Hello Friends! How is the gaming community doing today? Welcome to Emulator Info where we learn about a new emulator every day! Some of these are android emulators, while some are emulators for particular Gaming Consoles and many more.
Our emulator for today is probably the best emulator for Sony® PlayStation 2. It is called PCSX2. It lets you play thousands of PS2 games at the ease of your computer screens that too for free! More about this awesome PS2 emulator as we learn How to Download and Install the PCSX2 Emulator on Windows along with other details,
Making Masters!
PCSX2 Emulator
PCSX2 is an open-source PlayStation 2 emulator for Windows, Linux, and even macOS. This is an easy-to-use, highly customizable, and completely free emulator that can play possibly all games from the legendary PS2 gaming console that too with remarkable functionality and compatibility.
What makes PCSX2 even more stunning is the option to change settings however you like with features like anti-aliasing, 8192×8192 resolution, texture filtering, etc. If you can alter the settings correctly, you might encounter the gameplay to be as good as or even better than the original PS2 console.
System Requirement
Minimum: These are the least specs required in a system to run PCSX2 and play simple basic games.
Recommended: Standard specs for a system to run PCSX2 smoothly enough to play high-end games with decent visuals and good FPS.
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
Operating system | Windows 8.1 (IA-32) or higher | Windows 10 (x86-64) or higher |
| CPU | SSE4.1 support, 1600 Single Thread Performance on Passmark with 2 physical cores and hyperthreading support | AVX2 support, 2100 Single Thread Performance on Passmark with 4 physical cores with or without hyperthreading |
| Memory | 4 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics | DirectX 10 or OpenGL 3.x supported GPU and 2 GB VRAM | DirectX 11 or OpenGL 4.5 supported GPU and 4 GB VRAM |
Download and Install PCSX2 on Windows
Download Resources
- Go to the official PCSX2 website(https://pcsx2.net). Head over to the Download page and download the normal or portable installer
- Go to RomsMania to Download the PS2 BIOS zip file
- Extract the BIOS.zip file to a location of your choice
Installation
- Go to system downloads and drag the PCSX2 icon on the desktop
- Launch the app and Proceed with the usual software installation process
- In the PCSX2 start screen, go to Config-> plugin/ BIOS selector
- Browse for your extracted BIOS files then select all to upload them
- Select your region
- PCSX2 is all set-up
Getting Games
- Download Game ROMs from RomsMania or anywhere you wish
- CDVD -> ISO Selector. Browse for the game ROM (.ISO file)
- Select the game you want and open it
- System -> Boot CDVD (full)
- The game has started!
- Double-click the window for full-screen
Read More:
How to Download and Install PCSX2 Emulator on Linux
Improving Gameplay
- Go to Config -> Video -> Plugin settings. The default setting is OpenGL hardware but you can change the renderer to whatever gives you the best performance. Try it out yourselves
- You can change the resolution but make sure 4K and 5K resolutions require high-end PCs
- The Isotropic Filter will further improve the gameplay. 4x is recommended but it can go up to 16x
- Change the aspect ratio for more immersive gameplay by Config -> Video -> Window Settings -> Widescreen 16:9
- Here, you can also select any game to launch in full screen by default
Features of PCSX2
- Supersmooth gameplay (often better than PS2 itself) on any OS
- PCSX2 supports savestates
- Supports Full HD video recording of gameplay with the GSdx plugin
- Options to increase or decrease game speeds
- Unlimited memory cards can be used
- Full support for Gamepad Controller
- PNACH patching files enable the use of Cheat codes
FAQs
Is it bad that my CPU load is less than 100%?
No. PCSX2 utilizes only 2 cores. This means if you have a quad-core or Octa-core engine, the CPU load will never reach 100%. Even if you have 2 cores (dual-core), threading works in a way that load will never reach 100%. This does not mean PCSX2 is not working to its full potential. This is completely normal.
Does my favorite PS2 game work on PCSX2?
Here(https://pcsx2.net/compat) is a list of all the compatible games for PCSX2. It was last checked for the latest v0.9.6. in case of further doubt, try it yourself!
Do PlayStation1 games work on the PCSX2 emulator?
No. PCSX2 Emulator is only for Playstation 2 . you have to use the PlayStation1 emulator for that purpose. We strongly suggest PCSX for it!
Emulator Info’s Words
So far, we have seen How to Download and Install PCSX2 emulator. And we have also learned a lot about this amazing PS2 emulator which has superb customizability and compatibility. Moreover, it is quite easy to install and use; and on top of all of that, it is completely free!
We rate this emulator 4.8 stars out of 5 because of its great functionality of providing Gamers with costly PS2 console games for free on our computer screens.
While providing so much for so less, PCSX2 does not compromise with quality either! It gives us the best performance sometimes better than the console itself. So gear up for some PS2 gameplay and “GAME ON!”
