Snapdragon 8 Elite-Powered Phones Will Play PC Games, Thanks to Linux Support
Qualcomm’s newly revealed Snapdragon 8 Elite is good news for gamers who want to run PC games on their (upcoming) mobile devices. Thanks to the Linux kernel folks, the Snapdragon 8 Elite will have day-one support for Linux and should be able to play PC games with emulation apps like Winlator.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can already play PC games like Far Cry and Fallout 4 on a Samsung Galaxy S24. The 8 Elite will likely offer better performance with PC emulation, though just how much remains to be seen. Emulation typically is an inefficient way to run games—but without native support, it’s the best way to get the job done. And the 8 Elite seems powerful enough to deliver playable frame rates in many titles.
Naturally, the SoC will also provide a serious performance bump over its predecessors in native mobile games. Should developers port existing IP to use the Snapdragon 8 Elite directly, we might see some noteworthy titles coming to Android in the upcoming years.
TechSpot:
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Snapdragon 8 Elite arrives with Linux support, potentially unlocking PC gaming on phones and tablets | TechSpot
Qualcomm engineering director Trilok Soni recently confirmed that the company's Linux team published Linux kernel updates for the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. Qualcomm unveiled the SoC earlier this month, targeting a new generation of flagship phones and tablets supporting Android and Linux.
Vendors such as Asus, Honor, OnePlus, Samsung, and Xiaomi are expected to launch products powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite over the coming weeks. Linux compatibility will enable power users to run full-fledged PC applications on the devices, but doing so will likely require much tinkering. The possibilities will also depend on modders' willingness to develop tools to bridge mobile devices, Linux, and possibly Windows.