Can the new ARM Windows laptops game? This site will tell you.

There’s a lot of excitement around the new Copilot + PC laptops sporting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X-series chips. But while much of the focus is on performance and battery life, some people wonder if they can game. The answer? Sort of.

As spotted by The Verge, a new website from Linaro, an Arm engineering group, that details the playability of over 1,000 titles on the new Snapdragon chips.

The site ‘worksonwoa.com‘ has tested nearly 1,500 games and placed them into four categories: ‘Perfect,’ ‘Playable,’ ‘Runs’ or ‘Unplayable.’

Games that score perfect can run at 60+fps at 1080p resolution without glitches or other issues. Playable titles can hit 30+fps at 1080p with minimal issues, while games that ‘Run’ may have bugs that impact the experience. And the unplayable category covers games that don’t run at all for reasons like anti-cheat.

While the site doesn’t specify graphics settings — presumably, most of the games are running at the lowest settings—it does note when games use Microsoft’s AI upscaling to achieve the performance and resolution targets. The Verge highlights Borderlands 3 as an example, which runs roughly 60 percent faster using Auto Super Resolution (Auto SR) compared to native performance at 1440p. Auto SR leverages the powerful neural processing unit (NPU) that’s built into the Snapdragon X chips.

There are 747 titles that scored perfect, 502 scored playable, 212 can run, and only 19 tested titles scored unplayable. The unplayable titles include a mix of games, with popular titles like Fortnite and League of Legends not working. Humorously, Microsoft’s Mahjong and Solitaire Collection are also on the unplayable list.

Notably, Microsoft said that BattlEye anti-cheat does support ARM chips, so it shouldn’t prevent games that use it—like Fortnite—from working on ARM.

Moreover, Linaro warns on the website that the information is more of a guide and doesn’t guarantee games will run. Linaro encourages people with differing results to contribute to the guide.

Ultimately, it seems like Copilot + PC devices will be capable of at least some level of gaming, though these devices certainly won’t be replacing dedicated gaming hardware any time soon. That said, I also don’t think the Copilot + PCs announced so far are intended to be gaming devices. The focus so far appears to be thin, light laptops to take on Apple’s MacBook Air line, and that’s not exactly a gaming powerhouse either.

At the same time, gaming is a big part of Windows, so it’s likely only a matter of time before we see gaming hardware utilize these chips.

Source: Linaro Via: The Verge