If you are figuring out whether your PC can run Cemu (the Wii U emulator), then we have you covered right here.
Now, Cemu is one of the first Wii U emulators that successfully booted games. It was released in 2015, and in 2022, it was made open source. About two years ago, Cemu rolled out an experimental version, Cemu 2.0, which is available. If you run into issues with this, you can always get the previous version – 1.27.1. Both versions are available for download on the official Cemu website.
In this guide, we have covered the minimum as well as recommended system requirements for Cemu version 2.0. However, the requirements are similar to the 1.26.7 version.
Cemu minimum system requirements
| OS | Windows 7 (x64) or above |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 2.40GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) @ 2.5GHz |
| GPU | OpenGL 4.5 or Vulkan 1.1 |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Storage | 10 GB available space |
| Sound card | DirectX 11 |
To run the Cemu Wii U emulator on your PC, you need an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 or AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor or better gaming processors.
As far as GPUs are concerned, you can use any card that has OpenGL 4.5 or Vulkan 1.1. Cemu recommends having an NVIDIA GTX 700 card or an AMD HD 7000 Series card as a bare minimum.
If you have an older card or VRAM is less than 2GB, you should use OpenGL. In other cases, Vulkan is more preferable. Please note that Intel GPUs have limited compatibility with Cemu and will deliver laggy performance.
Cemu recommended system requirements
| OS | Windows 10 or Windows 11, macOS 12 Monterey or above |
| CPU | Intel Core i5 3470 3.2GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 4GHz (8 CPUs) |
| GPU | OpenGL 4.5 or Vulkan 1.2 |
| RAM | 8GB |
| Storage | 21 GB available space |
| Sound card | DirectX 11 |
To get the best emulation experience, you need to equip your PC with a more powerful CPU and GPU. Further, an 8GB RAM will give a much better performance than 4GB RAM. In fact, Cemu recommends having at least 8GB RAM to avoid crashing and stuttering.
What systems does Cemu support?
Upon release in 2015, Cemu only supported Windows. However, recently, experimental builds have been made available for Mac and Linux.
What processor does Cemu recommend?
As emulators rely a lot on CPU for performance, we recommend having a decently powered processor. Cemu recommends using at least an AMD Ryzen 3 or an Intel i5 processor.
Conclusion
To sum up, the Cemu Wii U emulator can run on Windows smoothly if your PC meets the minimum system requirements. However, to get a better performance (and if you plan on running demanding games), we recommend more RAM, a decent CPU, and a GPU with enough VRAM and Vulkan support.
