Best PS4 Emulators for PC: Can You Play PS4 Games on Your PC?
PS4 emulation is still in development, so there aren't many emulators
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Finding a PS4 emulator for PC might not be easy since PS4 emulation is still in the early stages of development.
However, a couple of emulators are available, and in today’s guide, we’re going to take a closer look at them.
There are several PS4 emulators for PC, but the majority of them can’t run any games. Only a few emulators can run less demanding games; with them, you might encounter performance issues or glitches.
What is the best PS4 emulator for PC?
PCSX4 – All you have imagined from PS4 games
PCSX4 is now the best option to play PlayStation 4 games on your PC and even on Mac.
The emulator is based on the x86/64 architecture, using the DEngine to run natively on Windows and macOS. It also uses the Vulcan API, and the hardware-assisted virtualization engine.
With this tool, the PS4 games will run smoothly and with great video quality, and if the hardware allows it, you can enjoy the titles at 60 FPS and over.
PCSX4 even has a built-in frame-limiter to speed up or slow down the game. If your GPU has more than 4 GB of memory, you can expect good quality.
Moreover, the emulator supports almost all the input gaming controllers that are supported on Linux, and PS4 & Xbox-One controllers are plug & play because they are preloaded into the plugin.
Other than that, you can adjust the resolution, and add post-processing effects, without reloading the game.
You can add mods, enhancements and custom shaders as you please. You can even go up to 4K resolution and play the games even better than they were designed.
fpPS4 Emulator – Best for smaller games
If you’re looking for a PS4 emulator for PC, then fpPS4 might be the right choice for you. This is a Windows x64 application, that runs a PS4 compatibility layer (emulator) on Free Pascal.
According to the software developer, this project is made for fun and is still in its early stages, so expect more tweaks.
fpPS4 already runs some commercial games, just in case you were wondering, and it was tested with Sonic Mania, and We are Doomed.
It’s traditional for developers to run smaller, less demanding games when the emulators are in the initial phase for better calibration.
However, you can now play many other PS4 games on it, but it’s essential to know the prerequisites before you start.
The minimum requirements are Windows 7 x64 and higher, an x64 CPU with AVX2 support, and a GPU with Vulkan API support.
- Free Pascal compiler: 3.0.0 and higher, x86_64 only
- Lazarus: 2.0.0 and higher, x86_64 only
⇒ Get the fpPS4 emulator on GitHub
Kyty – Offers limited support
Like many others, Kyty is still in the early stages of development, so don’t get overly excited.
What’s even better to hear is that the creators of this PS4 emulator have also implemented the graphics for PS5.
For the time being, it is possible to run PS4 games on your PC. However, there may be graphics glitches, crashes, freezes, and low FPS for now.
Some features still awaiting implementation on the Kyty emulator are audio input/output, MP4 video, network, and multi-user support.
A lot more is in store for this PS4 emulator, so we’ll have more to be happy about pretty soon, based on what developer InoriRus shared with the community.
- Visual Studio + clang-cl + ninja
- Eclipse CDT + mingw-w64 + gcc/clang + ninja/mingw32-make
- MSVC compiler (cl.exe) is not supported
Is it possible to play PS4 on PC?
The short answer is no, for the most part. Few emulators can start less demanding games, but the quality of emulation and performance might not be satisfying.
Since PS4 emulation is in its infancy, many emulators can’t even run commercial games, which probably won’t change for a few years.
Are PS4 emulators legal?
Yes, downloading the emulator software is legal. However, downloading console BIOS and games isn’t legal.
As you can see, the choice of PS4 emulators is rather slim now, so why not try a PS3 emulator for PC or maybe a PS2 emulator instead?
Which one will you try? Share our thoughts in the comments section below.
