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This stuff would be great in a gaming handheld.
There is enormous potential, but until it becomes a reality, it’ll never progress further than that.
This Snapdragon X Plus chip could be a winner in a handheld, and it needs to happen.
Someone needs to take that leap of faith.
Performance on par with a Steam Deck at times
This isn’t some massive, sweeping test.
Instead, it has very deliberately focused on a select library of games.
With the sort of settings a handheld would use and Auto SR in play, Shadow of the Tomb Raider performs wellandlooks good.
If you aren’t familiar with Auto SR, I’ve written a more detailed explainer on it already.
It works really well, but it doesn’t support many titles properly as yet.
The same can be said of some older titles, too.
Control is another game that makes use of Auto SR to help improve frame rates and visuals.
Not all Windows laptops can say the same when it comes to gaming.
Very few can, really.
But Qualcomm’s chips are almost as performant off the charger as they are on it.
Not everything, but most things, through the Microsoft Store you aren’t even allowed to install and try.
For handhelds, that’s a big deal.
But there’s still work to be done.
I’m not including anti cheat in that because that’s a whole other thing.
The launch pack for Auto SR support was slim, and it hasn’t got any bigger.
In Kingdom Come Deliverance, it made the game playable, likewise in 7 Days To Die.
Software is still important, regardless of how much graphical horsepower you’re packing.
Auto SR is a brilliant tool, but it’s far too restricted as it lays right now.
The Steam Deck pushed the category forwards and made game developers take notice, the next step needs to be a Snapdragon-powered handheld and the software advancements that go with it.
Only a handful of games have full support, and on those that do, it works astonishingly well.
The NPU does the magic in between.
I really want to see this expanded significantly because it’s too good not to.
ASUS kickstarted the AMD Z1-powered handhelds, someone needs to do the same with Qualcomm.
Right now, it only supports 14 games officially, and only those using DX11 or DX12.
Nothing earlier, no Vulkan.
This is embarrassing, honestly.
So, even the block isn’t completely consistent.
It’s peak Microsoft.
That’s actually a good thing because, in the past, Linux native ports quickly fell behind.
It’s a single game on Steam to maintain, and it just works.
Microsoft could have the exact same thing with a Snapdragon-powered handheld.
The problem right now is that there’s no real need to do it.
But it doesn’t feel like it’s taken seriously enough.
We can dream, I guess.
My ROG Ally, before it died, had atrocious battery life.
Simply swapping in a Snapdragon X would probably improve that without having to make the physical battery bigger.
The pieces are all there, but they’re nowhere close to completing the puzzle.
