PS2 games to be played on a computer. This requires having an original PlayStation 2 console to supply a BIOS dump and the original games, either to be played directly off the disc or to be dumped and played as ISO/CSO images.

Question 2: Is PCSX2 open source?

PCSX2 is open source, licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0. Source code is kept on GitHub.

Question 3: How can I help the project?

There are a number of ways to help the project, whether it be bug reporting, game patching, or even writing code for the emulator itself. Some examples:

Question 4: Is PCSX2 ready to run out-of-the-box?

No, first, you must dump your PlayStation 2 console's BIOS using the BIOS dumper. The BIOS dumper is available on the PCSX2 website.

After dumping your PlayStation 2 console's BIOS and copying it to your computer, launch PCSX2, step through the first time setup wizard, and then you may begin playing.

Technical Details of PCSX2

Question 5: What are the PC requirements to use PCSX2?

Minimum

Operating System CPU GPU RAM
- Windows 7 or newer (32 or 64 bit)
- Ubuntu 18.04/Debian or newer, Arch Linux, or other distro (32 or 64 bit)		 - Supports SSE2
- PassMark Single Thread Performance rating near or greater than 1600
- Two physical cores, with hyperthreading		 - Direct3D10 support
- OpenGL 3.x support
- PassMark G3D Mark rating around 3000 (GeForce GTX 750)
- 2 GB Video Memory		 4 GB

Note: Recommended Single Thread Performance is based on moderately complex games. Games that pushed the PS2 hardware to its limits will struggle on CPUs at this level. Some release titles and 2D games which underutilized the PS2 hardware may run on CPUs rated as low as 1200. A quick reference for CPU intensive games: Wiki, Forum and CPU light games: Forum

Recommended

Operating System CPU GPU RAM
- Windows 10 (64 bit)
- Ubuntu 19.04/Debian or newer, Arch Linux, or other distro (64 bit)		 - Supports AVX2
- PassMark Single Thread Performance rating near or greater than 2100
- Four physical cores, with or without hyperthreading		 - Direct3D11 support
- OpenGL 4.5 support
- PassMark G3D Mark rating around 6000 (GeForce GTX 1050 Ti)
- 4 GB Video Memory		 8 GB

Note: Recommended GPU is based on 3x Internal, ~1080p resolution requirements. Higher resolutions will require stronger cards; 6x Internal, ~4K resolution will require a PassMark G3D Mark rating around 12000 (GeForce GTX 1070 Ti). Just like CPU requirements, this is also highly game dependent. A quick reference for GPU intensive games: Wiki

Question 6: How many CPU cores can PCSX2 use?

By default, PCSX2 uses two cores for emulation. Enabling the MTVU speedhack allows the PS2's VU1 coprocessor to run on a third core, which is safe for most games.

Software rendering can be set to use as many or as few rendering threads as desired. We recommend using no more than 8, or the number of cores (including hyperthreads) that your CPU has, whichever is the lower number.

Question 7: Why isn't my CPU not using 100% of its power?

The CPU load as reported in software such as Windows' Task Manager is usually a summation of CPU usage, across all cores. Software can only use the resources of the individual CPU cores it is actually running on, and cannot "borrow" CPU time from other cores.

Question 8: Will SLI or Crossfire help with performance?

No. PCSX2 does not use or require SLI or Crossfire.

Question 9: How do I check if a game is playable?

The PCSX2 website has a compatibility list with every game that has been tested.

Question 10: Do PS1 (PSX) games work on PCSX2?

If you want to enjoy your PS1 games without issues:

No, they will not work without issues. Please use a proper PS1 emulator, such as Duckstation or Mednafen.

If you are a tinkerer and like to break things:

PS1 games may work on PCSX2, but compatibility is very limited. Specific settings are often required to get a game to boot, and there are other universal problems including missing/pitch-shifted audio and severe FMV corruption. A forum thread for PS1 compatibility is tracking some fixes and compatibility reports.

While we encourage discussion about PS1 games and improving compatibility, bug reports are NOT being accepted for PS1 games. Any reports for PS1 games will be closed immediately as invalid.

Question 11: Why does my game not work like it did in an earlier PCSX2 version?

Any change to the emulator may fix one game, but cause problems for another. If the issue is severe and not fixable with different settings, you can always revert back to the last known PCSX2 version to work, and report the build number that broke the game. Development builds are very helpful for finding the exact change that caused a regression.

Question 12: Why is PCSX2 slow?

The PlayStation 2 is a complex console, and this substantially raises the PC requirements to emulate it at full speed accurately. This forum thread helps explain some of the technical reasons behind it, and our current guidelines for PC requirements are listed above.

Question 13: Where do I get a PS2 BIOS?

You have to dump the BIOS files from your PlayStation 2 console. There is a BIOS dumper tool available on the PCSX2 website to do this. If you need a guide, check the bottom of this FAQ for links to BIOS guides.

Question 14: Where do I get PS2 games?

You can use games from your personal collection of discs, purchase them from local stores that resell old games, or look online at sites like eBay or Amazon.

Question 15: Can I use PS2 discs directly with PCSX2?

Yes. However, some games have speed problems, because unlike the PS2 which would constantly keep the disc spinning, PCSX2 will not do the same to your PC's disc drive. It is recommended to instead dump your games to ISO images. ImgBurn is a popular software to do this with, and we recommend installing ImgBurn by using Ninite to avoid any issues with the ImgBurn installer.

Question 16: How do I play a game?

If you are using an ISO image:

  1. Click the CDVD menu
  2. Check that "ISO" mode is selected.
  3. Go to "ISO Selector", then Browse.
  4. Locate your ISO image.
  5. Click the System menu, then Boot ISO.

If you are using a disc:

  1. Click the CDVD menu
  2. Check that "Disc" mode is selected.
  3. Go to "Drive Selector", then select your drive.
  4. Click the System menu, then Boot CDVD.

Question 17: What is Fast Boot?

Normally, PCSX2 will launch the PS2 BIOS, which will then launch the game. Some games need this for multi-language settings or times to work.

Fast Boot will directly mount and launch the game without first launching the PS2 BIOS. On versions 1.6 and below, this may cause some multi-language games to boot into the wrong language.

Question 18: How do I compile the PCSX2 source code?

Question 19: When will the next version be released?

It will be released when it is ready. Please don't waste your time and ours asking when.

PCSX2 Configuration

Question 20: How do I configure PCSX2?

Refer to the Configuration_Guide.pdf (located in the same folder as this FAQ) for an initial setup guide and resolutions or workarounds to some common known issues.

Question 21: Will framelimiter options increase my FPS?

The framelimiter has a few options that allow you to alter the pacing of your games. This will directly affect the game's speed itself, NOT your framerate, and can be useful for speeding through sections of games, or slowing down for precision.

  • Turbo (Tab): Bumps the framelimiter to 200%, allowing a game to run up to 2x faster than normal.
  • Slowmo (Shift + Tab): Drops the framelimiter to 50%, restricting a game to 0.5x its normal speed.
  • Framelimiter Disabled (F4): Completely disables the framelimiter. The game will run as fast as your PC can push it.

Some settings are greyed out. These are advanced counters that should only be modified by those who understand the effects they have on a game's playback speed and frame pacing.

Question 22: What is the normal speed for a PlayStation 2 game?

  • NTSC games will play at 59.94 FPS
  • PAL games will play at 50 FPS
  • Keep in mind that there is a difference between the internal framerate (iFPS) and what PCSX2 shows as virtual framerate (vFPS).

These framerates are what the PlayStation 2 console would push to a real TV through its video cable. A game itself, typically, internally generates only half of those frames, and repeats frames to fill the gaps. This is why a "full speed" game may not "feel like 60 FPS". The console's "speed" (meaning AI, sound, physics, everything) is tied to the playback framerate, which is what PCSX2 reports as its "FPS".

Question 23: What are Gamefixes?

Gamefixes are specialized fixes built into PCSX2 for specific games. Gamefixes mostly fix core emulation problems that would crash or soft lock a game, rather than graphical or performance issues. By default, the "System > Automatic Gamefixes" option is enabled, meaning any games that need gamefixes will have them automatically applied, regardless of what gamefix settings you have enabled.

Most games will not need gamefixes, however if your game is having issues, you can try manually enabling them in Emulation Settings.

Gamefixes are not FPS boosters; more often than not, they will degrade performance slightly.

Question 24: Are Speedhacks safe?

As the name says, speedhacks are hacks to make things faster. They will speed up games, but risk causing stability problems or crashing some games. PCSX2 ships with some speedhacks enabled in the default "Safe" preset. This selection of speedhacks has been reviewed thoroughly and determined to be safe for nearly all games.

Bug reports of issues caused by speedhacks will NOT be accepted, and will be immediately closed as invalid.

Question 25: What are all these EE/IOP and VU options?

The PS2 EE, IOP and VU processors are substantially different from a PC CPU and require different rounding and clamping modes to do math accurately. Most games work fine on the default options, but some games might need a different setting. You can check the PCSX2 Wiki to see if your game needs an alternate setting, or check the PCSX2 Forums to see if anyone else has posted about it there.

Question 26: What are PCSX2 plugins?

Older versions of PCSX2 used a plugin framework for various sections of the emulator. A plugin is a small, incomplete piece of software that, when plugged in to another piece of software, provides some sort of additional function. PCSX2 used to use plugins for:

  • Video (GSdx)
  • Controls (Lilypad for Windows, OnePad for Linux)
  • USB (No plugin included)

In newer versions, these have been merged into the main emulator, and there is no longer a way to load external plugins.

Question 27: Why is my sound garbled up?

PCSX2's default audio playback mode is Timestretch, which will attempt to stretch sounds out when the emulator is unable to play at full speed, to fill the gaps in the sound playback and prevent even harsher stutters. If you are unable to get the game running at full speed or an acceptable speed where timestretching does not ruin the sound, you can try changing from Timestretch to Async, but this may break games.

Question 28: Is my controller supported?

For Windows users, PCSX2 will ship with XInput bindings already created. This will automatically work with an Xbox One controller or any other XInput controller. Bindings can easily be made for DirectInput and XInput controllers, such as Xbox 360 controllers. PS3, PS4, or Switch Pro controllers should be set up using third party compatibility software, such as Steam's Big Picture mode.

For Linux users, PCSX2 will automatically detect and bind controls to any recognizable controller.

Useful Links

BIOS Dumping Guides

Memory Card and Save File Guides

PCSX2 Cheats and Patches (PNACH)

PCSX2 with Netplay Support