Yuzu is no doubt one of the best Switch emulators. However, it is not the only one out there as there are alternatives. Yuzu and Ryujinx have both always been the two most prominent Switch emulators available. They are both free and the whole projects are open source. Both of these emulators are developed with the same goal: Emulate Switch games on different platforms.
However, each of these emulators has a slight advantage over each other in their features, support and performance.
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Yuzu vs Ryujinx
The below table shows the different features each emulator offers and what sets them apart from each other!
| Yuzu | Ryujinx |
| Yuzu is fully open source. The code was available to the public to review and check on GitHub. | Ryujinx is also an open-source emulator. The code is available on the public internet for review. |
| Supports more than 4000 Switch games out of which around 90% and above work without any issues and errors. | Supports fewer games than Yuzu in overall compatibility, coming over just under 3500 supported Switch games. |
| Saving your progress is automatic and you can also manually trigger a game save whenever you are in a game. | Ryujinx also allows you to save game progress using a function called “save states”. However, it isn’t known to do the saves automatically. |
| Yuzu allows you to play multiplayer in games, this works locally but not over the public internet. This is achieved using a piece of software called “Boxcat”. | There is also local multiplayer support that Ryujinx offers which replicates the same as a Switch console would do however it doesn’t work over the internet. |
| Yuzu works on all 3 major platforms including Android, Windows and Linux. It does not support macOS. | It only works on Windows and Linux, whereas Yuzu works on Android as well with its own app. |
| Yuzu is not hard on system requirements. It works with almost all AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. All you need is the appropriate GPU driver installed. | Ryujinx has similar system requirements to Yuzu and can also work with most AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. However, Yuzu for Android can have different drivers installed to enhance performance. |
| Get setup and going within minutes of downloading Yuzu Emulator. You don’t need to do any complex configuration to play Switch games on your platform. | Setting up and configuration is not that complex and is very simple. |
| You can transfer your game files from the hardware you own to other platforms such as PC or smartphone. | Transferring your game progress to another device is also possible. |
| If you are at a certain point/level on a game and want to continue on another platform you can do so with the help of exporting game saves, this is a feature exclusive to Yuzu. | Game exports are not fully accurate and only happen before a certain checkpoint whereas Yuzu offers exact in-time exports of the save files. |
| Yuzu also has the ability to upscale the visuals of any Switch game you are emulating, this is possible due to the “Resolution Rescaler” feature. | Like Yuzu, Ryujinx also offers resolution scaling. This allows it to increase the visual quality of the Switch games you are playing. |
| Yuzu also supports third-party controllers that you can connect with your PC or smartphone to play. Controllers such as the Switch Pro, Sony DualSense and Xbox One can all be used and are fully compatible. | Third-party controller support is not confirmed however major controllers are supported including the Sony DualSense and Xbox One controllers. |
| You can modify games in Yuzu as well. Game modding is supported due to a special framework. The files needed to be added into special directories to work. | Mod support is also available here. It works in an identical way as to how it works in Yuzu with separate directories. |
| You can emulate controller inputs with a high accuracy in Yuzu as it supports Tool Assisted Speedrun scripts. | No support for TAS scripts is present in Ryujinx. This gives Yuzu an edge for those applying emulated controller inputs. |
| Back in May 2020, Yuzu announced support for multi-core emulation and was the first-ever emulator to do so. | Around a year since Yuzu had gained support for CPU emulation, Ryujinx also received support for multi-core CPU emulation. |
Conclusion
Honestly, both Switch emulators are great at what they do at the core! However, with a handful of extra features such as the higher number of compatible games (by around 500 titles) Yuzu takes the lead here. Another major point of Yuzu is because of the Android platform support it offers that Ryujinx does not have. Yuzu also works with popular controllers with a dedicated menu screen where you can connect and configure the different controllers and create a profile for them.
Another edge that Yuzu had was the big community of developers it had behind it. It was one of the most popular emulation projects on GitHub and had thousands of forks. Ryujinx also has an edge over performance but has had various reports of instability in the community as well which the developers are constantly improving.