I kept seeing a new PS5 game show up in KytyPS5 clips every few days, and at some point I lost track of which ones were real progress and which were a menu screen with good lighting.
The KytyPS5 PS5 emulator is a free, open source project for running PS5 games on a PC, and it has moved faster than most people expected.
So I spent a couple of evenings with the project page, the release notes, a third-party tracker and the press coverage. This is what runs, how well, what you need, and what is still shaky.
TL;DR: KytyPS5 has moved well past its early demos, with a third-party tracker listing 255 of 435 tested games as in-game on 10 November, though in-game is not the same as playable. GTA V shows the gap: the main project reaches in-game, while a separate GTA fork claims 60 to 120 FPS on one high-end PC. You need a Vulkan 1.3 GPU and a 64-bit x86 CPU, and Mac support is experimental. Worth following closely, not yet something to rely on.
What the KytyPS5 PS5 emulator actually is
KytyPS5 is a free, open source PS5 translation layer written in C++ for Windows, Linux and experimental macOS, according to its KytyPS5 GitHub page.
KytyPS5 grew out of Kyty, the PS4 and PS5 emulator developer InoriRus released in 2022, which could not yet put commercial PS5 games on screen.
I will be honest, the project’s own site was mostly a loading screen when I opened it. The compatibility list the README points to did not load for me, so I leaned on a third-party tracker, GitHub and press coverage.
How many games the KytyPS5 emulator runs now
As of its 10 November snapshot, the PS5 Emulation Tracker lists 255 of 435 tested games as in-game on KytyPS5, which is a long way from the handful of demos I expected to find.
Xenospectrum reported 264 tested and 133 in-game in early October, so the count moves fast and the live dashboard may already differ from what I checked on 11 November.
Xenospectrum also says in-game means controllable gameplay even if bugs stop you finishing the game, and I found no methodology note in the tracker text I could load, though its live view, which needs JavaScript, may explain how it gathers statuses.
SharpEmu’s playable label is stricter, meaning completable apart from minor issues, so its 47 of 105 tested games and KytyPS5’s in-game count are not a fair head to head.
Frame rates are older than the tracker
The frame rates people quote come from earlier builds, so they are snapshots, not current performance.
Hardware Busters reported XIII at roughly 20 to 30 FPS in late July, with some textures and lighting wrong, and the tracker lists XIII as in-game as of 15 September.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants ran near 22 to 24 FPS, crashing on first launch but working after a restart.
Hellboy: Web of Wyrd managed about 2 FPS and Paleo Pines about 1, so gameplay is not the same as playable.
Notebookcheck reported Quake II Remastered at about 7 FPS in mid July with visible graphical errors. A dash below means I found no figure.
| Game | Tracker status | Tracker test date | Press-reported speed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XIII | In-game | 15 September | 20 to 30 FPS (late July) | Textures and lighting render wrongly in places |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants | — | — | 22 to 24 FPS (late July) | Crashes on first launch, works after a restart |
| Hellboy: Web of Wyrd | — | — | About 2 FPS (late July) | — |
| Paleo Pines | — | — | About 1 FPS (late July) | — |
| Quake II Remastered | — | — | About 7 FPS (mid July) | Visible graphical errors |
| GTA V on the main project | In-game | 6 October | 40 to 60 FPS (September, build unconfirmed) | Opening mission, then a prologue crash |
| GTA V on the KytyPS5-GTA fork | — | — | 60 to 120 FPS, developer-reported | RTX 3090 and Ryzen 9 5900X, Performance mode |
| Demon’s Souls | In-game | 5 November | 1 to 2 FPS or 10 to 18 FPS | Depends on the report and build |
| Astro Bot | In-game | 28 October | — | — |
| Stray | In-game | 18 September | About 8 FPS | Crashes within seconds |
Demon’s Souls and Astro Bot, with conflicting numbers
First-party PS5 games are in the mix too, and the numbers depend on which build you read about.
The tracker lists Demon’s Souls as in-game, tested on 5 November, and Astro Bot as in-game, tested on 28 October.
DSOGaming reported Demon’s Souls doubling from 1 FPS to 2 FPS after a release and called it far from playable, while Digital Citizen reported 10 to 18 FPS.
I could not tie either figure to a specific build, so I read them as direction, not as measurements.
One test Notebookcheck covered, by Unreal Gaming, used a Ryzen 7 9800X3D with an RTX 4080, which says a lot about the kind of PC these clips come from.
GTA V now has two stories: the main project and a fork
GTA V on KytyPS5 now means two different builds, and they should not be mixed up.
The tracker lists GTA V as in-game on the main project, tested on 6 October, with no verified frame rate.
A separate fork, KytyPS5-GTA from the GitHub account TheCruZ, has a README where the developer describes GTA V as fully playable in Performance mode.
The fork reports 60 to 120 FPS in the city on an RTX 3090 with a Ryzen 9 5900X, and 20 to 30 FPS in Fidelity mode with experimental ray tracing. Those figures come from one setup and are developer-reported, not independent benchmarks.
The fork runs other games too
The KytyPS5-GTA fork is mainly about GTA V, but its README says it runs other PS5 games as well.
The developer lists Red Dead Redemption as playable at 60 to 80 FPS, Astro Bot as playable at 25 to 60 FPS and Demon’s Souls as in-game at 20 to 35 FPS, all developer-reported.
Where the September GTA V footage fits
The September footage is harder to place, because nobody agrees which build produced it.
BrutalSam shared GTA V at roughly 40 to 60 FPS on X, and Hardware Busters said the opening mission plays for a few minutes before a prologue crash, on a Ryzen 7 9950X3D with a Radeon RX 7900 XT, per Tom’s Hardware.
Digital Citizen called it a fork and Android Authority could not tell if the build was stock or modified, so I would not file it under official performance.
The fork’s README says 18 of its fixes are now in the main project, so the builds overlap more than the labels suggest.
I had to remind myself that running at 60 FPS and being playable are separate claims.
Hardware caveats that apply to every demo
Most KytyPS5 testing has been on Nvidia hardware, which limits how far any single clip can be trusted.
Notebookcheck noted that testing has mostly been on Nvidia GPUs, with AMD and Intel possibly less stable, and Hardware Busters said Radeon and Arc users report extra glitches.
The README says development is focused on expanding game compatibility and improving boot reliability, which makes sense even if it makes for dull headlines.
KytyPS5 vs SharpEmu
SharpEmu is the other active PS5 project, and it attacks the problem from a lower level than KytyPS5.
In late July, Hardware Busters described it as a C# project working on the Vulkan backend, including image layout transitions and texture handling.
Xenospectrum‘s early October list had SharpEmu at 10 playable and 10 in-game out of 61 tested, and the tracker’s 10 November snapshot shows 47 of 105 playable.
DSOGaming used to rate SharpEmu as the best PS5 emulator and now thinks KytyPS5 has passed it, though that is one writer’s opinion.
I would not pick a winner yet, since the two projects label their results differently and solve different parts of the same problem.
What your PC needs for KytyPS5
KytyPS5 needs a 64-bit x86 processor and a GPU that supports Vulkan 1.3 with current drivers.
The README lists Windows 10 version 1803 or later, a current Linux distribution, or macOS on Apple Silicon, and Windows and Linux get the most testing.
I checked what Vulkan version my own GPU driver reported before reading anything else, because that is the one requirement that can quietly rule out an older card.
The hardware behind the clips
The demos so far ran on top-end hardware, including the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and 9950X3D mentioned above.
I did not find a CPU speed or RAM minimum in the README.
A Stray test on a Ryzen 9 8945HS reached about 8 FPS in the starting area and crashed within seconds, per DSOGaming, and the tracker lists Stray as in-game as of 18 September.
As a general observation about console emulation, not a measured KytyPS5 requirement, heavy CPU demand is common, and DigitBin’s PS3 emulators guide covers an older example.
KytyPS5 on Mac and Linux
Mac support exists but is labeled experimental, and it works by stacking translation layers.
According to the README, KytyPS5 runs the x86-64 PS5 code under Rosetta 2 and draws through MoltenVK, which means an Apple Silicon Mac, and a small number of titles have been verified there.
Two translation layers under an emulator is a lot to ask, so I would not expect the Windows numbers above to carry over.
I did not find published Mac frame rates for any game, and DigitBin’s Mac console emulators list is a better place to start if you just want something that runs.
The legal side, as the project describes it
KytyPS5 does not ship games or Sony’s system software, and the README says so directly.
The project also states it is not affiliated with Sony Interactive Entertainment or PlayStation, and that you should only use game files you obtained legally.
Hardware Busters notes that running these games means owning the console and dumping the disc yourself, though whether that is legal depends on where you live.
The code is licensed GPL-2.0-only, with the original Kyty’s MIT notice kept in the repo.
I am not covering how dumping works here, and since laws differ by country, check yours first because this is not legal advice.
Why KytyPS5 version numbers are a mess
KytyPS5 does not use traditional version numbers, which is why articles quote different ones.
Notebookcheck cited 0.0.3 and DSOGaming cited 0.3.0, while the GitHub release tags are a date plus a short commit hash, like KytyPS5-2026-10-24-906d255.
Builds can land several times a day, as the 22 to 24 October list on the releases page shows, and reports point to a 10 November build, KytyPS5-2026-11-10-782a85c, though the copy of the page I could load still showed 24 October.
Release notes are often one line, like a 22 October entry that only says an empty USB device list is returned for Gran Turismo 7.
The fork’s README says it last synced with the main project on 8 November, so development has continued past those October builds.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many games work on KytyPS5?
A third-party tracker lists 255 of 435 tested games as in-game on KytyPS5 in its 10 November snapshot. In-game means reaching controllable gameplay, not a finished experience.
Can KytyPS5 run GTA V?
Partly. The tracker lists GTA V as in-game on the main project, and the developer of a separate KytyPS5-GTA fork describes it as fully playable in Performance mode.
What GPU does KytyPS5 need?
KytyPS5 needs a GPU that supports Vulkan 1.3 with current drivers, plus a 64-bit x86 processor.
Does KytyPS5 work on Mac?
Experimentally. KytyPS5 needs an Apple Silicon Mac and runs x86-64 code under Rosetta 2 with MoltenVK.
Does KytyPS5 include games?
No. The KytyPS5 project says it does not distribute games or copyrighted system software.
Who should actually bother with KytyPS5 right now
If you want a dependable way to play PS5 games on your PC this month, KytyPS5 is not that yet.
Hundreds of games reaching in-game is real progress, but in-game covers everything from a steady session to a slideshow that crashes in the first minute.
If you like watching an emulator grow up in public, the releases page and the tracker are worth bookmarking.
I have started checking both every few days, mostly to see which games keep showing up.
The games that stay on the list matter more to me than the ones that make a good thumbnail.
