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Windows 11 PCs with Snapdragon X Elite processors can access beta driver v31.0.96.0 to improve app and gaming stability. Uploading its beta v31.0.96.0 driver, Qualcomm is "committed to continuously improving your experience" with a trio of newly supported games, upgrades to existing titles, and a batch of stability fixes for ARM64-native Windows 11 apps like Adobe Photoshop and Blender. Playing PC games on Windows PCs running Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processors has been a mixed bag since the first batch of laptops, led by the launch of ASUS' Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ PC. Early performance varied from passable to shockingly impressive in examples like Zac Bowden's review of the Vivobook S15, so it's great to see Qualcomm using these driver updates to improve the experience and support popular PC games like the "perfect sequel" of Kingdom Come Deliverance II. If your Windows PC has a Snapdragon X Elite chip and not the (an important distinction), you can manually download the driver from Qualcomm's software center here. Creators will benefit from the update, too, particularly if you use Adobe's suite in your daily workflow with apps like Lightroom on a Snapdragon X Elite PC with 16GB of RAM. Patch notes: Games enabled Kingdom Come Deliverance II Helldivers Palworld Jagged Alliance 3 World War Z Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth BodyCam Cities: Skylines II Forge of Empires Core Keeper Satisfactory Tiny Glade Genshin Impact Improved performance for existing games Left 4 Dead 2 Assassin's Creed Valhalla Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition The Sims 4 Borderlands 3 Bug fixes for Windows 11 Fixed corruption in WPS during zoom. Fixed Adobe Scene Edit Detection corruption. Improved performance in Adobe Photoshop. Fixed crashes in Adobe Lightroom on 16GB devices. Fixed cube rendering issues in Blender App. Fixed crash seen in Football Manager 2022 game during screen recording. Fixed AV1E MVHV failures. Fixed black screen issue during video playback in VLC Player. Moving closer to Qualcomm's goals Snapdragon X Elite devices are flagship Windows on ARM64 devices. (Image credit: Daniel Rubino) We have always remained realistic when discussing the topic of gaming on Snapdragon X Elite laptops, but it doesn't stop ARM64 gaming performance improvements from being exciting. Epic Games and Qualcomm are already pairing up to solve the issue of missing anti-cheat support and allow the phenomenally popular Fortnite to come to Snapdragon X laptops, so seeing similarly successful games like the crossplay-enabled Palworld come to the platform is encouraging. Native ARM64 builds would always be better for gaming performance. Still, updates like these bring us closer to running these titles "just fine" using x64 emulation, as Qualcomm boasted in the early days of Windows on Snapdragon. Selfishly, my long-term dream for Qualcomm is to see it partner with PC gaming handheld OEMs similar to the recently-announced Android-based devices running Snapdragon G chips and succeed in this evolving market. The rapid progression of Intel's platform-agnostic XeSS 2 upscaling technology and its competitors have legitimized the concept of AAA gaming in ultra-portable form factors with low-power processors running at maximum efficiency — whether Qualcomm can offer a comparable suite for PC gaming is up for debate, but more competition is always good. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of February): 874 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

A database of game performance on the newest Windows on ARM laptops is encouraging, but our old foe anti-cheat is here to rain on the parade. Ever since the Microsoft Build session that proudly showed off a Snapdragon X Elite laptop playing Borderlands 3 at an impressive level, I've been eagerly anticipating more. While not a new game, Borderlands 3 is, in my own experience, still a tough cookie at times on PC, so it felt like a fitting example of how good the new chips can be. Thanks to a website that isn't produced, but is endorsed by Qualcomm as being legitimate, we already have a wealth of data about gaming performance on new Snapdragon X Elite laptops. The site, worksonwoa.com, currently has over 1,300 entries with reports on performance, and what laptop spec they were running on. It's also open for contribution from the community through GitHub, so as actual consumers get their hands on these things, the database will surely continue to grow. I've been sifting through the pages and to say I'm impressed would be an understatement. Remember, these are not traditional x86 CPUs, and in most cases these games likely haven't been compiled natively for ARM. Nevertheless, there's some really exciting stuff in here. But also an old foe that looks like being an issue in some cases: Anti-cheat. Some demanding games with impressive performance figures Cyberpunk 2077 on a Snapdragon X Elite laptop is very much a reality it seems. (Image credit: Windows Central) As a long term Linux and Steam Deck gamer, I'm well-used to encountering issues with running PC games on anything that isn't a regular Windows PC. The website being used here is reminiscent of ProtonDB, an essential for all those who dabble with Linux and Steam Deck. When in doubt, the community helps out. The difference here of course is that it's Windows, the OS that all of these games were designed to run on. But it's not quite that simple, since there are fundamental differences between Windows on ARM and Windows that runs on Intel/AMD. There are options, such as natively compiling your game for ARM64, create a 'hybrid' with ARM64EC or just don't bother and let emulation do the work. So what sort of games are we talking about? I've embedded a gallery below showing the results from worksonwoa.com of some of the most interesting ones I've found so far. (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) (Image credit: worksonwoa.com / Windows Central) This is just a selection of 10 from my own library, the easiest place to start looking. But I'm blown away by some of these figures. Some of these titles can be pretty demanding, and being able to hit just over 30 FPS on Spider-Man Remastered is no joke. I played the game originally at 30 FPS on the PS4 back in the day, and now you'll be able to play a better looking version on a Dell XPS 13. There are some smash hits here as well. Reported frame rates in excess of 60 FPS in Control Ultimate Edition and Sea of Thieves, The Witcher 3 at 45 FPS, even Cyberpunk 2077 looks playable. Gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck and the ROG Ally have shown us what's possible without the need for an ultra-powerful gaming laptop, but this is as impressive in a different way. None of the laptops announced so far are at all gaming-focused, and yet, it looks like they're going to be able to do it anyway. And with an ARM chip inside, no less. This is only the first generation, too, let's not forget. Lots to get excited over, but unfortunately, there's still one giant fly in the ointment. Just like on Steam Deck, anti-cheat ruins the party You won't be playing Valorant on a Snapdragon X Elite laptop as things currently stand. (Image credit: Windows Central) Anti-cheat. That thing that doesn't seem to stop people cheating and can certainly be a nuisance, too. Linux/Steam Deck gamers have long suffered at the hands of the various software solutions out there targeting filthy cheaters, but it looks like it also extends to Windows on ARM. Checking out reports for popular titles like Valorant, League of Legends, PUBG, and Fortnite, all are labelled as unplayable. And that'll be down to the anti-cheat. Some competitive games, like Valve's Dota 2 and Counter Strike 2 seem to work fine, so it isn't universal, but it's clearly going to be a widespread issue. So you can expect it to apply to titles like Destiny 2 and Rainbow Six Siege, as well. I'm not smart enough to know what kind of work is involved in fixing this, but even if the software is updated, there's then the matter of developers actually using it. Many of the anti-cheat tools support Linux, for example, but unless the developers opt into it, then Steam Deck owners are out of luck. Since Windows on ARM is just Windows, hopefully it wouldn't be like this, but you never know. It's still an exciting time for Windows laptops, though, and June 18 can't come around soon enough so we can see what real people are doing with them. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every single day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of May): Nearly 2,400 news posts

Lenovo has announced its first Copilot Plus PCs with Windows 11 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors. The first pair of next-gen Windows on ARM computers consists of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x and the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. Both devices will be available in the United States in June 2024. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is a thin and relatively light laptop (2.82 lbs or 1.28kg) with a 14-inch 3K 90Hz OLED touchscreen that can reach a whopping 1000nits of peak brightness. The computer is powered by the Snapdragon X Elite chip, which can be configured with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory and 1TB PCIe Gen 4 storage. Additional features include a big trackpad, a FullHD webcam with Windows Hello support, three USB-C ports, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.3. The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s is a business-focused device with a 14-inch 16:10 IPS display. You will be able to spec the laptop with an optional 2.8K OLED panel. Unlike its more affordable sibling, the T14s has optional 5G connectivity and up to 64GB of LPDDR5X memory. However, its 58Wh battery is notably smaller than the one in the Yoga Lim 7x. Despite that, Lenovo still promises "multi-day battery life" thanks to the use of efficient low-power IPS displays. Here are the detailed specs of both laptops: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Dimensions & Weight (mm): 325 x 225.15 x as thin as 12.9mm (inches): 12.80” x 8.86” x as thin as 0.51“ Starting at 1.28kg (2.82lbs) (mm): 325 x 225.15 x as thin as 12.9mm (inches): 12.80” x 8.86” x as thin as 0.51“ Starting at 1.28kg (2.82lbs) Display 14.5” 3K (2944 x 1840) 90 Hz 16:10 PureSight OLED Touch, 1000 nits peak, Delta E True Black 600, Dolby Vision, TÜV Low Blue Light Certification 14” WUXGA 16:10 IPS, 400 nits, Low Power, 100% sRGB, EyeSafe 14” WUXGA 16:10 IPS, Touch, DBEF5, 400 nits, 45% NTSC 14” 2.8K OLED, 400 nits, 100% DCI-P3, Dolby Vision, HDR True Black 500, EyeSafe CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite GPU Snapdragon X Elite Qualcomm Adreno GPU RAM Up to 32 GB LPDDR5X 8448 MHz Dual Channel Up to 64 GB LPRRD5X 8533MT/s Dual Channel Storage Up to 1TB PCIe Gen 4 2242 M.2 Battery 70Wh 58Wh Camera FHD MIPI Webcam, IR Camera, Camera Shutter, Four Microphones FHD + IR MIPI Camera with privacy shutter, always on Computer Vision HPD, Two Microphones Ports Left Side: 2 X USB Type-C (40Gbps, PD 3.1, DP 1.4) Right Side: 1 X USB Type-C (40Gbps, PD 3.1, DP 1.4) 2 x USB-A (5Gbps) 2 x USB-C (USB4 40Gbps) Audio jack HDMI 2.1 Connectivity Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G Security - Fingerprint Reader on Power Button dTPM Secured-Core PC Colors Cosmic Blue Eclipse Black The base configuration of the Yoga Slim 7x will set you back $1,299. The ThinkPad T14s will be available in the US starting June 2024, and the price will start at $1,699. Source