Flashspoter - Qualcomm has further strengthened its position in the Windows on Arm ecosystem with an array of updates focused on enhancing gaming performance. After a somewhat unfulfilled promise in 2024 that most x86 games would run smoothly on their Arm chipset, the company is now releasing a much more mature software and emulator update. The gaming experience on laptops that use Snapdragon X Elite and X Series is, therefore, appearing to be more and more promising.
The biggest change by far this week is the launch of the Snapdragon Control Panel that operates very similarly to the GPU software that is proprietary from NVIDIA or AMD. As per Qualcomm, the Snapdragon Control Panel is capable of game auto-detection, can set custom optimizations for each game, and enable Adreno GPU driver updates. Besides that, Qualcomm stated that the changes made in the drivers have resulted in better stability and performance for over a hundred games since last year, which is a way of showing that the company has been very consistent in resolving compatibility issues that have been a source of trouble for Windows on Arm users.
In terms of emulation performance, Microsoft also plays an important role. Prism Emulator now supports Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) emulation for x86 applications and games, which is a basic requirement of many modern games as well as creative software. Meanwhile, AVX2, a more advanced version, will be available natively on the next generation Snapdragon X2 Elite chipset. Qualcomm confirmed that its already outstanding Snapdragon X Series devices will also receive AVX2 support in the coming weeks via a system update.
The Windows on Arm gaming ecosystem also gets an increase in the distribution side of the game. The Xbox app for Windows on Arm now supports downloading ARM64 games, including titles from PC Game Pass. The previous year, the app only served as a portal to Xbox Cloud Gaming, with no direct installation capabilities. Now, users can download and run native games optimized for Arm devices.
One of the biggest roadblocks of Windows on Arm over the past year has been compatibility with kernel-level anti-cheat systems. Many multiplayer games cannot be run because the anti-cheat system does not yet support the Arm environment. Qualcomm has finally reported major progress after Fortnite managed to run fully on Windows on Arm, thanks to support from Epic Online services Anti-Cheat. Fortnite is also coming to the Xbox PC Store, becoming the first time the game is available on a PC distribution platform other than Epic Games ' launcher.
Qualcomm is also working with various other anti-cheat providers to expand multiplayer gaming support. Some of them are Tencent Anti-Cheat Expert, Roblox Hyperion, Denuvo, Inprotect GameGuard, Uncheater, and BattleEye. Should everything work out well with the implementation, a larger number of multiplayer games will presumably be able to run on Windows on Arm devices in the near future, thus delivering an additional benefit that the platform did not have before.
Even though the enhancements are major, from a performance and compatibility point of view, Windows on Arm still cannot be compared to the x86 platform. Some games still rely on emulation that is not as fast as native, and others are not yet optimal. However, the combination of a new Control Panel, driver updates, emulator improvements, and anti-cheat support provides a stronger foundation than the initial launch conditions.
With the introduction of Snapdragon X2 Elite and the timely updates of devices that are already out, the possibility of playing games on Windows on Arm is becoming more and more real. Users also have the opportunity to verify the compatibility status of games that can be native, emulation, or not yet supported via the official list issued by Qualcomm and its ecosystem partners.
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