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One of the best PS3 emulators on Android fixes heating issues, uncapped speeds, and more

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Why This Matters

ARMSX3, a young Android-based PS3 emulator, has shipped its 0.9.7 update just weeks after launch, fixing overheating caused by wasted CPU cycles, unclean shutdowns, and texture/core-sleep inefficiencies. The rapid cadence signals that console emulation on phones is maturing fast, especially on flagship silicon like Snapdragon 8 Elite. For consumers, it means increasingly viable PS3 gaming on mobile hardware without frying the device.

Key Takeaways
Worth a Look

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Hadlee Simons / Android Authority

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TL;DR A new version of PS3 emulator ARMSX3 has been released.

The update fixes a CPU issue that caused phones to heat up for no reason.

An issue preventing the emulator from being stopped cleanly has also been fixed.

The team behind ARMSX3 is fairly well known for its speedy updates. Only about a week after its launch, PS3 emulator for Android recieved its first update. Now another update has become available and it fixes a myriad of issues.

On GitHub, the developers have published the release notes for the latest update (0.9.7). This release fixes one of the more problematic issues with ARMSX3, which is phone overheating. According to the team, “there were three places where the emulator was burning CPU while doing nothing useful.” The new update frees up CPU time, which means your phone will stop heating up for no reason.

Another problem this latest version of ARMSX3 solves is shutting down the emulator. Previously, when attempting to close the emulator, the RSX thread was killed, which appeared as a freeze with audio still playing and no way to close the game you were playing. This update introduces a lost GPU device that stops the emulator cleanly.

Here are a few other notable fixes in this update: Audio toggle: There’s a new recording-compatible audio toggle. Turning this toggle on will trade a little latency for recordable audio.

There’s a new recording-compatible audio toggle. Turning this toggle on will trade a little latency for recordable audio. Textures: Textures were being handed back and forth between two states on every transfer, every time, for no benefit. That work is gone.

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