The software backend in Dolphin is accuracy focused and entirely single core. The software backend in PCSX2 is multi-threaded and not accuracy focused; plus its hardware backends hardly support any features and run badly (most of their time is spent on software mode). So yea, PCSX2's software plugin is faster.
Dolphin is only as slow as it is because it has matured into very high accuracy, and that accuracy requires better hardware. For example, PCSX2 is roughly comparable to the maturity of Dolphin somewhere between it's 2.0 and 3.0 releases. Play Dolphin 2.0, and you'll see what I mean. It's REALLY fast. This is just the nature of emulation. Development could have just stopped at 2.0, instead they kept moving forward and making it more and more accurate, supporting more and more games and getting rid of glitches. Given time, PCSX2 will become more accuracy focused and slow down too.
Doesn't mean software couldn't be faster in Dolphin though.
But I can't imagine it becoming faster than hardware. PCSX2 relies on software so much because of how bizzare the PS2 is. If they could run things on hardware decently, they absolutely would ignore the software plugin and focus on hardware just as Dolphin has.
Dolphin is only as slow as it is because it has matured into very high accuracy, and that accuracy requires better hardware. For example, PCSX2 is roughly comparable to the maturity of Dolphin somewhere between it's 2.0 and 3.0 releases. Play Dolphin 2.0, and you'll see what I mean. It's REALLY fast. This is just the nature of emulation. Development could have just stopped at 2.0, instead they kept moving forward and making it more and more accurate, supporting more and more games and getting rid of glitches. Given time, PCSX2 will become more accuracy focused and slow down too.
Doesn't mean software couldn't be faster in Dolphin though.
But I can't imagine it becoming faster than hardware. PCSX2 relies on software so much because of how bizzare the PS2 is. If they could run things on hardware decently, they absolutely would ignore the software plugin and focus on hardware just as Dolphin has.
![[Image: RPvlSEt.png]](https://i.imgur.com/RPvlSEt.png)
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