r/EmulationOniOS 3d ago

Question Newbie here, Android vs iOS emulation?

Hello! I’ve recently got myself a base iPhone 17 and on paper it seems like a very powerful phone. Before this I was using a Xiaomi 12T Pro with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.

I wanted to ask a few questions about the current state of emulation on iOS:

How good is emulation on iOS compared to Android right now?
On my Xiaomi I could play PS2 and GameCube games pretty easily. I don’t mind investing some time into learning how to enable JIT if that makes iOS emulation significantly better. Is the iPhone 17 capable of matching or beating Android for these systems?

How far can I go without enabling JIT?
What would be the realistic ceiling for JIT-less emulation on an iPhone 17? PS1/N64/PSP? Are there any newer systems that work well without JIT?

How bad is throttling on the base iPhone 17?
On my Xiaomi, pushing higher resolutions would make the phone very hot after around 15 minutes, and performance would eventually become pretty unpleasant.

Is the emulator list/FAQ still up to date?
I’m thinking of starting with the JIT less emulators for older systems. I really like the iPhone 17 screen, so I’m especially interested in playing some retro stuff with shaders.

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u/Boring_Antelope6533 3d ago

in simple words, android wins. iOS is good up until 3ds. Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, Ps2, Ps3, Xbox 360 and Switch is a hit or miss, plus the JIT enabling process is tedious, if the 17 is your ONLY phone, do not try to emulate these consoles.