Google’s older Pixels may have just become far better retro gaming machines

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I’ve spent enough time trying to turn Android phones into game consoles to know that raw horsepower only gets you so far. On the Red Magic 11S Pro, I’ve tested console emulation alongside Android games and eventually pushed things much further by getting the PC version of Ghost of Tsushima running locally through GameHub.

While all of this was possible thanks to powerful Snapdragon hardware, there’s another reason Qualcomm-equipped Android devices have traditionally been particularly attractive to emulator enthusiasts. Adreno, the GPU that powers these devices, have access to custom graphics drivers such as Turnip. So phones using ARM’s Mali GPUs haven’t had the same advantage. But now, ARMSX2 2.8.3 is finally changing that.

Mali finally gets its own custom driver

The latest release of the open-source PS2 emulator introduces MaliSX2, a custom Vulkan driver built specifically for Mali graphics. ARMSX2 actually introduced an early version in 2.8.2 under the name libmali, but compatibility was restricted to the Mali-G615 and G715. Version 2.8.3 expands that list to the G57, G68, G77, G78, and G78AE.

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In simpler terms, this opens the feature to a lot more phones and Android handhelds, including hardware using older Mali GPUs. So your older Pixel devices, some Galaxy phones, and even MediaTek Dimensity-powered devices can expect to see performance upgrades in emulation. Keep in mind that compatibility still depends on the device’s GPU and having a sufficiently recent Mali kernel driver.

ARMSX2’s developers stated that Ace Combat 4 and Ace Combat 5 were unplayable using the stock driver on a Mali-G57 test device but reached full speed using MaliSX2 0.1.4. Still, it won’t translate to all emulated titles running twice as fast as before, and performance could vary by game and device.

Android emulation keeps getting better and better

For those unaware, ARMSX2 is a project based on PCSX2 and now uses native ARM64 recompilers rather than depending solely on x86-to-ARM translation. Its developers have also built custom renderer backends for both Adreno and Mali hardware. That’s why updates like MaliSX2 are interesting beyond PS2 nostalgia.

I’ve already watched an Android phone run Ghost of Tsushima, something I didn’t expect to be doing this year. Giving more Android GPUs better low-level driver support simply widens the number of devices capable of joining these increasingly fun experiments. And for older PlayStation 2 games in particular, you can expect Mali-powered devices to run things a lot smoother.

Vikhyaat Vivek Vikhyaat Vivek is a tech journalist and reviewer with seven years of experience covering consumer hardware, with a focus on…

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