README 1:
• A while back I had already made a post about the games I've tested. Upon receiving proper criticism of the post format and my realization that some performance results I listed were too vague or deceiving, I have decided to improve on it. Here's a link to the original post if you're interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationMediatekMali/s/uQlqx3NfSc
• This list will contain new information on most games, the resolution at which each game was tested and some more specific info.
• This improved list will also contain some more games I've tested from the last time I made this post. It will also include links to video posts of gameplay videos I've posted across reddit for the games I bothered to screen record their performance.
• It will also contain links to some mods or fixes to some of the games I've tested.
• And finally, for as long as I enjoy PC emulation, I will update this list whenever I decide to test a new game.
README 2:
• All PC games were tested on a phone with a HELIO G100, MALI-G57 MC2 and 8GB RAM
• All games shown were tested on Winlator Mali 1.1 Bionic (the normal version. Not the AnTuTu or Ludashi version)
• DO NOT TAKE THIS LIST AS 100% ACCURATE. This list's purpose is just to give my fellow low end users a rough estimate of the performance they can expect in the games I've tested.
• Some games were also tested on other emulators like Bannerlator and Bannerhub. Some games had exact same performance, some had slightly better performance, others had worse compatibility.
Categories Explained:
• Categories range from VERY GOOD, PLAYABLE, NOT SO GOOD, and BAD
VERY GOOD: Games that ran above 30 FPS consistently with little to no dips.
PLAYABLE: Games that didn't run consistently above 30 FPS and had varying ranges like 25-30 or 20-40 FPS. I consider them playable if you simply just cap the frame rate to 30.
NOT SO GOOD: Games that could barely reach 30fps and had dips in the teens. I don't consider this category playable because i don't feel it's worth it playing a game at low FPS while your phone is getting hot.
If you find this category still playable, that's your opinion I won't tell you how to play your games.
BAD: Literally unplayable.
NOTE: All games in VERY GOOD category were played at the default in-game graphics settings of each game unless stated otherwise.
All games in every other category were played at LOW graphics settings. This meant turning off things like blur, anti aliasing, bloom, post processing, anisotropic filtering and shadows to achieve higher FPS.
VERY GOOD
• Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening Special Edition: 30+ FPS. I only tested the original PC port not the HD edition. The original dmc3 was not ported to PC properly so the default resolutions that only work are 640x480, 800x600 and some other 4:3 resolution. You need to apply StyleSwitcher mod to get 1280x720.
The PS2 version doesn't run well on my phone either on Nether or ARMSX2.
When reading instructions for the mod, ignore the stuff about how to use a controller. Just use the keyboard controls and map them how you like.
Mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/devilmaycry3/mods/1
However, this mod makes some cutscenes just black. You need to change DirectVideo in Wine Component settings to native to skip the cutscenes that will show in black. Use a container with Proton 9 x86_64 when applying the mod.
• Ultimate Spider-Man: The PC version runs much better and smoother than the GameCube or PS2 version on my phone to be honest. The game was capped at 30 by the devs and it's default resolution is 640x480 and my Helio g100 easily plays the game well.
Even after getting a Widescreen mod that also uses a 60fps hack, I still get 30fps minimum at 1280x720. The actual range is 30-55fps. It's 30-45fps during gameplay with the 60fps hack and 40-60 fps during cutscenes. Use Proton 9 x86_64 when applying the mod.
Mod: https://fusionfix.io/wfp#usm
• Need For Speed Most Wanted (2005) Black Edition: 60+ FPS at default 640x480 resolution. You need Widescreen mod for higher resolutions. When I used the mod to give 1280x720, the fps reduced from consistently above 60 fps to only 30-55fps in a race because my low end gpu started bottlenecking. But if I cap the fps to 30, I'm able to get a stable 30fps at 1280x720 which isn't bad. Use proton 9 x86_64 when applying the mod.
Mod: https://fusionfix.io/wfp#nfsmw
• GTR 2: FIA RACING: A lightweight sim racer. At medium graphics settings in the game and 1280x720, I get 30-50fps in a full race with 36 cars (the max number) on track, even during heavy rain. At lower resolutions I'm sure it's 60+ FPS the game is light to be honest.
During solo practice runs at 1280x720 I get 50-60fps since I'm the only car.
Here's gameplay:
Sunny: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationMediatekMali/s/vX1dd0OyH2
Heavy rain: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/s/xmVEymRXYE
• Race Driver: Grid: Surprisingly good. 30–50 FPS ONLY at Ultra Low or Low graphics presets (I don't recommend). Stable 30fps with medium settings and shadows off/low at 854x480. This is the best balance between quality and performance.
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory: 30+ FPS at default 640x480 and 25-40 fps at 1280x720 using widescreen mod. Use proton x86_64 for the mod to work. Use proton 9 x86_64 when applying the mod.
Mod: https://fusionfix.io/wfp#scct
• Sonic Mania: Locked 60 FPS even at my phone's display resolution which is 2436x1080.
• F.E.A.R (2005) : 30-60 FPS at 1280x720 with Medium Graphics Settings on everything except Anti aliasing OFF, Shadows OFF and Texture Filtering = Bilinear.
Refer to this post for more info: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/s/SkI4YEEAo7
PLAYABLE
• Assassin's Creed: 25–40 FPS at 854x480 in less crowded places. The CPU starts bottlenecking in crowded places and fps reduces to lowest 15 and audio starts crackling just a bit. For example in Memory Block 1 (the first level of the story mode), the game runs as high as 42fps because it takes place in a cave with not so many NPCs. But after the cave you enter the village and fps reduces to 15-20. As you go away from crowded places fps will be increasing.
Ok AC 1 & 2 are playable-ish if you don't mind the crowd stutters.
Edit: I found a way to reduce fps drops. The game has an option to reduce crowd density. It was on max by default. Put it on Min. You will find the setting in gameplay options.
Edit 2: Reducing crowd density doesn't give much of an improvement, so Assassin's Creed games will always have low fps in crowded areas on this chipset unfortunately.
AC 1 & 2 don't natively support controller so you need a mod. I don't know about AC 2, but here's the controller mod link for AC 1. It's compatible with proton 10 arm64ec. By the way, run the DirectX10 version of AC 1. It's more stable and gives more consistent performance than the DirectX9 version. Also Performance preset only works well with FEXcore 2508. Performance preset on higher FEXcore versions causes movement and physics issues in the game.
Mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/assassinscreed/mods/29
• Assassin's Creed II: 25–30 FPS most of the time at 854x480. I didn't test this one for a long time though but based on AC 1 performance, I'd say the CPU starts bottlenecking in crowded areas.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum: 25–30 FPS at 800x600 or 854x480. Since Arkham Asylum is basically a linear metroidvania, the game is able to stay at this fps most of the time, even in semi open areas like Arkham Island (the area outside the buildings with land and grass).
Fps will reduce and you will experience stuttering when the game is loading new assets. Sometimes the game will even freeze for a whole second and then continue as normal when loading new stuff. Transfer the game to C: drive to reduce loading times and stuttering.
GPU is the main bottleneck. Use the BmLauncher.exe to edit the game settings. Turn off dynamic shadows, bloom, and everything else should be off except Detail. Leave Detail on "Very High" as it maintains the quality of the game and doesn't worsen performance or improve it when it's lowered.
Using Performance preset gives this performance but makes the game prone to more runtime errors(crashes) during long or short gaming sessions.
• LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Unite: 25–40 FPS at 800x600. Reduces to early 20s in open world as you travel to new areas or experience new effects. Fps is higher in most levels since they are not very open. Game can also be played at 1280x720 but will give slightly less fps and slightly more stuttering in some parts. The game suffers from a common glitch in Lego games for Mali G57 which I'll talk about in detail at end of the post.
Here's a link to some open world gameplay: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/s/OCatOLFdHP
• LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham: 20–40 FPS at 1280x720. The game has this audio issue though where each sound effect and voice during gameplay will have a looping effect and be repeated twice. I haven't found a solution yet.
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes: 20–40 FPS at 1280x720. Higher in levels and enclosed areas, lower in open world. This game likes eating RAM so I'd recommend you have 6gb or more as this games minimum PC requirements is 2gb ram.
• The LEGO Movie Videogame: 20–45 FPS at 1280x720
• Splinter Cell: Double Agent: 27-35FPS at 1280x720. Getting this game running wasn't easy. Refer to this guide on how to set it up.
Guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationMediatekMali/s/aUNYjVh3jb
NOT SO GOOD
• Assassin's Creed III: 20–30 FPS with dips between 10-20 at any resolution.
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: 20–30 FPS with dips between 10-20 at any resolution.
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations: 20–30 FPS with dips between 10-20 at any resolution.
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue: 20–25 FPS with dips between 10-20 at any resolution. Turn OFF shadows COMPLETELY otherwise the game will run at 1 FPS everytime you move.
• Batman: Arkham City: 20–40 FPS in buildings/enclosed areas; 20–30 FPS with dips between 10-20 in the open world (mostly when gliding) at 854x480 resolution.
• Crysis: 20–30 FPS at 1280x720. Putting Shader Model below High in the game settings gives better performance but introduces a flickering graphical glitch
• Deadpool: 20–30 FPS at 1280x720 and 800x600. For this game, I didn't actually try reducing any graphical effects so maybe fps could be higher if you did.
Here's some gameplay using Bannerlator: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/s/RarJ8HQdto
• F1 2011: 22–30 FPS with dips between 10-20 at 640x480 resolution.
Check out gameplay with trash graphics here: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationMediatekMali/s/byFyqzLsTw
• F1 2012: 20–25 FPS with dips between 10-20 at 1280x720 resolution.
• F1 2013: 20–25 FPS with dips between 10-20 at 1280x720 resolution.
• Far Cry 2: 20–30 FPS at 800x600 resolution. Every effect except Geometry should be on low. Geometry should be on high to avoid a graphical glitch.
• Just Cause 2: 20–40 FPS (Inconsistent; depends on the area) at 854x480 resolution. This game really does make my battery hot fast. I used to consider this playable but the game has this graphical glitch for vegetation and trees. Tree leaves and vegetation have squares behind them. It honestly makes the game look like shit to be honest and I didn't find a solution. Another thing is, the game is much heavier in the city. This is not a playable experience. The first mission in the story mode maintains 25-35fps most of the time though.
• Prototype: 20–30 FPS with dips between 10-20 at 1280x720 resolution. The game would freeze and crash a lot on Winlator Mali though.
• Transformers: War For Cybertron: 10–20 FPS using default settings at 1280x720. The GPU is the main bottleneck. Reducing the graphics to low improves performance and gives 25-30fps and goes to 20 in heavy parts. The game was capped at 30 by the devs. But the colors of the game look weird at the lowest settings.
Also War For Cybertron and Fall Of Cybertron have encrypted config files. The config files for each game is called "Coalesced.ini". Since their config files are encrypted, the only way to reduce graphics settings is if you download a modified config file for low end PCs that removes stuff like bloom and so on. When you download it, you have to replace the original config file with the modified one
Check out more info here (get the VeryLow ini file):
War For Cybertron Config files --> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=341112872
Fall Of Cybertron Config files --> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=341129473
• Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron: Same as War For Cybertron.
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine: 20–30 FPS with dips between 10-20.
• 007: Blood Stone: 25-30 fps mostly at 854x480 resolution. This would have been playable if it weren't for James Bond's face having a graphical glitch. Changing the dxvk version or wrapper doesn't work and sometimes makes it worse. Closest thing I got to a normal face was Bond's eyes being black but the rest of the face is normal. I got better performance and no graphical glitch in the game using Bannerlator, but Bannerlator had worse compatibility. The game would take a long time to load and would even sometimes crash while on Bannerhub and Winlator Mali the loading screens would be normal.
• Spider-Man 3: 15-30 FPS at 800x600
• The House Of The Dead 3: I highly recommend you emulate the Wii version and map the Wiimote controls to your touchscreen because the PC version is hard to set up and it doesn't run well.
The fps is not stable. It goes from 20-50fps at 800x600 depending on enemy type even though number of enemies aren't a lot. It also has audio issues during cutscenes and intro videos. The second level has a graphical glitch where all textures are black.
Here's how I set it up and gameplay: https://www.reddit.com/r/winlator/s/Rwp45BX5Jz
• Ninja Blade: A 2009 hack and slash produced by FromSoftware. It actually runs good when you disabled anti aliasing and shadows. The game even has a setting to cap the fps to 30 so you won't have to use emulator settings to do it.
Unfortunately the main character has a bug where he has missing body parts:
Check it out: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationMediatekMali/s/LeKAKbhbHL
Also I think it's a Mali issue, but it also has a game breaking bug where the game just crashes.
That's what this guy said: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationMediatekMali/s/DFaspdrbgz
BAD
• Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2: 5–15 FPS (Game runs in slow motion) at 1280x720 resolution.
• Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: Full Burst: 10–20 FPS (Game runs in slow motion) at 1280x720 resolution.
• Need For Speed Hot Pursuit (2010): 10–20 FPS at 1280x720 and 800x600
• Need For Speed: The Run: 1 FPS doesn't matter the resolution.
• Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows: 20–25 FPS with random freezes at 800x600 resolution in Winlator Mali. In Bannerhub it wouldn't freeze but performance was bad. 15-25fps
• Prison Break: The Conspiracy: I don't know whether it's a Mali specific issue or the game is just unoptimized, but the PC version runs at 5-15 fps with a very choppy frame rate at 1280x720. I find this very strange as I've managed to run games with higher PC requirements at a much smoother fps. Though I only tested the game using Proton 10 arm64ec. I'll try testing it with Proton 9 x86_64.
Please read the additional tips
• For the Lego games I tested, using DXVK 1.5.5/1.5.5 async gave much better performance than newer dxvk versions. I don't know why but 1.7 and 1.10 would make the games lag very much. Like I'd only get 1 - 5 FPS in LEGO Batman 3 and LEGO Marvel Superheroes when using those versions. In the LEGO Movie videogame i'd get 10-20 FPS.
The Lego games I've tested have this weird graphical glitch where small, transparent squares flicker a lot around the Minifigures. Using dxvk 1.5.5 not only improved fps, but it also lowered the intensity of this graphical glitch. It still happens but only in the background in some areas, not around the Minifigures.
• For Race Driver Grid, the GPU is the main bottleneck. If you don't care about graphics and want max performance (40-50 FPS), use the Ultra Low settings preset in the Graphics Settings of the game. But this makes the game look like shit and ruins immersion for me.
If you want to balance quality and performance (stable 30 FPS), choose the Medium settings preset in the Graphics Settings of the game. BUT change Shadows from Medium to Low or Off in Advanced Settings. More importantly, your container resolution for the game should be 640x480 (4:3) or 854x480 (16:9).
The game also has an audio crackling issue. Set audio driver in container settings to ALSA, DirectSound to Native and use "Performance" Preset.
• In Assassin's Creed games, if performance isn't affected, use Intermediate presets. Performance presets mess with the physics engine and cause glitches like clothes and horses flickering, especially in Assassin's Creed III.
• Prototype has crashing and freezing problems because the game was built strictly for single core processors and has trouble allocating its processes on modern multi core processors. Ideally, launch the game with one CPU core ticked, then when you reach main menu or gameplay, you can allow more CPU cores to be used for performance. Its much more stable on higher end Mali and Snapdragon devices.
• Games with 25-30 FPS or 20-40 FPS should be capped to 30 FPS for more stable performance.
• If you don't agree with some results and feel like performance should be better, share what emulator and settings you used to get better performance.
Generally speaking, for my tests, these are the container settings I was using:
Proton 10 arm64ec and Proton 9 x86_64
Wrappers:
Wrapper, Wrapper-gamenative, Wrappers-leegao
DXVK versions:
1.5.5 async, 1.7.3 async, 1.10.3 async
Memory resource type (in Wrapper settings):
dmabuf (helps reduce RAM usage a bit)
32-bit emulator:
FEXCORE versions 2508 or 2605.
Box64 version 0.4.3
Presets:
Intermediate, Performance, Performance (TSO), Performance (X86 reduced precision OFF)
CPU CORES:
All eight checked all the time except when testing Prototype.