Yuzu Switch Emulator New Build Brings Better VRAM Handling, Fixing Stuttering For All Higher Resolution Mods

13.02.2024 - 14:45 / wccftech.com / Francesco De Meo / Nintendo

A new build of the Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator released today promises to bring significant improvement in several titles, including those that received higher resolution mods like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The Early Access 4136 build introduces more efficient VRAM handling, which allows the emulator to use more VRAM, fixing all scaling issues, as well as garbage collection stutter in all games that run with a higher resolution mod, as Yuzu now only collects garbage sitting in the VRAM only when 7/8 full, resulting in a smoother experience.

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The new Yuzu Early Access build also reduces menu stuttering in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on lower-end hardware using texture recompression and some other minor issues. The full release notes can be found below.

- Make critical reclaim less eager and allow it possible it in more caches in more cases. [#10529]

- Handle VRAM more efficiently, allowing better VRAM usage in general.

- Reduce menu stuttering in Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on lower-end hardware when using texture recompression.

- Skip unregistered interfaces on invalidate. [#13000]
- Fixed crash that could occur when closing the LLE applet on low vram devices.

- Don't use fixed cap for memory limits. [#13001]
- Allow to use of more available vram for all scaling issues. Fixes garbage collection stutter with The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and other games with resolution mod on GPUs with massive vram.
Note: Yuzu will only perform garbage collection when vram is 7/8 filled with this update. It is normal that vram usage is higher than before on long gameplay section than before.

As for every Yuzu Early Access build, build 4136 is only available for Patreon supporters. Still, it shouldn't take too long for some of these improvements to make their way into the public build once they have been thoroughly tested.

More information on the excellent Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator can be found on its official website.