pcsx2/README.md

PCSX2 is an open-source PlayStation 2 emulator. It's purpose is to mimic the the PS2 hardware, using a combination of MIPS CPU [Interpreters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpreter_\(computing\)), [Recompilers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_recompilation) and a [Virtual Machine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine) which manages hardware states and PS2 system memory.

# Project details

The PCSX2 project has been running for more than ten years. Once only able to run a few public domain demos, newer versions enable many games to work at full speed, including popular titles such as *Final Fantasy X* or *Devil May Cry 3*. Visit the *[PCSX2 homepage](http://pcsx2.net)* to check the latest compatibility status of games (with more than 2000 titles tested), or ask your doubts in the *[Official forums](http://forums.pcsx2.net/)*.

The latest officially released stable version is *1.4.0*.
Installers and binaries for both Windows and Linux are available from **[our website](http://pcsx2.net/)**.

Development builds are also available from **[our website](http://pcsx2.net/download/development/git.html)**.

# System requirements

## Minimum
* OS: Windows or GNU/Linux
* CPU: Any that supports SSE2 (Pentium 4 and up, Athlon64 and up)
* GPU: Any that supports Pixel Shader model 2.0, except Nvidia FX series (broken Shader Model 2.0, too slow anyway)
* 512MB RAM (Note: Vista and up needs at least 2GB to run reliably)

## Recommended
* OS: Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 (32-bit or 64-bit) with the [latest DirectX](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109) or GNU/Linux
* CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo  (or AMD equivalent) @ 3.2ghz or better
* GPU: Nvidia 8800GT (or AMD equivalent) or better (for Direct3D10/11 support)
* RAM: 1GB on Linux/Windows XP, 2GB or more on Vista and up

**Note**: Because of copyright issues, and the complexity of trying to work around it, you need a BIOS dump extracted from a legitimately-owned PlayStation 2 console to use the emulator.

**Note:** PCSX2 mainly takes advantage of 2 CPU cores. As of r4865 PCSX2 can now take advantage of a 3rd core using the MTVU speedhack. This can be a significant speedup on CPUs with 3+ cores, however on GS-limited games (or on dual-core CPUs) it may be a slowdown.

# Quality assurance

**Build** | **Status**
--------|--------
Linux   | [![Travis Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/PCSX2/pcsx2.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/PCSX2/pcsx2)
Windows  | [![AppVeyor Build Status](https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/b67odm0dd506co78/branch/master?svg=true)](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/gregory38/pcsx2/branch/master)
Coverity| [![Coverity Scan Build Status](https://scan.coverity.com/projects/6310/badge.svg)](https://scan.coverity.com/projects/6310)