Qualcomm revealed an exciting teaser during the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC), suggesting that the PC gaming market could expand beyond x86 architecture. In a session titled “Windows on Snapdragon, a Platform Ready for Your PC Games,” the company showcased its latest Snapdragon X Elite chip, claiming that Windows games will seamlessly run on laptops without the need for additional preparation, thanks to emulation.
As reported by The Verge, Qualcomm engineer Issam Khalil discussed plans to achieve realistic gaming on the ARM-based chip as early as May. Khalil detailed the x86/64 emulation on Snapdragon X Elite, enabling game developers to either port their titles to native ARM64 for optimal performance or rely on x64 emulation with minimal effort.
Another option is to create a hybrid ARM64EC app, allowing Windows elements to run natively while emulating the rest of the application.
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Khalil assured that game developers won’t need to modify their code for games to run smoothly on the Snapdragon X Elite SoC. Qualcomm emphasizes that GPU performance, a crucial factor in gaming, remains unaffected by emulation.
Qualcomm has been testing compatibility of top Steam games through emulation to ensure seamless performance. However, challenges exist, notably performance optimization. Micah Knapp, Qualcomm’s senior director of product management, mentioned seeing ARM chips run games faster and with better battery life compared to x86, but not simultaneously.
Qualcomm’s presentation highlighted a limitation with games using kernel drivers, common in anti-cheat systems, and AVX instruction sets.
Early benchmarks of the Snapdragon X Elite show promising performance, comparable to Intel’s Core Ultra laptop CPU integrated graphics.
According to Tom’s Hardware, popular Windows titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 are expected to perform similarly to AMD’s Radeon 780M GPU on Snapdragon X Elite laptops. This advancement could herald a rise in ARM-based gaming.
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