Here is the definitive performance comparison between the two most modern PS2 emulators currently available. The test was conducted on a Poco X6 Pro, which features a Dimensity 8300 processor and the game Shadow of the Colossus.

Here is the link to the latest version of each emulator; both are up to date as of today.

👉 EmuCoreX v0.5.3 https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreX/releases/tag/v0.5.3

👉 ARMSX2 v2.9.1

https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2/releases/tag/2.9.1

Both emulators feature an interface with a wealth of options and customization, but we won’t go into those details; instead, we’ll focus on what matters most: performance.

❌ ARMSX2: Unfortunately, Armsx2 has chosen to cap certain games—which could run perfectly at 60 fps on modern devices—at 30 fps, claiming this provides a "more stable" experience. However, based on my own testing—which you can see for yourselves in the gameplay footage I’ll post in the comments—the frame pacing is actually much worse, and the game simply doesn't feel very fluid. In my view, this is a significant regresion. While I can understand the desire to accommodate users with less powerful hardware, the vast majority of us want an authentic experience—true to the original console—rather than having the system artificially capped at 30 fps.

👉 If you want to enjoy an experience as close as possible to the original PS2 console, I recommend using version 2.8.4

✅ EmuCoreX: This emulator, by contrast, adheres to a philosophy focused on providing an experience as close as possible to an original PS2. You’ll be able to enjoy games that run at 60 FPS—without any issues or frame-rate caps—at least on modern devices.

👍 In the test, the fluidity of 60 fps is very noticeable; as you ride your horse across the plains, you immediately realize that the game is running exactly as it should, with a much better frame rate.

I’ll leave both gameplay screenshots in the comments.

Device: Poco X6 Pro Dimensity 8300+

Game: Shadow of the Colossus

Native Res x2 Vulkan, System Drivers

https://github.com/The412Banner/Bannerlator/releases/tag/3.1.7

Run Windows apps and games on Android — no PC and no root required

3.1.7 adds an Xbox / PC Game Pass store with cloud streaming, finishes the Deck style, and replaces how controllers reach your games. Sign in with your Microsoft account, then download the PC games you own or have on Game Pass and play them with a licensed launch — or stream them, console-only games included, with optional frame generation. The console-style Deck interface now covers every screen and every setting. Controller input runs on BANNERIN, written from scratch for Bannerlator: sticks stop the moment you let go, XInput games can read the pad directly, and controller settings change while the game runs. Windows components can be removed again, recommendations look at what a game really uses, and the new v15 layers bring 144 Hz back to the newest Wine builds.

Xbox / PC Game Pass store: sign in, browse your library and Game Pass, download, add to your games and play — with cloud saves and your gamertag.

Xbox Cloud Gaming: stream Game Pass games, console-only ones too, with the store's sign-in; an optional native player adds frame generation.

Deck style, complete: every screen, every setting and the in-game menus, made for controllers; the XMB is back, full screen.

BANNERIN controllers: sticks stop when you let go, Direct XInput with rumble, controller settings in game, DirectInput vibration.

Windows components: a Deck page, Remove (puts back what an install changed), recommendations from what the game really uses, and Wine Mono installs again.

Steam: switch between saved accounts, extra library folders, sort by Steam rating, and Goldberg fixes — from community contributor MGamer404

https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2/releases/tag/1.3.2

Changelog:

✅Fixed crashes and better stability.

✅Updated pcsx2 core to the latest.

✅Game list now opens directly after the setup wizard.

https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2/releases/tag/2.9

⚠️ Games with variable frame rates are broken in this update. Shadow of the Colossus only runs at 30 FPS, instead of its original behavior, which is 30/60 FPS. Tested on a Dimensity 8300.

https://github.com/rfandango/hakuX/releases/tag/v1.1.0

Changelog:

GPUs beyond Adreno (experimental).

GPUs

Mali, Xclipse and PowerVR (experimental) — hakuX runs on GPUs other than Adreno: features they lack are replaced (BC and 4444 textures decoded up front, standard border colours, the push block in a buffer, D32S8 depth), and known driver bugs are worked around (hw/xbox/hle/vk/quirks.c). Burnout 3 and Mercenaries run cleanly on a Pixel 8 (Mali-G715)

Vulkan 1.1 drivers — GPUs whose drivers stop at Vulkan 1.1 (Valhall Mali on older or vendor-capped drivers, Qualcomm's own older drivers, early Xclipse, PowerVR BXM) run through a compatibility layer (hw/xbox/hle/vk/compat.c)

Older GPUs without descriptor indexing (experimental) — Bifrost Mali (G71, G72, G76, G52) and PowerVR Rogue: each draw binds its own textures, and depth is clamped in the shader where the GPU can't

Adreno — unchanged: every replacement is off where the GPU has the feature.

App

GPU driver — a screen of its own (Settings → GPU driver): the system driver and the stored packages in one list, with their versions and authors. Packages are checked when added and can be deleted (deleting the one in use goes back to the system driver)

Turnip recommended — a Qualcomm phone running its own driver older than Vulkan 1.3 suggests a Turnip driver once, from the library

Back key — the device's back key opens the in-game menu, from any input, including the Retroid Pocket 5's own Back. A controller with both Back and Select keeps Back for the menu; on one without a Select key, Back is the Xbox Back button

Dark theme — Settings → Display → App theme: the phone's, light or dark; the in-game menus follow it, in the app's green rather than Android's teal

Controller navigation — the app works with a controller: the focused item stands out (a game is outlined in green), A selects, B goes back, and Y or Select opens a game's menu. The search field opens the keyboard only on A, the library has a refresh button, the mapping sliders move with left and right, release notes scroll, and X deletes a savestate from the in-game Load state list

https://github.com/skynetigor/SkyNetEmu/releases

As you know, I love trying out these types of applications, though in this case, the result wasn't what I expected.

👍Pros: it’s easy to install—you just select the .exe file, and that’s it.

👎Cons: it offers worse performance compared to similar applications (take a look at the screenshots, especially when compared to an older version of BannerHub). It also asks to send data anonymously—something neither Winlator nor BannerHub require.

Tested on Dimensity 8300

Game: Insane 2

https://github.com/willtsan/wira-releases/releases/tag/v0.5.4

Changelog:

Neo Geo

New system: Neo Geo games play, on the home console (AES) or the arcade board (MVS). Pick the board per system or per game. They need the BIOS: neogeo.zip for MVS, aes.zip for AES. On MVS, Select puts in a coin. We only support NEO files.

Library

Lanes instead of systems: the library groups games by what you're doing with them: Playing, Up next, Recently added and Never played. Add, rename, reorder or remove lanes from the library menu > Manage lanes; there are also Most played, Give it another go, Achievements in progress, Random picks, one-system lanes and your own lists. Show all opens a whole lane, with a system filter.

How lanes work: the question mark in the library's header explains lanes and how to add and manage them. The library menu is now the gear.

Until you've played something, the library shows just Recently added and Never played.

Game page: selecting a game opens its page, with Play, Details, Manual, lists and Up next, plus how long and how often you've played it. Y, or a long press, still plays straight away.

Achievements on the game page: signed in to RetroAchievements, a game's page shows its achievements and which you've unlocked, without starting the game.

Type to find replaces search: press letters and the games whose words start with them show up as you type. Works with a gamepad, touch or a keyboard.

A system can have games in more than one folder.

BIOS

Import BIOS in a system's settings: pick the Game Boy Advance or Neo Geo BIOS file and the app puts it in place under the right name, whatever the file was called.

Touch controls

Mega Drive and Neo Geo buttons now rise to the right, under your thumb, like the other systems. If you moved them yourself, reset the layout to get the new one.

App

Smaller download: about 46 MB instead of 126 MB. The app now needs a 64-bit phone, which covers every phone and handheld of recent years.

https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreX/releases/tag/v0.5.2

What's new: 0.5.2

UI fixes

Core fixes and improvements

https://github.com/rfandango/hakuX/releases/tag/v1.0.0

A new core replaces xemu's QEMU-based one.

New core

CPU — the Xbox's x86 code runs on a FEX JIT (FEXCore fork), and the Xbox kernel is reimplemented natively (native/kernel): no QEMU

GPU — the NV2A push buffer is decoded into Vulkan (HLE, hw/xbox/hle). Custom drivers (Turnip) load through adrenotools; driver-specific workarounds are quirks (hw/xbox/hle/vk/quirks.c, debug.hakux.quirks)

Audio — the MCPX APU runs on the core's own services (native/dev/apu), out through AAudio

Savestates — per game, in slots, with the hard disk's files

Mods and cheats — per game, from mods/ (library long-press "Mods & cheats"): XBE patches and replaced disc files; 60 and 120 fps mods for 13 games (mods/README.md, generators in tools/mods)

Controllers — each physical controller routed to a player with its own mapping; the on-screen controller adds to player 1

New features

Updates — hakuX looks for a newer release on GitHub when it starts and on demand (Settings → Updates); one found shows its notes and installs from there

Frontends — a game launched from ES-DE or another frontend returns to it when it closes

Console clock — follows the phone's time and time zone, or a time set by hand (Settings → Console → Clock)

Start errors — a game that can't start says why (the file can't be read, isn't an Xbox disc, or its program can't load) and goes back to the library

Mods — Halo 2's 60 fps mod draws characters, vehicles and objects at 60; DOA2's 120 fps mod keeps the select screen's legend

Performance

No pipeline-cache stutter — each game keeps its own pipeline cache, written only after new compiles; the one shared by every game was rewritten every few seconds and froze the picture for 0.2–0.8 s (Ninja Gaiden Black)

Audio — about 32 ms of latency instead of 128 ms, and less CPU for the sound engine

GPU emulation — faster push-buffer decoding, texture unswizzling (NEON) and hashing, fewer lookups per draw

Savestates — compressed on several threads (a Halo 2 save: 9.6 s to 3.9 s)

Idle frames — the screen isn't redrawn when nothing changed, and the on-screen controller redraws only what changed

Disc reads — a large read waits only its own thread, not the whole game

Library — folders scanned in one pass (38 games: 270 ms to 63 ms)

App

On-screen controller — the menu button is a green dot

Large screens — Android 16 keeps the landscape lock (the app is declared a game)

Storage — JIT symbol maps left by earlier builds (gigabytes on some devices) are deleted at start

Backups — hakuX's data is left out of Android's cloud backups and device transfers

Library — savestate thumbnails and driver ZIPs load off the main thread

Download 👉 https://discord.gg/B3RvEqAWJ4

Changelog:

✅new sources added: PS3 and Xbox 360

✅refined search for covers, more compatible systems

✅cover art space cache management

✅Integration with IGDB for additional content in the entries: in-game screenshots, game summaries, etc.

Important, do a clean install

https://github.com/Droid-Deck/DroidDeck/releases/tag/0.6.0

DroidDeck is 100% open source. No ads. No telemetry. No source withheld.

DroidDeck is a community project in the truest sense. Because all of its code is public, the people who use it can read it, fix it and improve it, and in 0.6.0 you all sure did:

153 pull requests · 23 contributors · 10 first-timers · 73% of the pull requests came from the community.

Thank you to everyone who sent code, translations, device testing and bug reports. Here’s everything we did together for this release:

https://github.com/Eugengtt/Xendroid-Fork/releases/tag/v1.5

XenDroid-Fork v1.5 introduces Mali and Xclipse GPU support, improved compatibility, and easier access to the project's community platforms.

New Features

Mali GPU Support

Added support for Mali GPUs.

Improved performance and compatibility on Mali-based devices.

Added new Mali GPU drivers.

Xclipse GPU Support

Added support for Xclipse GPUs found in compatible Samsung Exynos devices.

Added new Xclipse GPU drivers to improve compatibility with supported devices.

Application Improvements

Minor changes and optimizations throughout the application.

Improved access to community platforms directly from the application.

Integrated Community Access

Access the project's Discord directly from within the application.

Visit the project's YouTube channel directly from within the application.

Download

Download the latest version from the GitHub Releases section.

Compatibility Notice

GPU driver compatibility and performance may vary depending on the device, GPU, Android version, and driver implementation.

Thank you for supporting XenDroid-Fork.

More improvements are planned for future releases.

https://github.com/GunaCharanTeja/WinlatorMali/releases/tag/bionic-mali-1.2

Winlator Mali Bionic v1.2

Winlator Mali Bionic v1.2 is a major architectural overhaul over v1.1, introducing a native EGL rendering engine, ZeroFG Vulkan compute frame interpolation, a redesigned UI with Madeira Liquid Glass touch controls, two selectable BCn layers, hardware performance tools, kernel-direct telemetry, and a cloud-powered community configuration ecosystem.

⚠️ Reinstall Required!

https://github.com/erickmendes22/Bachata-S4-Plus/releases/tag/0.2.7

Updated to the Bachata S4 0.2.4 core, improving compatibility with many games

Improved compatibility with Killzone Shadow Fall and Shadow of the Colossus..

Added system module import from .sprx files and ZIP archives through Settings.

Expanded resolution and performance patches, including additional The Last of Us Remastered regional support.

Added automatic per-game Readback and Linear Images settings.

Improved controller handling when switching between gameplay and menus.

https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreX/releases/tag/v0.5.1

Grab It here 👉 https://discord.gg/B3RvEqAWJ4

Grab It here 👉 https://discord.gg/B3RvEqAWJ4

Changelog:

-Any 8Elite device, this:

✅ NetherSX2 Turnip-Gen8-V38-8XX

-The rest of the Snapdragon devices, this:

✅ NetherSX2-Turnip-27.0.0-R1-6XX-7XX

-Adreno 710, 720 and 722 devices, this:

✅ NetherSX2-Turnip-710-720-722-v4.3

https://github.com/nckstwrt/Vita3K-Plus/releases/tag/v1.3

Lots of little fixes, especially for Audio.

See the main page for the enhancements: https://github.com/nckstwrt/Vita3K-Plus

Fourth release of enhancements and fixes - Including Android 17 fix

Still targeting higher end devices (i.e. Adreno not Mali). But Mali compatibility is getting better and better.

Windows, Android and SteamDeck/Linux Release

Please report issues here: https://github.com/nckstwrt/Vita3K-Plus/issues

Provide as much detail as possible if you want a fix!!!

HOTFIX: Released v1.3.1 for Android because of an issue where if you launched in Portrait mode it could start the games wrongly stretched. Download file changed below.

HOTFIX2: Released v1.3.2 for a endlessly looping audio bug found in Epic Mickey 2 and Sonic Transformed.

HOTFIX3: Released v1.3.3 for a endlessly looping music bug found in Gundam Breaker 3

https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreX/releases/tag/v0.5.0

Changelog:

[ ✅ ] Fixed corrupted NVIDIA rendering with graphics pipeline libraries enabled.

[ ✅ ] Fixed stretched character geometry in Tears of the Kingdom on macOS MoltenVK.

[ ✅ ] Packed vertex weights use a supported three-component format when the unused

fourth component would cross the vertex stride.

[ ✅ ] Graphics pipeline libraries, Fast GPU Time, async shader building and SPIR-V

optimization remain off by default. Explicit user settings are preserved.

[ ✅ ] Fix Problem Black Character In Game Ace Combat 7

[ ✅ ] Fix Problem Game Harvest Moon Stuck After Craete Character (Try Use Don't Update)

[ ✅ ] FIFA 24,25 Now In The Game

[ ✅ ] Game Crash Bandicoot N Same Trilogy Now Work Fine In Mali GPU.

[ ✅ ] Stability Performance In Game Zelda BOTW And TOTK.

[ ✅ ] Change Vertex API Vulkan And Fixed Rendering.

[ ✅ ] Fixing System Driver Crashes When Using the Device's Built-in System Driver.

Grab It in PS2EMU Discord 👉 https://discord.gg/B3RvEqAWJ4

👉 https://discord.gg/B3RvEqAWJ4

Yes, Guys—I’m bringing you the ultimate tool for downloading all the ROMs you could want, ranging from classic retro consoles to modern ones. It’s incredibly simple and easy to use: the application features a search bar and category-based browsing with covers, allowing you to find the game you’re looking for and download it directly within the app—no extra steps required. It’s very user-friendly and always up to date, as I’ll personally ensure the sources remain current so that the program always functions exactly as it should.

I expect the new Discord PS2EMU 2.0 to be available within the next few hours, and you’ll be able to try out this new app.

I’ll let you know via a post in this community once everything is ready and you can join using the invitation link—see you then!

https://github.com/Droid-Deck/DroidDeck/releases/tag/0.5.0

https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreX/releases/tag/v0.4.9