A few years ago, the Raspberry Pi series was all the rage in the Single-Board Computer ecosystem. But times are changing, and x86 boards are here to usher the SBC industry into a new era. After all, SBCs powered by x86 processors tend to outperform their RPi competitors on the performance and compatibility fronts, and budget-friendly boards like the Radxa X4 are poised to dethrone the Raspberry Pi dynasty.

In fact, I often find myself favoring the Radxa X4 over the Raspberry Pi 5 on numerous occasions, to the point where I’d call it a Raspberry Pi killer for any project that doesn’t involve dedicated HAT modules. When I recently used this x86 SBC to run Proxmox, the SBC was powerful enough to run a GUI version of Debian alongside a couple of LXCs, a feat that the Raspberry Pi 5 could never accomplish.

But what about emulation projects? Seeing how the Raspberry Pi 5 is beyond underpowered to run PlayStation 3 titles, I wanted to gauge how the Radxa X4 would fare at RPCS3 workloads. So, here’s a log of my misadventure on emulating PS3 titles on the Radxa X4 via RPCS3.

Making the necessary preparations

The SBC requires some extra drivers for Windows 11

When I conducted this experiment with the Raspberry Pi 5, I tried using DietPi before switching to the trusty Raspberry Pi OS. Since the Radxa X4 boasts Windows 11 compatibility as its standout feature, I figured I should go with Microsoft’s flagship OS for this project. In hindsight, I probably should’ve picked a CLI Linux distribution for the best performance. But considering my prior experience trying to run RPCS3 on DietPi, I figured I should pick Windows 11 right off the bat instead of looping back to it after troubleshooting some weird error.

Plus, I’m already aware of the driver issues afflicting Radxa X4 on Windows 11 and know the solutions to each of them. Since I went with a fresh installation of Windows 11, I had to manually set up the Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Chipset drivers before I could move on with the rest of the project. With the drivers up and ready, I configured the RPCS3 emulator and transferred the ripped ROMs from my NAS to an internal SSD lying inside a SATA-to-USB adapter chassis.

2D PS3 titles and older console ports run well

Some 3D games can even hit 30FPS

Considering the Radxa X4 has an Intel N100 processor and 8GBs of memory, I wanted to start things off with lighter titles that don’t consume too many resources. So, I picked The Awakened Fate Ultimatum, a dungeon-crawler-visual novel hybrid, as the first test subject for this experiment. Turns out, the x86 SBC has enough juice to run both the static CG segments and the dungeon sections at 30FPS. That may not sound too impressive when I put it that way, but considering that the Raspberry Pi 5 couldn’t hit past 20FPS even after lowering the resolution slider down to 25%, I was starting to get my hopes up about this project.

The game’s spiritual predecessor, The Guided Fate Paradox, ran just as well, and the same holds for Disgaea 3 and 4. Likewise, Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir ran flawlessly on the SBC, which gave me the courage to try lightweight 3D games, including ports of older titles.

As a diehard Metal Gear Solid fan, Peace Walker was my favorite game on the PSP, and the remastered PS3 was everything I could ask for at the time. So, I added its ripped ROM to RPCS3, and to my surprise, the game ran at 30 FPS. For folks who’ve played the PS3 variant, the Radxa X4’s performance numbers may seem like a downgrade, since the game runs at 60 FPS on the PlayStation 3. However, the game was perfectly playable at merely 30 FPS, making me even more hyped up about other titles.

Unfortunately, the titles included in the two God of War Collection sets couldn’t run that well. The original God of War barely hit 20 FPS on the ship. Modifying the RPCS3 settings made it a little playable, though a 27 FPS is still shy of 3 frames per second for a somewhat smooth experience. Meanwhile, God of War: Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta were rife with sound issues, even though they ran well above 40 FPS. But you could attribute that to me going crazy with the experimental settings. So, it was time to test regular PS3 games…

Emulating normal PS3 games is asking for too much

No surprises there, I suppose

While you could call the games I’d tried so far somewhat playable, the 3D titles developed for the PlayStation 3 didn’t fare well at all. Asura’s Wrath, for instance, felt like a slog at 8-10 FPS, and the frame rates were so bad that I left the device running for a couple of minutes, only to find the game was still stuck in the initial unskippable cutscenes.

Tales of Xillia performed a little better, but I wouldn’t call 18 FPS and a ton of frame rate drops “playable” by any means. Drakengard 3 and the original Nier had similar performance issues. Meanwhile, Dante’s Inferno couldn’t arrive at the main menu and refused to move past the initial logo screens.

So, how feasible is this setup for PS3 emulation?

If you’re planning to run slow turn-based games, 2D titles, or ports of older games, you’re in for a good time. I’m willing to bet that with the right CPU overclock and a dose of Debian goodness, even titles like the God of War collection will run at a steady 30/60 FPS. Unfortunately, the Radxa X4 just can’t keep up with the computational prowess required to run 3D PS3 titles.

Despite the mixed results, this project has got me curious about the performance of PS2 games on the SBC. Considering the Raspberry Pi 5 can handle light PlayStation 2 games after jumping through a lot of hoops, the Radxa X4 should theoretically have no issues running most titles in my PS2 library.