Citron: Nintendo Switch emulator for Android gets updated for better emulation performance

Last month, the dev team behind Citron, a notable Nintendo Switch emulator for Android and PC, pushed a major update, which was essentially a complete rewrite. That update promised enhanced Switch emulation and an early implementation of AMD FSR 2 in the emulation tool.

The developers have now pushed another notable update, and it's an important one for the recently launched Android gaming handhelds such as Konkr Pocket Fit Elite and AYN Odin 3. More specifically, the latest version, v0.11.0, offers better support for the Snapdragon 8 Elite GPU.

There are mentions of advanced shader features and an optimized rendering pipeline for the Snapdragon 8 Elite devices (such as the 266 GB OnePlus Pad 3 that's curr. $599.99 on Amazon). These additions will make the emulator deliver better performance on last-gen flagship phones and the handhelds based on this previous-gen SoC.

It's worth noting that the Snapdragon 8 Elite wasn't known to smoothly handle emulators such as Citron. A major reason behind this is the new GPU architecture, which exacerbates the issue when combined with the lack of open-source Turnip drivers.

Of course, Snapdragon 8 Elite GPU support is only a part of the new update. The latest version of Citron also brings support for ARM64 devices. The developers note that the emulator now runs natively on Windows on ARM (WoA), and there are optimizations for better emulation performance on WoA systems.

Among the other changes mentioned are per-game cheat configurations, improvements for the game library, and enhancements to update control and notification. You can learn more about the latest version from the full changelog available on the official Citron website.