A tech YouTuber recently tested the PS5 hardware to prove it could run PS3 games. Lowest Logan’s test used an AMD BC-250 mining card and was able to run games like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. The YouTuber also noted that the game’s performance could be improved through optimization.

Game emulation has remained a controversial area in the gaming world, with many gamers opting for PCs to emulate games across the board. However, with many technological advancements, console gamers have joined in the fun, with PlayStation emulation growing steadily and techies experimenting.

In one such case, a YouTuber tried using low-speed hardware to debunk beliefs like the one that the PS5 can't play PS3 games.

YouTuber proves PS5 can play PS3 games

A tech YouTuber named Lowest Logan has successfully used PS5 hardware to play PS3 games in a groundbreaking experiment. Logan used an AMD BC-250 mining card, which has a similar system-on-chip (SoC) to the original PS5 but with limited CPU and GPU capabilities.

The chip has six cores and 12 threads, with only 24 active compute units out of the original 32 GPUs. The BC-250 was limited to a clock speed of 450MHz with the Youtuber setup using 16GB of GDDR6 memory. The YouTuber experience also used RPCS3, a popular open-source PS3 emulator compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD.

Logan's experiment demonstrated that the PS5 setup could run PS3 games built using the complex CELL-based model by converting them to x86-compatible instructions. Logan's improvised setup ran games like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Watch Dogs, and LittleBigPlanet 2 at 60 frames per second.

Watch Dogs in particular has had more glitches than other games. Tech YouTuber Alyssa Klein attributed the additional glitches to the game's original PS3 optimization issues.

After his successful demo, Logan reignited discussions about the PS5’s untapped potential for backward compatibility without the need for cloud streaming. The YouTuber’s approach overcame several technical and software limitations while also using a poor setup to run PS3 games.

Some gamers think Sony should do a better job since most PS1, PS2, and PS3 games can be properly emulated using a PC or other consoles like the Steam Deck.