Microsoft Issues Gaming and AV Warnings for Snapdragon-Based Copilot+ PCs

Microsoft recently introduced an impressive line of Copilot+ computers. Equipped with Snapdragon X Series processors, these new computers have fantastic battery life and offer strong performance in many applications. Gamers interested in graphics performance should be aware of a few potential drawbacks, however.

While Microsoft isn’t positioning the Copilot+ PCs for gamers, it’s natural that some users will want to game in their free time. Microsoft has a support document that lists several shortcomings of the current Arm architecture that the Snapdragon X chips are based on.

First, drivers for various pieces of hardware needed for most modern games need to be written specifically for Arm-based Windows 11 computers. This also applies to some work programs that may not run on Arm without specific drivers for certain hardware. Apple successfully used Rosetta 2 to make its Arm-based Apple chip work with Intel-based Mac software during the transition, and Microsoft has Prism, but even emulation relies on proper driver support for any hardware used for acceleration or special software features.

Secondly, games that have built-in anti-cheat features that aren’t native to Windows-On-Arm simply won’t work. This removes a significant portion of popular games, making the library available to Snapdragon users significantly smaller compared to x86.

While Microsoft has hailed the Copilot+ AI PCs as the wave of the future, these gaming limitations may put off some potential customers. For games that do work, graphics performance was inconsistent across titles. Much like Intel took time to develop drivers for its Arc line of GPUs, Qualcomm will need time to optimize drivers for its Adreno GPUs on the Windows 11 platform.

In today’s age of portable hardware like Steam Deck, gamers can get impressive performance out of small devices. These Copilot+ computers are designed for productivity users, so suboptimal game performance isn’t as much of an issue. Content creators who rely on graphics performance, like 3D artists, may run into similar limitations, though many of the most popular apps are native to Arm and work well.

Microsoft provides a variety of questions in its support documents that can help new users overcome the initial growing pains. Be sure to check the Microsoft knowledge base if you run into any issues.