The Best RetroArch Cores 2022 | Desktop & Performance Options for Raspberry Pi, etc.

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RetroArch can be overwhelming to newbies. When you open it up there are no pre-installed cores (on PC), so you will need to go to the online updater and select them yourself. So, here's my list of cores:

Arcade: FinalBurn Neo
Atari 2600: Stella
Atari 5200: Atari800
Atari 7800: ProSystem
Atari Jaguar: Virtual Jaguar
Atari Lynx: Beetle Lynx
Atari ST, STE, TT, Falcon: Hatari
Commodore Amiga: PUAE
Commodore C128: Vice x128
Commodore C64: Vice X16 accurate
Doom: PrBoom (but zDoom and GZDoom are better)
DOS: DOSBox-Pure
Microsoft MSX: fMSX
NEC PC Engine/TurboGrafx/CD: Beetle PCE Fast
NEC SuperCrafx: Beetle SuperGrafx
NEC PC-98: Neko Project II Kai
Nindendo 3DS: Citra (not Citra 2018 unless needed)
Nintendo DS: DeSmuMe has more resolutions, melonDS is faster & has many options as well.
Nintendo Game Boy, GBC, GBA: mGBA
Nintendo NES/Famicom: Mesen
Nintendo SNES: SNES9X or BSNES HD for widescreen hacks
Nintendo 64: ParaLLEI for accuracy, Mupen64Plus-Next for speed (it's really good too)
Nintendo GameCube/Wii: Dolphin
ScummVM for old click adventure games (Lucas Arts, Sierra, etc.)
Sega Master System, Mega Drive, Genesis, 32X, Sega CD, etc.: Genesis Plus GX OR PicoDrive for some 32x or SegaCD games that don't play nice with Genesis Plus GX
Sega SG-1000: Gearsystem
Sega Saturn: beetle Saturn
Sega Dreamcast: Flycast OR Reicast (which is not part of RetroArch)
Sharp X68000: PX68k
SNK Neo Geo CD: NeoCD
Sony PlayStation: Beetle PSX for accuracy, PCSX ReARMed for speed)
Sony PlayStation 2: PCSX2
PlayStation Portable: PPSSPP
Panasonic 3D0: Opera

Enjoy!
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[jack]

Dude the last video you made about companies pushing out products all the time to make profit and how there is really no need for it because the jump in performance is almost always minimal, made me realize that i was fooled into "consuming all the time".Was going to upgrade my computer which has a 5700xt to the latest 6700xt or something similiar (the performance difference is really really not that much in terms of me being able to tell the difference during gaming) but now i simply just enjoy my hardware for it's core purpose which is gaming, which is having fun. I always cared about the performance of the hardware instead of using the hardware i got to have fun.Thank you for making that point, it really helped me widen my horizon about this.

[samogx]

I just discovered RetroArch a few days ago, but i'm in love, is so wonderful. A little confusing to configure but is worth the effort.

[dreammfyre]

Retroarch is amazing! Best thing that happened to emulation in a very long time IMO. Having one setup that works for all systems is such a massive QOL.

My two biggest tips for newcomers:

1. Use an interpolation filter like pixelate or sharp-blinear. Makes everything scale even great on an LCD. Also works on “high res” stuff like SVGA DOS games. (Alternative is to use a CRT filter, but I like my pixels raw.)

2. Use 1 frame of run-ahead whenever possible. That with all the other input lag stuff(like using Vulkan with swapchain set to 1 or hard sync with GL) makes such a massive difference. Aaaalmost like playing on the really thing.

[MetalJody]

DuckStation for PS1 gets my vote. It offers HD res, various enhancements to textures & geometry, and CPU overclocking. For a PC like mine, DuckStation is a godsend. It's the only core that lets me have my cake and eat it too. Beetle PSX is great too if accuracy is more your thing. I personally couldn't give a rat's dookie about accurate PS1 emulation. The enhancements and speed have spoiled me, lol. Anyway, SUPER INFORMATIVE VIDEO LOGAN GOOD JAAAHB (said in a death metal voice)

[akemimcflyclips]

I wish this video was arround some years ago when I got into Retroarch and I had no idea how to use it, now I even have it on my ps2, nice vid dude

[artursjoblom]

Is neo geo emulation on the rasberry pi 4 running well? I know 2, 3ghz cpu and close to 1ghz gpu is possible with mounted cooling.

Runahead for low input lag and no slowdown with that solution would be a dream for me 😀👌

[sleepyopossum]

Thanks, Logan! these videos have really helped me with properly using RetroArch.

Also, love the album!

[Megalocade]

I must admit i used retroarch a few years ago on a cfw ps3 and thought it was the biggest load of crap going, some of the emulators or cores i like were dodgy or just didn't run and put me off it, fast-forward to now i have a custom built new gaming pc and wanted it so I could have all the consoles i liked on one system and thought i would give RA another go and glad i did the pc verison is slick and all the system cores i wanted all work a treat now, i love it, the 2 systems i wanted emulated the most was the saturn and 3do and both Beetle saturn and Opera 3do run spectacularly well and with the right shaders you can mimic the real hardware, the rewind feature is a god send yiu don't know how many times its saved mu ass lol.
I use the cores Megadrive, Snes, Saturn, 3do, Master System, Game Boy, Lynx, NeoGeo AES and Neo Geo CD

[sukmydikgoogle]

For some odd reason till this day i haven't been able to play neo geo let alone the cd whatsoever.😢

[JuanJacinto]

I have a Macbook Pro M1pro 32GB and Super Nintendo doesn't run well. The craziest thing is, I also have a 2005 Powerbook G4 with a very old SNES9x emulator installed and works extremely smooth. I think those old PowerPC laptops were able to switch resolution according to the app. So it feels like playing a real super Nintendo.

[dreammfyre]

The ParaLLEl core is actually obsolete now as I understand it. The same ParraLLEl stuff is available in Mupen64.

EDIT: Duckstation is the best PS1 core IMO. It used to be abandoned but now they’re back working on the core again. I usually set it to 2x resolution with the internal run ahead on. Geometry enhancement on a game to game basis. Some just breaks or starts to flicker with it on.

[bahamutxero]

Awesome video! I'm glad I found your channel.

I saw some comments below about the Duckstation core. I've been using the Duckstation emulator to play Persona 2 Eternal Punshment and speeding it up to120% in its options and liking it a lot. I just recently discovered Retro Arch and I got the game up and running on Retroarch using the PSX Beetle core. It works and all, but I don't see an option to speed the game up a bit like it does on Duckstation. I found the Frame Throttle option, but I only see 1x and 2x options and anything above that is too fast for my liking. My question is if I use the Duckstation core will there be an option to speed it up somewhere in the 120-150% range? I'm kind of torn because I love the speed I can get it on Duckstation, but it looks better on Retroarch with all the shaders. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

[LeRoi]

I use gambatte for Game Boy (not Color) because it gives you great palette settings and Same Boy for Color.
For Snes I use bsnes (default), couldn't find infos what is the difference to the other bsnes cores.

[benten]

Is your FinalBurn Neo using a custom scanlines shader or a default made one as I really like that one.

[solocamo]

There still isn't a good Xbox emulator is there? Thanks for the video. Need to use this, but also need to find a place to get the actual games. Lost tons of mine and places I've used in the past don't exist anymore.

[rollbustah]

I really wish the Mesen-S core for SNES wasn't abandoned, it's the perfect middleground between Snes9x's speed and bsnes's accuracy.

[alexc]

Actually, ParaLLEl core by now is kept as a legacy core for those with not as strong hardware, support for old romhacks and such since it has a fair number of old deprecated N64 plugins. Their Muppen core is the one that's being kept up to date and has the three important modern plugins for use to make it as close to accurate or as performance focused as possible. Still, good to have both if a game doesn't work in one core but does on the other (happened to me recently with Mario Kart 64 where I had texture problems in Muppen, but had none of those issues when I put it on ParaLLEl).

Also, Duckstation is a great emulator and the libretto core could also be pretty good, but I personally do my PS1 emulation on the standalone DS emulator.

[Someorangething]

Shortcuts

(Interfaces) 2:29

Arcade 4:24

Atari 5:12

Retro Computer 5:34

Doom 5:53

DosBox 6:07

MSX 8:25

PC Engine/SuperGrafx 8:28

Nintendo 3DS & DS 10:55 / 11:14

Nintendo Gameboy 11:21

Nintendo Gamecube 11:42

Nintendo NES 11:47

Nintendo 64 12:07

Nintendo SNES 12:56

?Quake? 14:44

Scuum VM (lucasarts games) 14:53

Sega Dreamcast 15:02

Sega Genesis & CD 32X 15:40

Sega Saturn 16:37

SNK Neo Geo 17:01

Sony Playstation 17:38

[Guruc]

This is so nice! Thank you so much for the helpful information!

[dmm]

thanks Tek - so what is the best option for retroarch on a raspberry pi (whichever one) so that it will play cross platform against another windows user - do we install a linux distro and then RA on top of it on the pi or is there another Pi solution - what im really getting at here i want feedback from any of you folks who may have got RA with a genesis/megadrive core on the Pi working against another windows user with a genesis/ megadrive core running netplay REMOTELY between the windows install and the raspberry pi install - have any of you ever succeeded ?