The open-source PS5 emulator SharpEmu has reached a new milestone, successfully running six PlayStation 5 titles at a playable 60 FPS. According to a September 25 announcement from the developers, the latest public build, v0.0.4-release.2, achieved this result on games including Dreaming Sarah, Void Terrarium, New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja, Tetris Forever, Hoa, and Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered. The "playable" designation means these games run without major issues, though minor graphical or audio glitches may still appear in some cases.
The new build improves SPIR-V shader translation and updates Vulkan API support. SharpEmu is written in C# and supports Windows, Linux, and macOS, using Vulkan and MoltenVK for graphics. Because the PS5 uses an AMD Zen 2 x86-64 CPU, the emulator can execute console instructions natively on standard PCs rather than translating from an unfamiliar instruction set. It works by loading a game's eboot.bin executable, partially handling kernel functions, and processing shader and graphics submissions.
Despite the progress, SharpEmu remains far from handling demanding 3D titles. Of 55 games tested, only 12 reach a gameplay-ready state, and just six run cleanly at 60 FPS. The developers stress that the project is experimental and intended for research and educational purposes, containing no copyrighted system firmware or game data. Meanwhile, another emulator, KytyPS5, recently ran GTA V on the PS5 at roughly 40 to 60 FPS on high-end hardware, though it crashed after the opening mission.