RPCS3
RPCS3 Freeze Upon Game Boot on Latest MacBook Pro M4 Pro
Quick summary
I'm a new user of RPCS3. Therefore assigning this as a bug, might be a regression on this particular setup (if someone else observed this without reporting). I believe the issue at hand is either the same or at least related to issue #17597
Problem: I cannot play any game.
Setup: Running on a MacBook Pro M4 Pro (ARM64 "Apple Sillicon") with the as-of-now (29.10.2025) latest MacOS Tahoe 26.0.1. Running also the as-of-now latest build of RPCS3 0.0.38-18273-3f797b2d Alpha master.
What was tested: Tested both BCES00510 (God of War III) and BCES00757 (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves). Tested various different settings (default, recommended settings by RPCS3 Wiki, Reddit suggestions and own). Tested different versions of RPCS3, everytime as a clean install.
Observed behavior: All resulted in the same observed behavior: upon pre-compilation both games will start up and then freeze within a matter of seconds (up to that point they run flawlessly with 60 FPS for GoW3 and 30 FPS for U2). After closing the game window or stopping the emulation, rebooting is then not possible and RPCS3 needs to be force quit.
Additional details: For example: starting a clean base 1.00 of GoW3 with default settings will lead to a freeze within seconds and then stopping the emulation via the "Stop" button prints following log:
E SYS: The game did not react to the exit request in time. Terminating manually... (read_sysutil_signal=0, elapsed_ms=1000)
E SIG: Thread [cellAudio Thread] is too sleepy. Waiting for it 21340.750us already!
E SIG: Thread [SPU[0x0000100] BigCellSpursKernel0] is too sleepy. Waiting for it 21346.292us already!
Subsequently right-click "Reboot" does nothing. Also "Quit RPCS3" does not work. A force quit is required.
Interesting log: The following log messages seem interesting to me (as someone who is not familiar with the given code base of RPCS3), therefore, putting it here for someone who knows their ways around RPCS3 to maybe get a hint on the cause of this mess of an issue for this chipset. These messages appear at different places within the rather large log file filled with all the "New SPU block compiled ..." messages:
S PPU: LLVM: Loaded module v7-kusa-ov3VAnpAdmjaAisY7Qi1uH-00001G-apple-m3.obj
E RSX: Your GPU driver does not support some required MSAA features. MSAA will be disabled.
E RSX: Your GPU does not support double precision floats in shaders. Graphics may not render correctly.
E RSX: Your GPU does not support depth bounds testing. Graphics may not render correctly.
E RSX: Your GPU does not support wide lines. Graphics may not render correctly.
E RSX: Your GPU does not support framebuffer logical operations. Graphics may not render correctly.
E RSX: Apple GPUs are incompatible with the current implementation of asynchronous texture decoding.
E SYS: '_sys_prx_get_module_id_by_name' failed with 0x8001112e : CELL_PRX_ERROR_UNKNOWN_MODULE [1]
E SPU: [__spu-0x04628-p27bhjGTmmZkE0Au9ywbAQg3yn17] [0x04730] No jump table targets at 0x04730 (4)
U SPU TODO: [__spu-0x06320-nVvTsgdX0zV5jLUbrLSpsWdSS1vU:0x065b4] Unmatched spu_re(b) found in FMA
E SYS: '_sys_prx_get_module_id_by_name' failed with 0x8001112e : CELL_PRX_ERROR_UNKNOWN_MODULE [1]
E SYS: '_sys_prx_get_module_id_by_name' failed with 0x8001112e : CELL_PRX_ERROR_UNKNOWN_MODULE [2]
E SYS: 'cellSaveDataAutoLoad2' failed with 0x8002b401 : CELL_SAVEDATA_ERROR_CBRESULT [1]
E sys_fs: 'sys_fs_opendir' failed with 0x80010006 : CELL_ENOENT, “/dev_bdvd/PS3_GAME/USRDIR/DLC” [1]
Gut feeling: Hope someone can fix this, as it feels like some "minor" issue regarding the correct internal processing/recognition simply regarding this newest MacBook chipset, since we know these games work and even work well on Apple Sillicon.
RPCS loads up with following:
SYS: RPCS3 v0.0.38-18273-3f797b2d Alpha | master
SYS: Apple M4 Pro (8P+4E) | 12 Threads | 24.00 GiB RAM | TSC: 0.024GHz | FMA3
SYS: Operating system: macOS, Version: 26.0.1
SYS: Current Time: 2025-10-29T09:00:27
RSX: Found Vulkan-compatible GPU: 'Apple M4 Pro' running on driver 0.2.60
SYS: LLVM version: 19.1.7
SYS: Firmware version: 4.92
Details
No response
Attach a log file
Attach capture files for visual issues
No response
System configuration
No response
Other details
No response
Following the resolution to #17630 I've updated RPCS3 to this latest version, yet the issue remains.
The games still don't run at all (just for brief moments before freezing).
The before mentioned obj names did change from M3 to M4 now though.
S PPU: LLVM: Loaded module v7-kusa-ov3VAnpAdmjaAisY7Qi1uH-00001G-apple-m4.obj
instead of S PPU: LLVM: Loaded module v7-kusa-ov3VAnpAdmjaAisY7Qi1uH-00001G-apple-m3.obj
Can confirm the earlier statements, neither of my games starting up with 18280 master build. (RPCS3 crashes to desktop every time right after PPU compiling finishes) To me the last build which is working is 18115. I am on an M2 Pro, with OS 26.0.1.
- https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3/issues/17530#issuecomment-3464383148
OK so maybe something is weird about my system. This latest version crashes for me on macOS 14.8.1 M2. However, it's always been crashing for me.
I used a really old 400 day old build of RPCS3 before that worked fine. I haven't played in quite a while. I did some bisecting to find the build that still worked fine:
This one works: 182 days ago (2025-04-29) 0.0.36-17857
This one crashes: 182 days ago (2025-04-30) 0.0.36-17862
18115 also crashes for me.
Uh, do you think a newer PS3 firmware would make any difference?
Can confirm the earlier statements, neither of my games starting up with 18280 master build. (RPCS3 crashes to desktop every time right after PPU compiling finishes) To me the last build which is working is 18115. I am on an M2 Pro, with OS 26.0.1.
Can you try deleting all your caches? Then run File->Firmware->Create Firmware Cache. (It will probably crash at the end, but just ignore that). There are some threading issues with compiling the SPU caches that causes freezes, but once they are compiled it should be able to run games. If a game freezes, force-quit and boot it again. It should get further.
OK so maybe something is weird about my system. This latest version crashes for me on macOS 14.8.1 M2. However, it's always been crashing for me.
I used a really old 400 day old build of RPCS3 before that worked fine. I haven't played in quite a while. I did some bisecting to find the build that still worked fine:
This one works: 182 days ago (2025-04-29) 0.0.36-17857
This one crashes: 182 days ago (2025-04-30) 0.0.36-17862
18115 also crashes for me.
Uh, do you think a newer PS3 firmware would make any difference?
You should be on firmware 4.92, but that is likely not the issue. As I mentioned above, there is a threading issue when compiling the SPU cache which needs to be looked at, but at least the latest build should be able to boot games after a number of tries.
Don't forget to go to the compatibility wiki to apply the settings needed for your specific game.
Following the resolution to #17630 I've updated RPCS3 to this latest version, yet the issue remains. The games still don't run at all (just for brief moments before freezing). The before mentioned obj names did change from M3 to M4 now though.
S PPU: LLVM: Loaded module v7-kusa-ov3VAnpAdmjaAisY7Qi1uH-00001G-apple-m4.objinstead ofS PPU: LLVM: Loaded module v7-kusa-ov3VAnpAdmjaAisY7Qi1uH-00001G-apple-m3.obj
PR #17630 is not expected to fix this issue. That PR fixes the games booting at all, but this is a threading issue when compiling SPU caches. Games should work after a few tries when the caches have been compiled.
The issue actually existed earlier (TLoU took about 5 tries to boot on build 18115), but it is definitely worse now.
@axu2 You're using random settings, use Wiki settings only, some aren't supported by Apple's hardware and RPCS3 while booting the game tells you that. Your issues aren't related to issue you're mentioned and crossposting won't make you be noticed sooner.
Firmware isn't an issue, as long as it's 4.80 and later it's fine.
4.92 is just Blu-ray keys, that's only useful for PS3.
@zecevic-matej Post proper logs, don't write a thesis about random lines you don't understand. Some settings needed by the game aren't supported by Apple's hardware, which at some point will affect booting. Not being able to reboot/boot another game in same instance is a known issue too, at least saw report on GitHub if I remember correctly 🤔
You're booting demanding games, issues are expected, especially on macs.
I don't have GoW dumped but here's log from Uncharted series.
I will compare with macOS 15 later.
System configuration:
- SYS: RPCS3 v0.0.38-18280-3a6c71e5 Alpha | master
- SYS: Apple M1 (4P+4E) | 8 Threads | 16.00 GiB RAM | TSC: 0.024GHz | FMA3
- SYS: Operating system: macOS, Version: 26.1.0
- SYS: Current Time: 2025-10-30T10:15:05
- RSX: Found Vulkan-compatible GPU: 'Apple M1' running on driver 0.2.60
- SYS: LLVM version: 21.1.3
- SYS: Firmware version: 4.92
Logs:
Uncharted 1.log Uncharted 2.log Uncharted 3.log
Could just be ASLR (https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3/pull/16878) I'll have to find time in the next few weeks to look at this.
Hopefully other generations of mac are affected, I'm not likely to purchase an M4 any time soon (I'm still on M1)
@kd-11
on macOS 14.8.1 M2.
I used a really old 400 day old build of RPCS3 before that worked fine. I haven't played in quite a while. I did some bisecting to find the build that still worked fine:
This one works: 182 days ago (2025-04-29) 0.0.36-17857
This one crashes: 182 days ago (2025-04-30) 0.0.36-17862
- https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3/pull/16878
That PR you mentioned lines up exactly with my observation, and I'm on M2, in case you missed that detail.
Can confirm the earlier statements, neither of my games starting up with 18280 master build. (RPCS3 crashes to desktop every time right after PPU compiling finishes) To me the last build which is working is 18115. I am on an M2 Pro, with OS 26.0.1.
Can you try deleting all your caches? Then run
File->Firmware->Create Firmware Cache. (It will probably crash at the end, but just ignore that). There are some threading issues with compiling the SPU caches that causes freezes, but once they are compiled it should be able to run games. If a game freezes, force-quit and boot it again. It should get further.
Thank you for the suggestion, I have just tried it: after removing all of my caches and creating a new Firmware cache.. unfortunately still immediately crashing to desktop is the result, right after PPU compilation. (with all of my games, on both of my machines)
+1 to this bug, I've also got a M4 and also facing same issue. Tested 3 different builds:
- 18309 crashes;
- 18115 crashes;
- 17862 OK.
My side chick also approves!!
What the fuck people, ever heard about posting logs maybe?!
18309 logs trying to play Little Big Planet 2. It did not crash, but did hang on an initial loading screen. Couldn't go any further: LBP2.log
