Original Xbox · Load: medium · active

xemu: what PC you need to emulate Original Xbox

xemu is a Original Xbox emulator (2020); FPSHQ load rating: medium (52/100). 1,612 of 1,965 catalogue GPUs (82%) pass the GPU minimum (score 1,300), and 345 of 456 CPUs pass the CPU minimum (score 2,600). The most affordable suitable GPU is Zotac Trinity GeForce GTX 980.

Key figures

Unique FPSHQ metrics from this page's data

1,300
min GPU score
RTX 3060 = 2,900
2,600
min CPU score
82%
of catalogue GPUs pass the minimum
1,612 / 1,965
76%
of CPUs pass the minimum
345 / 456
4 / 8GB
RAM: minimum / recommended
2020
first release year

Can my PC run this emulator?

Which GPUs run xemu: headroom over the minimum

GPU score ÷ the emulator's minimum score. ×1 — minimum, ×1.4 — comfortable at native resolution, ×2.2 — you can render at 2–3× resolution. Popular catalogue GPUs.

Official xemu requirements

CPUx86-64, AVX2 · 2+ cores / 4 recommended
GPUOpenGL 4.0: GTX 400+ / HD 5000+ · 1 GB VRAM or more
RAMminimum 4 GB, recommended 8 GB
Graphics APIOpenGL 4.0 (Vulkan experimental)
OSWindows, Linux, macOS
LicenseGPL-2.0
PlatformOriginal Xbox (2001)
Statusactive
Official sitexemu.app

Requirements come from the project's official documentation (check date below). FPSHQ scores are our synthetic performance scale used to match against the catalogue.

Suitable GPUs by tier

CPUs: headroom over the xemu minimum

CPUs that pass the xemu minimum

In short

Which GPU do I need for xemu?

The minimum GPU score for xemu is 1,300 (FPSHQ scale). The most affordable suitable card is Zotac Trinity GeForce GTX 980; rendering at 2–3× resolution needs ×2.2 headroom — the MSI Ventus 2X GeForce RTX 3060 level and up. The project officially requires: OpenGL 4.0: GTX 400+ / HD 5000+ · 1 GB VRAM or more.

min GPU score
1,300
min CPU score
2,600
of catalogue GPUs pass the minimum
82%
RAM
4–8 GB
updated · source: official xemu documentation, FPSHQ model estimate

Frequently asked questions

Which GPU do I need for xemu?
The minimum GPU score for xemu is 1,300 (FPSHQ scale). The most affordable suitable card is Zotac Trinity GeForce GTX 980; rendering at 2–3× resolution needs ×2.2 headroom — the MSI Ventus 2X GeForce RTX 3060 level and up. The project officially requires: OpenGL 4.0: GTX 400+ / HD 5000+ · 1 GB VRAM or more.
Which CPU do I need for xemu?
The minimum CPU score is 2,600: 345 of 456 catalogue CPUs pass it. Official requirements: x86-64, AVX2 · 2+ cores / 4 recommended. Emulation depends on per-core performance rather than the core count.
How much RAM does xemu need?
Per the xemu documentation: minimum 4 GB, recommended 8 GB. The emulator keeps the game image and shader cache in memory, so a RAM shortage causes stutter during shader compilation.
Which operating systems does xemu support?
xemu runs on: Windows, Linux, macOS. Graphics APIs: OpenGL 4.0 (Vulkan experimental). On Windows, Vulkan is usually faster (if your GPU supports it); on Linux it is Vulkan/OpenGL only.
Can my PC run xemu?
Pick your GPU and CPU in the "Can my PC run it" block above: the page compares their scores with the xemu minimum (GPU 1,300, CPU 2,600) and shows the headroom. ×1.4 or more means comfortable play at the console's native resolution.
Is xemu still updated?
Yes, xemu is an active project; status last checked Oct 4, 2026. Official site: https://xemu.app/.

Methodology and sources

This page uses the FPSHQ database: the GPU and CPU catalogue with synthetic benchmark scores, official game system requirements, FPS measurements from users of the FPSHQ app and the FPSHQ performance model. Calculated values are estimates, not a measurement of your exact configuration: the real result depends on drivers, settings and the rest of the hardware. More about the methodology →

FPSHQ Team · Data updated

All pages with xemu

All graphics cards for this emulator (40)