Tested: Can the Galaxy S20 Ultra handle GameCube and Nintendo 3DS emulators?

On the earth of console emulation on Android phones and tablets, few emulators tax the system greater than Dolphin (GameCube/Wii) and Citra (Nintendo 3DS). Because the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is among the strongest telephones available on the market at this time, I needed to understand how it might deal with GameCube and Nintendo 3DS emulation.
Inside the Galaxy S20 Extremely is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor paired with the Adreno 650 GPU and an absurd amount of RAM. Theoretically, you shouldn’t be capable of get quicker gaming performance on an Android telephone with something aside from these elements.
So, can probably the most highly effective Android telephone up to now run the 2 most demanding retro gaming emulators for Android with none points? Let’s discover out!
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My setups for GameCube and Nintendo 3DS emulation

Before I obtained the Samsung Galaxy S20 Extremely, I did all my emulation on my OnePlus 7 Pro. For this text, I installed all my games onto the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and in addition updated all my emulators to the newest versions. This manner I might play one recreation on the OnePlus 7 Pro and then the same recreation on the Galaxy S20 Extremely and get an honest concept of how a lot better the Galaxy S20 Ultra is as compared.
For the sake of disclosure, right here’s what meaning particularly:
- Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra & OnePlus 7 Professional
Clearly, I might very possible get higher performance from each methods by tweaking plenty of settings, even going as far as to tweak settings for each recreation. Nevertheless, the aim of that is to see if the Galaxy S20 Extremely hardware is basically a lot better than that of the OnePlus 7 Pro’s (or another sub-Snapdragon 865 gadget), so I didn’t add any tweaks to maintain things truthful, at the very least at first.
I used an Xbox One Wireless Controller related to a mobile phone holder clip on both methods as I completely can't stand on-screen controls. Because the controller was the same for both system checks, it’s not a variable.
As a ultimate observe, I assumed I’d throw it on the market that I exploit the superb app OneSync to sync all of my ROMs, emulators, and save information across all my techniques by way of OneDrive. This permits me, for example, to play a GameCube recreation on my telephone, reserve it, and then decide up that same save file on my PC or Steam Hyperlink. I’m tremendous proud of this (and it was extremely helpful for this text) so give it a shot in case you are interested!
With all that out of the best way, let’s get to the testing and my experience with the two emulators.
GameCube emulation: Galaxy S20 Extremely wins, however not by a lot

There are a couple of GameCube video games which might be troublesome for Dolphin to render properly, even whenever you’re operating the PC version of the emulator on a high-end system. Granted, when you have a $6,000 gaming rig, you’re not going to face too many points enjoying almost any GameCube recreation, however your system will nonetheless have to work more durable for some video games compared to others.
For this check, I began by enjoying The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures on every telephone. This can be a relatively easy recreation to emulate — it has a five-star compatibility score on the Dolphin Wiki, indicating that it may be performed from starting to end with none points. Both the OnePlus 7 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Extremely had steady 60fps speeds throughout all gameplay for this title, indicating that every telephone had no drawback.
I subsequent moved on to a extra taxing recreation: Metroid Prime. This recreation has a four-star compatibility score but is well-known as being a troublesome recreation to emulate on low-tier and even some mid-tier PCs. The OnePlus 7 Professional ran the game fantastic, but there have been undoubtedly noticeable drops in framerate as well as some audio distortions, particularly when shifting from room to room in the opening 5 minutes of the game. This additionally happened with Super Smash Bros. Melee, one other difficult-to-emulate recreation.
Even on some hard-to-emulate GameCube video games, both phones did very properly.
Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra rendered both Metroid and Smash barely smoother. There was still some lag and framerate drops in Smash shifting from the title display to the actual battle, for instance, nevertheless it wasn’t as glitchy because the OnePlus 7 Pro.
Finally, I ran a notoriously tough recreation to emulate: The Simpsons: Hit and Run. Apparently, my OnePlus 7 Professional wouldn’t even begin this recreation. The splash display confirmed up once I first started it and then Dolphin instantly shut it down. The S20 Ultra, although, ran the game simply positive, albeit with some audio crackling and some notable framerate drops when shifting from title screens to gameplay. Nonetheless, I might truly play the game without a lot challenge on the S20 Ultra, which I undoubtedly couldn't do with the OnePlus 7 Pro.
Finally, there wasn’t a GameCube recreation I tried that I couldn’t play and have a minimum of a “ok” expertise with the Galaxy S20 Extremely, whereas the OnePlus 7 Pro had hassle with just some.
Nintendo 3DS emulation: S20 Extremely is best, however removed from good

For Nintendo 3DS emulation, things get murkier. Even the highest-end gaming rig faces issues with the PC model of Citra when enjoying sure games, so I couldn’t anticipate clean gameplay from either the OnePlus 7 Pro or the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t imply that there weren’t some notable variations. For instance, Super Mario 3D Land boots up on the OnePlus 7 Professional but has framerates caught within the 20s. This makes the game primarily unplayable as successful of the bounce button causes Mario to very slowly ascend lots of of milliseconds later.
The Galaxy S20 Extremely, as compared, ran the game rather more smoothly, however nonetheless wasn’t adequately playable. I might move Mario around in a cushty means at sure points, however then the framerates would drop and every little thing would get stuttery. Then, it might sit back into gear and be playable again.
Even the mighty Galaxy S20 Extremely could not play some high-profile 3DS games.
In different words, there was no method I might complete the sport within the state it was in on either gadget, even if the Galaxy S20 Extremely did a better job. I saw the same thing with Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, in that the OnePlus 7 Professional was utterly unplayable while the Galaxy S20 Ultra was higher, but still dangerous.
Conversely, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World performed very nicely on both techniques. In reality, I might be hard-pressed to say that the S20 Extremely was better since they seemed to play about the same.
The bottom line here is that Nintendo 3DS emulation is going to be better on the Galaxy S20 Extremely than any system with out that Snapdragon 865 processor, and perhaps even better than other phones with the identical chipset. Finally, though, it nonetheless gained’t be the right 3DS emulation machine.
Two remaining experiments with Nintendo 3DS emulation

It’s clear that Nintendo 3DS emulation is the place the two methods struggled probably the most. I made a decision to run two extra exams to see how the phones fared inside a unique testing state. The primary check was how each system would play The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds with maxed-out settings. The second check can be to see how every telephone performed Tremendous Mario 3D Land with settings tweaked to optimize efficiency.
The Zelda check would prove whether or not the Galaxy S20 Ultra might deal with upscaled Nintendo 3DS emulation better than the OnePlus 7 Pro on a recreation they both can run properly with out-of-the-box settings. The Mario check would see if it’s attainable to tweak sufficient settings to be able to make an unplayable recreation work on both telephone.
The Zelda check
I’ve already established that both the Galaxy S20 Extremely and the OnePlus 7 Professional can play The Legend of Zelda: A Hyperlink Between Worlds nicely enough. The Citra Android emulator, although, options a couple of settings tweaks that would make enjoying a higher-quality expertise. What happens once I crank that up?
To be particular, these are the settings modifications I made on each telephones:
- Turned the FMV Hack on.
- Turned the Skip Sluggish Draw setting on.
- Turned the Texture Load Hack on.
- Increased decision to the max setting (4x).
On the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, those settings triggered so many dropped frames and a lot slowdown that the sport turned utterly unplayable. The graphics seemed amazingly crisp, but that doesn’t imply something should you can’t play the game.
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I dropped the resolution right down to 3x and that made things a lot better, but the whole lot slowed to a crawl if there was too much happening within the recreation at one time (being around water was notably dangerous). Then I lowered it right down to 2x and things have been back to normal, and the game played like a dream.
On the OnePlus 7 Pro, I saw even worse outcomes with the resolution at 4x. It was horrible. Decreasing issues right down to 2x gave me playable outcomes, but being round water brought on a painful degree of slowdown. It was solely once I brought the resolution back right down to 1x did issues play nicely.
As soon as again, this proves that the Galaxy S20 Extremely can do better with Nintendo 3DS emulation than the OnePlus 7 Professional, but that a $1,400 telephone still can’t deal with things when pushed to the max.
The Mario check
Unfortunately, I found that Tremendous Mario 3D Land was unplayable with out-of-the-box settings on both the OnePlus 7 Professional and the Galaxy S20 Extremely. With some settings tweaks, though, might I make the Nintendo 3DS emulation carry out quicker and salvage the title?
For this check, I performed these settings tweaks:
- Turned the FMV Hack on.
- Turned the Skip Sluggish Draw setting on.
- Turned the Texture Load Hack on.
- Left the decision at simply 1x.
Fortunately, on the Galaxy S20 Extremely, these settings modifications made the sport playable. It still wasn’t nice as there have been loads of choppy graphics and audio glitches, and Mario’s actions would slow down considerably at sure points. But I used to be capable of a minimum of full the primary and second degree with out a lot frustration.
Sadly, on the third degree, things turned so sluggish that they have been unplayable again, doubtless resulting from how many shifting pictures and obstacles are current in that degree. Oh properly!
On the OnePlus 7 Pro, all these settings tweaks resulted in no change in any respect: the game was still utterly unplayable even on the levels I had comfortably accomplished on the S20 Extremely.
Ultimate verdict: We still have a ways to go

All of those exams I’ve performed show that for those who spend a ton of cash on your Android smartphone, you will get the most effective expertise potential with regards to system-taxing actions like Nintendo 3DS emulation. Nevertheless, even a $1,400 telephone with the easiest SoC can’t offer you a flawless expertise.
On the subject of GameCube emulation, though, you don’t have to spend those huge bucks. The OnePlus 7 Pro or probably many different telephones with the Snapdragon 855 (or particularly the Snapdragon 855 Plus with its boosted GPU) will play most video games very properly.
Also understand that emulating older methods (Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Super Nintendo, Sega CD, and so on.) works flawlessly on even older flagships or telephones with 700- or 600-series processors. In other phrases, you don’t need to purchase a top-tier flagship to be able to indulge most of your retro gaming wishes. You simply need one if you want to play probably the most trendy of consoles, and even then it’s nonetheless a combined bag.
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