Emulators are not going anywhere and they are here to stay for a long period of time. There are different Switch emulators available for you to choose from and new ones being developed is always a good sign. Yuzu being the first one isn’t the only one left now that can emulate Switch games. Both projects focus on providing smooth gameplay, graphical improvements and controller support.
Here we have Citron, a new and emerging emulator that is also open source and free. However, its strengths, features and compatibility all differ when compared to Yuzu emulator. In this comparison, we will take a close look at how both of these emulators stack up against each other in terms of various features, platform support and usability.
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Yuzu vs Citron
The below table shows the different features each emulator offers and what sets them apart from each other!
| Yuzu | Citron |
| Yuzu is fully open source. The code was available to the public to review and check on GitHub. | Citron is also an open-source emulator. The code is available online in their own Git repository and they also accept contributions. |
| Supports more than 4000 Switch games out of which around 90% and above work without any issues and errors. | Citron is still in very early development and is currently focusing on performance, homebrew and other cross-platform features. It currently does not have a list of compatible games. |
| Saving your progress is automatic and you can also manually trigger a game save whenever you are in a game. | Citron does manual and auto-save too. However, this depends on the game and the configuration you are using. It is designed to ensure there are stable saves and the feature is still in development. |
| 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”. | The current focus from Citron is on single-player and local emulation. Multiplayer is not yet a core function they have implemented. |
| Yuzu works on all 3 major platforms including Android, Windows and Linux. It does not support macOS. | Citron is also cross-platform and currently works on Windows and Linux. Android development is currently underway and no macOS support has been announced. |
| 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. | Citron is also aiming to be as lightweight as possible on resources and efficient so it can perform good on low to mid-range systems. Supports both AMD and Nvidia GPU |
| 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. | The setup process is straightforward and simple. It also has a simple UI and a minimalistic look. |
| You can transfer your game files from the hardware you own to other platforms such as PC or smartphone. | Game transfer and management are also supported in Citron, allowing you to load game files you legally own from your own hardware. |
| 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. | Citron also supports exporting and importing of save data between different devices. However, this functionality is still bot fully developed and is being refined. |
| 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. | Citron also allows users to scale their resolution and tweak graphical quality of the games you play. This depends on your hardware, primarily the GPU. |
| 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. | This also supports a wide variety of third-party controllers which includes the Switch Pro, Xbox and Sony DualSense controllers. They are still working on better mapping and vibration support. |
| 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. | Modding is supported but only for a handful of titles, you can only load and manage mod files through certain directories. |
| You can emulate controller inputs with a high accuracy in Yuzu as it supports Tool Assisted Speedrun scripts. | Yuzu excels here as Citron does not support tool-assisted speedrun script support. |
| Back in May 2020, Yuzu announced support for multi-core emulation and was the first-ever emulator to do so. | Citron also supports multi-core CPU support, this makes sure it utilizes all of the hardware of the system allowing for a smoother gameplay experience. |
Also, check out our other Switch emulator comparisons:
Conclusion
Yuzu and Citron are both very impressive Switch emulators. Their aim is the same, provide a console experience on multiple platforms. As both of them are open source in nature their development and features do differ quite a bit as to what they are offering at this time. Yuzu has been around much longer when compared to Citron and is more established. It supports thousands of games and supports advanced features such as resolution scaling, controller profiles and multiplayer.
Citron on the other hand is a much newer emulator that is focusing on efficiency and cross-platform support. It is lightweight and is getting frequent updates however many of the features have not been released yet and are still in development whereas Yuzu already has them. Currently it does not have all of the same features and stability as Yuzu. Both emulators have passionate communities surrounding them. If you want a stablem, feature-rich and already proven emulator go for Yuzu and if you want a more fast-developing one go for Citron.