If you are configuring the Yuzu emulator on Android, surely you went through the process of installing the keys and the “Install GPU Driver” option caught your attention. And it is that one of the great advantages of this emulator is that allows you to install custom drivers for your device’s graphics which can improve emulator compatibility and increase FPS in some games.
Now, if you don’t quite understand what this GPU drivers for Yuzu on Android is about, don’t worry because here we will explain everything you need to know. Next, you will learn what are GPU drivers, why are they important for Yuzu, where can you get them and how to install them on your android. Let’s go there!
What are GPU Drivers in Yuzu for Android and what are they for?
The “GPU Drivers” are drivers that allow you to optimize the performance of your Android’s graphics card and improve compatibility with yuzu emulator. As you well know, Yuzu is an emulator that allows you to play your favorite Nintendo Switch games on your mobile or tablet. However, for it to work properly, you need to have proper and up-to-date drivers.
At the moment, default drivers provide excellent performance, while custom drivers usually cause errors, since they are still in the experimental phase and there are not many developers working on them. However, it is expected that in the future the custom drivers will improve and allow you to further optimize the performance of Yuzu with your Android mobile.
Keep in mind that right now there are only GPU drivers for phones with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, since Yuzu is only compatible with these SoCs. Plus, most of the ones you’ll find are designed for improve performance on older generation Snapdragon chips ancient. So if you have a relatively new Android phone, don’t worry about these drivers because they probably won’t help you much.
How to know if you need to install or update the GPU Driver?
An easy way is to check if your Android device meets the minimum requirements to run Yuzu. These are:
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 or better.
- Graph: Adreno 600 or higher (preferably Adreno 700).
- RAM: 8GB (preferably 12 GB or more).
If your device meets these requirements, then you can install Yuzu from the Play Store and try some games. If you notice that the games look bad, hang or are very slowthen you may need to install or update the GPU Drivers.
Yuzu does not start the games due to incompatibility with drivers, what do I do?
Now, before showing you how to download and install the drivers for your Android graphics card, it is important that you know that these drivers will only help you if your mobile meets the requirements mentioned above. Specifically, you must meet the processor requirement to be able to install custom drivers. Don’t forget that, Even though you can download and install Yuzu on your Android, that doesn’t mean it’s compatible..
If Yuzu does not start the games on your Android due to incompatibility with the drivers, it is probably because your device uses a MediaTek, Unisoc, Exynos, Tensor or Kirin processor. In that case, there is nothing to do. Your smartphone graphics card is not compatible with Yuzu and there is no GPU driver to fix it. To know for sure what processor your mobile has, we recommend checking it with the CPU-Z app.
GPU Drive for Android Yuzu: where to download and how to install them
To install GPU drivers for your Android device that allow you to improve the performance of Yuzu, follow these steps:
- Check what exact model of processor your Android mobile or tablet has. It is important to know what drivers to download later. To do this, use the CPU-Z app (we leave you the download box at the end of this step by step.)
- Download the GPU drivers compatible with your Android. You can download them from this GitHub repository where it is specified which processors each of the available drivers are compatible with. You can also download them all in one pack with this link.
- Open Yuzu on your device and go to Settings > Install GPU Driver.
- Click on install to start the installation of the GPU drivers.
- Select the driver you want to install. You must have the drivers in a folder on your Android (it can be any, as long as it is not the download folder). And keep in mind that it is not necessary to unzip them, since the emulator processes them in ZIP format.
That’s all! It is likely that the first drivers you install will not work for you or will worsen performance. As the scene is right now, find the perfect GPU drivers for your device is a matter of trial and error. So try different ones until you find the ones that really give you an improvement in performance.
How to uninstall GPU drivers installed on Yuzu for Android?
If you don’t like the GPU drivers you’ve installed and want to revert to the default ones (the ones the emulator uses by default), do the following:
- On Yuzu, go to Settings and select Install GPU Driver.
- Press the option Default.
Ready! This way, the emulator will go back to how it was before, with the default drivers that your mobile offers.
Anyway, with these steps, you will be able to install the GPU drivers for Yuzu on your Android and enjoy your favorite Switch games on your smartphone or tablet. Remember that Yuzu is a project under development and may present errors or incompatibilities with some games or devices. If you have any problems with Yuzu, you can check its official website or Discord server for help or report bugs.
