Playing games on a Windows PC or Linux computer is usually more complicated and not as smooth as on a gaming console like Playstation or XBOX. But if you want to test your PS3 games on your PC, then you may use a free Playstation emulator called RPCS3. It is ideal for the days when your PS3 is having a bad day and is refusing to work. You can use RPCS3 to play many PS3 games on your Windows or Linux computer. However, it does not support all of the PS3 game titles and requires that you have a high end computer hardware.
In order to use RPCS3 to play PS3 games on your desktop computer, your computer must have at least a quad-core CPU with 64-bit instruction set, 2GB system RAM and a GPU with Vulcan support. Obviously, these are minimum requirements and not all the games will run on a system with these specs. For smoother operation, you will need a system with AMD Ryzen with 8-cores, 8GB RAM and a Vulcan ready GPU with dedicated 2GB RAM.
Which PS3 games can you play on your computer using this emulator? The developers of RPCS3 have provided a list of all the successfully tested games at https://rpcs3.net/compatibility. This list displays which of the games are playable and the time they were tested on. However, some big titles did not make to this list.
Using this emulator is pretty easy. Basically, you have to download the official firmware from Playstation website for a supported game and install it in RPCS3 followed by load the .pkg file for the said game. After this you can boot the game and enjoy playing it. They have provided an official step-by-step guide for understanding all the process on RPC3 website at https://rpcs3.net/quickstart.
Conclusion: You can play hundreds of PS3 games on your Windows or Linux desktop computer with an open-source PS3 emulator RPCS3. However, for smooth operation it requires a high end gaming PC.
You can download RPCS3 PS3 Emulator from https://rpcs3.net/.