Best RetroArch Cores

October 27, 2025 at 8:24 AM

Official Post

What core should be best used for what platform in Retroarch.

Platform	Core
3DO	4DO
Atari 2600	Stella
Atari 5200	Standalone kat 5200 (don't use RA)
Atari 7800	Prosystem
Atari Jaguar	VirtualJaguar
Atari Lynx	Handy
Dreamcast	Demul Standalone
Game Boy	Gambatte
Game Boy Advance	mGBA
Game Boy Color	Gambatte
Game Gear	Genesis Plus GX
GCE Vectrex	Vectrex
NeoGeo AES	MAME
NeoGeo CD	MESS
NeoGeo Pocket	Metnaphen NGP
Nintendo (NES)	Nestopia
Nintendo (NES)	Nestopia / FCEUmme
Nintendo 64	Mupen64, Dolphin, standalone for some games, PJ64 standalone for others
Nintendo DS	Desume
Nintendo Game Cube	Dolphin standalone
PC Engine	Metnaphen PCE Fast
Playstation	beetle PSX hardware, with the software render (vulkan, still experimental)
PlayStation	PCSX-ReARMed
Playstation 2	PCSX2 standalone
PlayStation Portable (PSP)	PPSSPP standalone
Sega 32	Pico
Sega CD	Gens
Sega Genesis	Genesis Plus GX
Sega GG	Gens
Sega MD	Gens
Sega MS	Gens
Sega Saturn	Yabause
Sega Saturn	Mednafen (standalone still recommended)
Sega SG1000	Gens
Super Nintendo (SNES)	Snes9x
Super Nintendo (SNES)	BSNES
Turbo CD	Metnaphen PCE Fast
TurboGrafx 16	Metnaphen PCE Fast
Virtual Boy	Mednafen VB
Wonderswan/Color	Metnaphen wonderswan

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