RetroArch Rolls Out Native Overclocking On Switch, And The Nintendo 64 Core Is The First To Benefit

The Libretro team released a major RetroArch update for Nintendo Switch in early June 2026, which now ships with an overclocking feature built directly into the software. Until now, taking advantage of this feature on Nintendo's hybrid console required going through Lakka. It is now available natively under Horizon, the Switch's operating system.

The first to benefit from this change is Mupen64Plus, the core dedicated to the Nintendo 64, which gets a noticeable speed boost. Many N64 games long known for being tricky to emulate now run noticeably better on Nintendo's machine, without any complex tinkering or third-party software.

A setting the community already swears by

To update or install RetroArch on an already modded Switch, simply grab the matching archive from the official download page, extract it to the root of your SD card while overwriting the old files, then launch everything through title takeover (hold R while booting a game). The official installation guide walks newcomers through every step. Once inside the emulator, head to the Mupen64Plus-Next options: a CPU clock of 1785 MHz is widely considered a safe value by the community, which has reportedly been using it without any issues since 2019.

Source: HackInformer