News Copilot+ PCs are getting better at gaming, says Microsoft — Prism optimizations and anti-cheat software compatibility celebrated

[Admin]

Microsoft is continuously working on improvements to make gaming on Windows 11 on Arm possible, ensuring gamers can use Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs for their favorite past time.

Copilot+ PCs are getting better at gaming, says Microsoft — Prism optimizations and anti-cheat software compatibility celebrated : Read more

 

[ezst036]

Seems like Linux might be ahead on this one.

Why "wait" for Windows/ARM to catch up to Windows/x86 in this regard when Windows isn't the generic OS it used to be years ago? Microsoft built advertisements into it these days. (Windows + Advertisements)

 

[CmdrShepard]

The company even showed off a video of Baldur’s Gate 3 running on a Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ PC, and it showed relatively good performance, although we don’t know the specifications of the device used for this demo.

Relative to what? Potato?

 

[vijosef]

Nice, but I won't buy an arm computer until it has a top RTX/AMD gpu, fully functional, and I can run my own AI.

 

[defunctup]

Mod edit

really bringing politics into this? can mods remove these irrelevant comments based on misinformation?

 

[kealii123]

Relative to what? Potato?

From what I'm seeing, its a little better than AMD 780m (iGPU) native, and a little worse when emulating a "good" game, but many (upwards of 1/4) emulate poorly and run terrible.

Initially I was pretty disappointed; the M3 max is almost as good as an RTX 4070 laptop, but these first Qualcomm chips are super cheap and undercutting AMD/Intel by quite a bit. They are more comparable in performance and price to the Apple Silicon M3 base, but not nearly as power efficient. Honestly, the best hope for mobile gaming in a steamdeck form factor is Asahi Linux. It would be fun to 3D print a body and shove a macbook air mainboard in there, assuming you can find an 8" screen with the same PIN layout

 

[JamesJones44]

the M3 max is almost as good as an RTX 4070 laptop

Depends on the game, the performance ranges widely based on if the game is native or translated, but the raw performance is about on par with a 4070 mobile according to GFXBench and Notebook check. There are a couple of sites that go trough the list of compatible games and their general performance. Apple has had the benefit of 3+ years of refinement and developers targeting their SoC (not to mention light versions that ran on iPhones). IDK if Qualcomm and Windows ARM will get that far, but the original M1 and M1 Max wasn't all that great with gaming when they first launched, now they are decent with games that target Apple Silicon natively.

Mac M1 Games: Native & Rosetta 2 supported games | Mac Gamer HQ

www.macgamerhq.com

 

[mac_angel]

sounds like a way to push a lot of people that don't want AI snooping; forcing them to get an upgrade just to be able to be compatible with games.

 

[Li Ken-un]

really bringing politics into this? can mods remove these irrelevant comments based on misinformation?

Sometimes a lost soul from W**ft*ch manages to wander out of their play pen.

 

[LabRat 891]

Anti-cheat provider collaboration​

Importantly, Microsoft has also been working closely with anti-cheat providers like BattlEye, Denuvo Anti-Cheat, and Wellbia XIGNCODE3 to ensure that these apps work despite the emulation. Most advanced anti-cheat apps work at the kernel driver level, so Microsoft and Qualcomm needed to work in advance to ensure that these anti-cheat apps would be available and work on launch. The availability of these anti-cheat apps ensures gamers can enjoy multiplayer games on Windows 11 on Arm.

If you’re considering a Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ PC right now but you’re also a gaming enthusiast, you’re going to love the Windows on Arm Ready Software page created by Linaro. This open-source database catalogs all the games you can run on Windows on Arm, with Microsoft and Qualcomm contributing almost 1,400 validated games. So, you should visit this page first before buying that PC to ensure that your favorite titles are supported.

According to Statista, the market revenue of the global video game industry currently sits at a massive $455 billion. So, ignoring the over two billion gamers globally would not be wise for Snapdragon and Windows on Arm. The power and efficiency of these new Windows laptops are great things on paper, but they’re pretty useless to gamers if they cannot rely on them to run their favorite titles.

No thanks.
Low-Level/Kernal Anti-Cheat and DRM is a bane upon every PC gamer.
['Bout ready to make Nostalgialand my home, and settle in.]

Might be interested if Prism facilitates smooth pre-DX10 era gaming, though.

Would be quite the achievement if x86-16 and x86-32 legacy applications ran better through Prism on an ARM platform, than in a modern-native x86-64 environment.

 

[wwenze1]

What if you tell copilot to help you cheat?

And if copilot rejects, doesn't that prove AI wants to control you? Will it ban us from visiting gamefaqs next to prevent cheating?

 

[abufrejoval]

What's going on with the Snapdragon Elite testing? Have they given up already?
There has got to be more than Cinebench scores to report!

I'd like to know things like:

1. How do they boot? Is this UEFI or some type of UBOOT?
2. Can you configure things in a BIOS like
   • deactivate NPU, CPU cores, ports
   • deactivate secure boot e.g. to enable Linux or import custom keys
   • change the boot order and boot from USB or network
   • adjust cTDP settings e.g. for silent mode?
3. Do they enforce Bitlocker or can it be disabled (e.g. for easier transport/swap/copy of NVMe drives)?
4. Does Windows run virtualized (HVCI) for security/hardening, is Hyper-V supported already and WSL working?
5. Any idea if tagged memory extensions are turned on and used by Windows OS and major components?
6. What's TME look like for MS Office and browsers?
7. Can you confirm ARM 8.7 and report the supported optional ISA extensions?
8. Driver support for USB/TB Ethernet NICs?
9. Driver support for USB4/TB docks, IP over TB?
10. Alt-DP tests, available resolutions, refresh rates (variable for monitors?), chaining

Is that so niche that it's not worth reporting on?

And what about how long these laptops last in suspend to RAM, how fast they resume or if in fact they finally manage to operate in some other ultra-low power mode where they can be used like mobile phones that is never quite off and the "power button" tends to be used for snaps?

That would be far more interesting than their local gaming performance IMHO.

Yet I do like using my laptos with Steam remote so the kids can use their gaming rigs also for face-to-face battles at the dinner table, so a Steam client is pretty much a must-have for that.

Does anyone else hear a deafening silence with regards to the practical and tangible advantages of the ARM revolution on personal computers that aren't from the original fruity cult?