It’s a no-brainer that we all love to play games on our android smartphones. Nowadays, a smartphone is as powerful as our PCs & Laptops. It can run games like COD, PUBG & Fortnite- the games that we used to play on our desktop computers 4-5 years ago, yes we’ve come this far!
No matter how much we enjoy playing the latest high-resolution and graphic intense games, our love for retro-era games is unconditional. Sony’s PSP is one such console that first comes to our mind whenever we think of the best games from the 2004-14 time period.
If you’re reading this, now you are already aware that our android devices are capable enough to run PSP games via the ppsspp emulator. For starters, this PSP emulator is by far the best Android has to offer, as it is capable enough to run PSP games at their regular speeds.
You can download PPSSPP with ease as it is readily available on the Play Store and you need not break a sweat scouring for it all over the Internet. Now, for the most close-to PSP games experience on your Android phone, you will have to know about the best settings and the rendering resolution for your PPSSPP emulator.
To make all PSP games run at full speed, you need a newer device with decent specs. Older devices may not offer you the smoothest of gameplay experiences. However, if you run firmware on your PSP console, you get to easily copy and paste your PSP discs onto your Android device.
However, it is possible to experience smooth PPSSPP performance on your older Android smartphone even at lower specs. To do that, you will have to make some additional tweaks to your PPSSPP default settings and the emulator’s rendering resolution.
So, let’s have a look at the best possible settings for the ultimate PPSSPP gaming experience. Without any further ado, let’s dive in!
The Best Possible Overall PPSSPP Settings on Android
Most users complain about the slow FPS, fluctuating graphics, and laggy experience on the PPSSPP emulator. As already discussed, one of the main reasons for this is the lower configuration of your Android. As a result, the performance of this emulator is solely dependent on the raw computing capabilities of your android processor and GPU. But this can be easily overcome by changing a few default settings of the emulator.
So, consider following the steps below for the best results:
Step 1: Lauch the PPSSPP App
Step 2: Tap on the Settings option on the top right corner of your screen (when in landscape mode)
Step 3: On the left-hand corner of your screen, look for the Graphics tab, and click on it.
Step 4: Under the Frame control section, you’ll find the frame skipping option. Make sure it is turned off.
Step 5: You’ll also find the alternative speed option under the same Framerate control section. Make sure it is set to unlimited.
Step 6: Now, scroll down till you locate the performance section. Under this, you will find options such as hardware transform, software skinning, vertex cache, and lazy texture caching (speedup). Make sure to check all the boxes for the mentioned options.
Step 7: Select the System option at the bottom from the left-most column of your screen.
Step 8: Now, you’ll find the fast memory (unstable) option under the emulation section. Check the box to activate the same.
These are the best possible overall system settings for your PSP emulator. However, there are a couple of other factors and we’re yet to discuss them. Read on to know more-
How to change the rendering resolution of the PSP emulator?
Rendering Resolution is all about the resolution of the scenes that you see on screen (buffered rendering) while playing your PSP games on android. For example, if the display resolution of your phone screen is 1080p, 2x rending on this emulator will fetch you a game resolution of 960 x 540 (while the internal resolution is 480 x 270).
To sum it up, 2x rendering resolution should be more than enough. To do this, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Head on to PPSSPP settings.
Step 2: Now, choose Graphics from the left-most column of your screen.
Step 3: You’ll find the rendering resolution option under the Performance section. Set the rendering resolution to 2 x PSP.
And, that’s all!
Best Graphics Settings for your PSP emulator
To make the most out of your PPSSPP graphics settings, head to the settings option once again. Now follow the additional steps below:
Step 2: Look for auto frameskip and disable it under the framerate control.
Step 3: Below that you will see a ‘Prevent FPS from skipping 60’ option, make sure to enable it.
HW Scaler for higher resolutions
This calls for calibration owing to the native resolution of your device so that when you opt for a 2x rendering option (i.e., higher resolution) for your gameplay, there are no frame drops.
Best Audio Settings for your PPSP
Unlike the graphics setting for your PPSP, there’s nothing much you can tweak in the audio settings.
For starters, this emulator disappoints in rendering the audio appropriately. In case you select the enable option for it, the result turns out to be noisy, and quite laggy which may disrupt the fun of enjoying your favorite game. Refer to the snippet below for a few tweaks that you can try.
DISCLAIMER: This so-called ‘best setting’ might work for some games (like Gamecube games), but not much for others. For the most part, this is a ‘hit or miss’ and we cannot do much about it.
The options are pretty limited, however, we recommend you disable the game audio if you happen to experience considerable game lags.
Tweaking the Default Developer Options of your PPSP
For the record, users get to control a few developer options in PPSP. Though limited, you can still select Dynarec (JIT) under CPU Core to boost the gaming experience. This tweak works well on any game.
Among the 3 options, you see in the image above, Dynarec (JIT) is the fastest. This is because it helps the PPSSPP to render the games quickly and gives you a smoother gaming experience.
Leave all the other options in default (unchecked).
Next, head on to system tabs. Under emulation, look for the ‘Fast memory (unstable)‘ and ‘I/O on thread‘ options. Make sure you enable them.
Best System Settings For Your PPSSPP
Under System tabs, we can change a few more options to enjoy even smoother gameplay on our emulator. So, let’s do some further optimization for even smoother performance.
Now, we see a bunch of options under Emulation, like-
Multithreaded (experimental)
Upon experimentation, we tried to game on this emulator by switching it on and off. Practically speaking, it doesn’t make any difference. However, it might be effective on your android device. So give it a shot and see if it works for you.
Force real clock sync (slower, less lag)
Keep this option unchecked for better performance.
Change emulated PSP’s CPU clock (unstable)
Instead of keeping it to default, try values greater than 350. Here, 383 is perfect for the Android device we’re using. It’s up to you to try and see which value works best for your device.
Make sure that other options are unchecked. (refer to the snippet above)
PSP Settings
Under PSP settings, you will find the PSP model option. Could you set it to PSP-2000/3000? That’s all! Keep other options as they are. (refer to the snippet below)
Best Control Settings
Right off the bat, we know control settings are highly subjective and they should be set according to your preference to maximize the fun quotient of your gameplay experience.
However, we do have a recommendation for you. Under controls, you will find the Haptic feedback (vibration) option. Make sure to uncheck it if you experience game lags.
As you uncheck the option, the PPSSPP emulator doesn’t have to respond to your keypress with a vibrate every time, it saves a bit of computing power. As a result, you can enjoy smoother gameplay.
Final Words
We have done all possible legwork to thoroughly test and bring out these best possible settings and the rendering resolution for your PPSSPP emulator. As a result, we are sure that you’ll notice a considerable difference in your PPSSPP performance now. So, now you need not worry about dropped frame rates, fluctuating FPS, and glitchy graphics anymore.
For most devices, this ought to work. In case you’re still facing the same issues and no considerable difference, it is just because your device is fairly old. Other than that, there cannot be any other reason why these settings won’t work. We tried a bunch of different settings for almost a week and came up with the best possible ones that are
Once you’re done tweaking the settings, kill the app and relaunch it for the best results. Happy Gaming!