

What Are Emulators’ Use Cases?Įmulators can mimic hardware devices such as printers or scanners or specific applications and software programs that are not compatible with your OS, such as console-based games or legacy applications. We will discuss emulators in the following sections, but for a deeper understanding of virtual machines, you can read our in-depth guide on Different Types of Virtual Machines.

So although emulators and VMs are similar in features, they are meant for totally different purposes. With emulators, you are not limited to a single virtual environment you can create multiple environments that run on different operating systems. Virtual machines latch on to your hardware directly to create an isolated environment. On the other hand, a virtual machine actually needs CPU virtualization features to function.Įmulators use your device’s hardware resources indirectly by creating a connecting bridge. Let’s examine the two most important aspects of a VM (Virtual Machine) and an emulator.Īn emulator runs codes independently without relying directly on CPU capacity, so there are fewer CPU draining and performance issues. Our tech-savvy audience might have another question: I have a VM for all the things you mentioned why should I use emulators? So the most important reason you need emulators is to reduce performance issues.Īnother reason is that you might not be able to install and use some applications or programs on your original OS because of incompatibility issues. Now you might say, I can install any program I want on my existing operating system why do I need an emulator?įor starters, there’s a limit on how much load your operating system can handle, even if it is as powerful as Linux.

You have two options: buy an additional device just for playing games or use an emulator to create the virtual software you need.Īn emulator is a hardware or software that enables users to use any application or device without having physical access to them.

Let’s say you have a Mac but want to avoid putting extra load on your system’s resources by installing and playing heavy video games. Let’s touch on the basics before covering the details about the emulator for low end PC, so we’re all on the same page. 7.6 Which is the best Android emulator for Windows 10?
