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Qualcomm has introduced a brand new vary of chips aimed squarely at gaming handhelds. The best spec mannequin, the Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 2, is claimed to be over twice as quick as its predecessor. So, can it take the struggle to the Steam Deck and even AMD’s superior Phoenix APU in handheld’s just like the Asus ROG Ally?
The brand new Snapdragon vary for gaming handhelds includes three chips. Together with the aforementioned G3x Gen 2 are the G1 and the G2. The G1 is an ultra-low energy merchandise designed to help sport streaming on a handheld quite than operating video games regionally, whereas the G2 is a mid-tier merchandise analogous to a smartphone processor.
So, we are able to in the end dispence with the G1 and G2, they do not transfer the needle for efficiency. However what about that Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 beast? How does it examine to the AMD Aerith APU within the Steam Deck or the much more highly effective AMD Phoenix chip within the Asus ROG Ally and the plethora of gaming handhelds, new examples of which appear to look virtually each day?
That is fairly laborious to say given the wildly differing architectures and OS platforms. The G3x Gen 2 rocks an eight-core ARM CPU and peaks at round 15 to 18 watts, which is unquestionably extra Steam Deck than ROG Ally by way of energy consumption. Its Adreno A32 GPU is claimed to be over twice as quick as that of the G3x Gen 1 as used within the Razer Edge handheld, however it most likely must be given that could be a streaming-focussed system quite than one thing constructed to run AAA video games regionally.
When requested immediately by the Verge how the brand new chip compares to the plain handheld gaming incumbents, Qualcomm gaming director Mithun Chandrasekhar did not give a direct response, saying quite bombastically, “I can theoretically crank the efficiency to 2GHz and beat the dwelling s*** out of different handheld units, however then you definitely’d get half-hour of battery life.”
That means the G3x Gen 2 is prioritising battery life over outright efficiency, making it very completely different to the newest AMD Phoenix-powered handhelds which have very restricted run time on battery, particularly enjoying demanding video games in greater efficiency modes.
That stated, Qualcomm has produced a reference handheld design based mostly across the chip that appears each bit the Steam Deck killer. It sports activities a 6.8-inch 1080p-plus OLED sdisplay operating at 144Hz, packs 12GB of DDR5 and the chip additionally helps correct PCIe 4.0-spec SSD storage. So, yeah, this ain’t no glorified telephone.
The actual drawback for these Qualcomm chips, in fact, is software program and sport help. The variety of what you would possibly name high-end video games on Android is vanishingly few. Which begs the query of whether or not Qualcomm plans to help some sort of transcoding platform that would permit Home windows video games to run on the chip, very similar to Valve’s Proton and Apple’s Recreation Porting Toolkit layers?
The straightforward reply is sure, Qualcomm is engaged on that. The extra sophisticated reply involving precise particulars we’ll have to attend for.
All stated and executed, then, the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 does not instantly appear to have the makings of a Deck killer, a lot much less one thing that may tackle an Asus ROG Ally for pure efficiency.
Sure, the G3x Gen 2 appears to be pitched roughly at Steam Deck ranges of efficiency, which is not any dangerous factor. It is simply that does not depart loads of efficiency on the desk for operating non native x86 Home windows code in some sort of compatibility mode.
Not less than on the subject of moveable PC gaming, subsequently, these new Qualcomm chips most likely aren’t going to have a lot influence.
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