An Engadget explainer compares emulation quality for the GameCube and PlayStation 2, two consoles now a quarter of a century old, weighing up their respective flagship emulators, Dolphin and PCSX2. The comparison matters for retro gaming enthusiasts deciding which platform to revisit on modern PCs, and it highlights how hardware architecture from the early 2000s still shapes emulation performance today. Overall, Dolphin is judged to have a slight edge over PCSX2 owing to its lower hardware demands, even though both programs are considered highly capable.

As of 2023 data from OC3D, Dolphin can emulate around 97% of GameCube games while PCSX2 manages 99% of PS2 titles, and both emulators are free, open-source, and run on Windows, macOS and Linux (Dolphin also supports Android). Dolphin requires less powerful graphics hardware, such as an RTX 2060, for 4K/60fps play, whereas PCSX2 benefits from something closer to an RTX 3060. The GameCube's simpler IBM "Gekko" processor and ATI "Flipper" GPU make it easier to emulate than the PS2's complex, Toshiba co-developed "Emotion Engine" CPU, which was notoriously difficult even for original developers to program for. Dolphin's head start, having existed since 2003, has also given developers more time to refine it compared with PS2 emulation efforts.