You must dump your own PS3 games using a compatible Blu-ray drive or a hacked PS3. Downloading pre-compressed ROMs is legally gray at best. For this guide, we assume you have a legal decrypted dump.
There is a distinction between Repacking and Highly Compressing.
Obtain games as:
No, not like PCSX2βs .gz or CEMUβs .wua. RPCS3 can:
Before discussing compression, you must understand how RPCS3 reads games natively. rpcs3 highly compressed games work
RPCS3 supports two primary formats:
The problem: Folder formats have massive overhead due to thousands of tiny files. ISO files have filler space. Without compression, a 25GB game takes up exactly 25GB on your SSD. You must dump your own PS3 games using
Enter compression. Highly compressed games aim to shrink that 25GB down to 8GBβ12GB using modern algorithms.
Letβs look at real data for popular RPCS3 titles. Tests performed on a Ryzen 7 5800X, 32GB RAM, Samsung 980 Pro SSD using 7-Zip Ultra LZMA2. The problem: Folder formats have massive overhead due
| Game | Raw Size | 7z Compressed Size | Ratio | Extract Time | Playable? | |------|----------|--------------------|-------|--------------|------------| | Persona 5 (US) | 20.3 GB | 13.1 GB | 35% | 2m 11s | β Perfect | | Demonβs Souls | 8.7 GB | 5.9 GB | 32% | 1m 04s | β Perfect | | The Last of Us | 33.8 GB | 24.2 GB | 28% | 3m 45s | β Playable (needs patches) | | God of War III | 34.2 GB | 27.5 GB | 19% | 3m 22s | β Perfect | | Red Dead Redemption | 18.1 GB | 13.4 GB | 26% | 2m 30s | β Playable | | Gran Turismo 5 (repack) | 31 GB (raw) | 9.4 GB | 70% | 1m 50s | β οΈ Missing menu music |
Key takeaway: Repacked GT5 saved massive space but broke immersion features. Lossless is always safer.