What you need to know
- Microsoft’s Surface and AI event culminated in showcases for Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon
- Complete with NPU processing on the SoC for local AI operations, the new Copilot+ PCs feature much better battery life, cooling, and performance than comparable Intel-based ultrabooks today.
- Many apps and games need to run via emulation for Windows on Arm, but Microsoft demonstrated just how much performance you can expect at its events this week.
- Our own Zac Bowden recently offered some previews of what kind of performance you can expect when gaming on these devices.
Microsoft’s new Copilot+ PC series for Windows is making waves.
Microsoft’s AI and Surface event, which debuted this week during Build 2024, showed off the new Qualcomm Snapdragon compared to their Intel predecessors and offers better cooling. Arm’s ultra-low power processing requires some emulation for certain apps, but the performance is so good that it’s become a non-issue. These devices run much cooler than previous Surface tablets and laptops without sacrificing performance. Surface is known for getting hot enough to fry eggs, especially in warm climates. That reality is about to change.
Companies like Adobe have pledged support for the Windows on Arm initiative, with the aim of bringing the suite of creative tools natively to the platform. However, thousands and thousands of classic games shall should be emulated if you feel like gaming on these devices. But how will they perform? Well, we have some ideas.
Our favorite Windows Phone enthusiast Zac Bowden is on site for Build 2024 and attended Windows on Arm sessions this morning. During the demonstration, Microsoft revealed that Baldur’s Gate 3 will run around 30 FPS unlocked on something like a Surface Pro 11, which is quite encouraging. Microsoft also demonstrated Borderlands running on Windows on Arm with Microsoft’s new native “Auto SR” Super Resolution support.
This is Borderlands 3 and it runs on the just announced Qualcomm Snapdragon Developer Kit. Runs pretty smoothly! pic.twitter.com/bGRDZ5WahcMay 21, 2024
Details about real-world gaming scenarios are still trickling out from Build 2024 and other similar events, but these first glimpses certainly seem promising. I doubt we’ll see Cyberpunk 2077 running at Ultra on these types of devices anytime soon, but the Qualcomm Snapdragon It could be especially ideal in smaller devices and handhelds, like the ASUS ROG Ally or the Steam Deck, especially if it offers better battery life than AMD’s Z1 Extreme chipset.
During the event, Microsoft also presented the website WorksOnWoa.com, a community-led project to catalog the games that run reasonably well on Windows on Arm. Microsoft says that more than 1,000 games should run at 1080p at 30 FPS, which I think is perfectly playable. They also announced that Unity 6 will have native support for game developers, with a demonstration showing how smoothly it runs on a Surface Laptop 7. “Shockingly smooth,” said my colleague Zac Bowden, who was at the event while I slave away to write this for him at 9:30 PM. Thanks Zac.
A hint for future Xbox consoles or handhelds?
Microsoft’s work on native Super Resolution support for Windows on Arm, coupled with efforts to enable native development on the platform, should bode well for future devices based on this technology. It seems at least about as capable as a Steam Deck in terms of output, while potentially boasting superior battery life in potentially sleeker devices.
Microsoft is known to be exploring Arm for the next Xbox, with Xbox president and tech leader Sarah Bond setting up a team specifically dedicated to preserving Xbox games on future devices. To me, that sounds like emulating Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S “ERA” based x86 games on Arm devices.
One of the biggest drawbacks to the ASUS ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and even the Steam Deck itself is battery life. If the Snapdragon Rumor has it that Microsoft is working on some form of Xbox-branded handheld, prototypes of which are hidden deep in Microsoft’s labs. This glimpse into Windows on Arm’s gaming capabilities could also be a hint at Xbox’s future.