Playing Nintendo Switch Games on PC: The Best Emulators Available

Are you bored with traditional PC games and want to try out exciting Nintendo Switch games? With the advancement of technology, it is now possible to play your favorite Switch games directly on your computer.

You can download a Nintendo Switch emulator on your Windows PC and play various Switch games with increased resolution and performance. You can even play these emulators on a Windows portable gaming device. Let’s take a look at the best emulators available and compare them in terms of performance, features, and ease of use, to help you choose the perfect emulator for your needs. Check out Should you buy physical or digital Nintendo Switch games?

Is it legal to use Nintendo Switch emulators?

The simple answer is Yes— Downloading and using any emulator is legal. However, downloading and sharing copyrighted ROMs (digital copies of video games) is illegal, even if you own the game digitally or physically. However, making a backup copy of a game you already own can be legal (this is similar to ripping a CD or DVD).

So, if you are using a Nintendo Switch emulator and you don't have any illegally downloaded games, you won't have any problems.

System Requirements for Running Nintendo Switch Emulators

Older consoles like the NES or PlayStation One are easier to emulate because they use simpler code. Nintendo Switch is more modern, which makes it harder to emulate.

For this reason, apart from choosing the best emulator, you will also need a computer that is capable of emulating the most advanced hardware. Different games also have different graphical requirements, so that is another thing to keep in mind. For example, a game like Akane might be less demanding than The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

However, to run the Nintendo Switch emulator smoothly, your computer will need to meet the following minimum requirements:

1. OS:Windows 10 or later
2. Healer:At least 6th generation Intel Core i3 or Ryzen 3 processor
3. memory: 8GB RAM
4. the video: Support OpenGL 4.5/Vulkan 1.2 or higher

For the best experience, aim for the following:

1. Graphics Processing Unit: NVIDIA GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 470 and later
2. memory: 16GB RAM

Once you've confirmed that your computer can run emulators and games, try any of the emulators below to see which one works best for you.

1. Suyu Emulator

Suyu is a Nintendo Switch emulator that supports high-resolution displays, save states (save progress at any point and resume play from where you left off), controllers, local multiplayer, and mods. Suyu emulator for Nintendo Switch is also available for Linux, macOS, and Android.

Suyu is an alternative to the popular open-source Nintendo Switch emulator called Yuzu, which was shut down in March 2024 to avoid a legal battle with Nintendo. Suyu is a software competitor to the Yuzu codebase on GitHub, and aims to avoid the legal pitfalls that led to Nintendo going after it (allegations of supporting widespread Switch game piracy).

As a result, Suyu requires you to use the encryption keys (production keys and title keys) from your actual Nintendo Switch with the emulator. Furthermore, Suyu takes a strong stance against piracy, does not monetize, and does not provide any guides on how to play copyrighted games.

to download: Water (Free)

2. Ryujinx

Ryujinx It is a Nintendo Switch emulator compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS. So far, developers and the community have tested over 4,000 games on the emulator, with nearly 3,400 running smoothly. You can find a list of playable games on the Ryujinx page on GitHub.

For users who don’t want a very technical setup, Ryujinx is the perfect choice. The interface is intuitive and straightforward, and it can run games at 60 frames per second. What’s more, the experience is similar to a real gaming console, even if you’re playing on a desktop. Check out how to use a controller when emulating Switch games with Ryujinx.

Rtujinx is completely free to download. This Nintendo Switch emulator is written in C# and is open source. This means that if you are familiar with the programming language and things like console architecture and emulation techniques, you can contribute to the development of the open source emulator.

Download: Ryujinx (Free)

3. Torz

Like Suyu, Torzu is another fork of the Yuzu emulator. It had its own GitHub repository, but it was also removed by Nintendo under the Digital Copyright Act.

To make it harder to take down the open source project this time around, the developers have hosted the main repository on the Tor network. This hides important information that Nintendo would need to track the physical location of the servers and issue takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You’ll need the Tor browser to access the main repository, but fortunately the developers also have an alternative repository on Codeberg.

The biggest downside, especially if you’re not technically savvy, is that there are no pre-release versions of Torzu available. You’ll have to download or clone the code and build the project manually using tools like Visual Studio, CMake, Git, and the Vulkan SDK. But once you do, you’ll have access to the best features of Yuzu.

At the time of writing, Torzu is under active development. The repository also contains code to build the Torzu emulator for Android and Linux. Since it is open source, you can contribute to the development (it is written in C++).

Download: Torz (Free)

With emulation, you can play your favorite Nintendo Switch games while bypassing the physical limitations of the hybrid console. You can even play games with cheats and tweaks applied to enhance your experience.

Using Nintendo Switch emulators should be a good idea if you can avoid violating copyright laws. If you are a fan of old Nintendo consoles, you can try some of the best Nintendo DS emulators.