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Game on: Windows on Snapdragon delivers major performance boosts and more

Discover the new Snapdragon Control Panel, benefit from crucial AVX2 emulation and enjoy enhanced compatibility
Written by
Kevin Hawkins
Nov 19, 2025
3 min read
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What you should know:
  • With the new Snapdragon Control Panel, users can optimize game settings and keep drivers up to date.
  • Downloadable graphics drivers and AVX2 emulation can bring better performance and support for more games.
  • Fortnite and improved anti-cheat compatibility are now available on Snapdragon X Series devices.


The Snapdragon X Series gaming ecosystem is growing and solidifying quickly.  

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and Snapdragon X2 Elite represent the fastest and most efficient processors for the Windows ecosystem,* delivering a legendary leap forward in terms of performance. And we’re now unlocking the platform’s graphics capabilities with several updates, making gaming on a thin-and-light laptop better than ever.

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Snapdragon Control Panel

We’re ecstatic to announce general availability of Snapdragon Control Panel, succeeding Qualcomm Adreno Control Panel for developers earlier this year.

The new Snapdragon Control Panel automatically detects the games, including your Steam library, that you have installed on your device and then lets you modify settings to optimize quality and performance via an application profile manager. These settings include super resolution, framerate cap, anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, level of detail and texture filtering — with more still to come.

Users can also stay up to date with the latest drivers. Snapdragon Control Panel notifies you when new drivers are available and seamlessly installs them, so your devices with Snapdragon X Series are up to date. Meaning you can play the latest titles with better stability, performance and quality with continuously improving graphics drivers.

Snapdragon Control Panel is available for download here. 

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Downloadable graphics drivers

With downloadable graphics drivers, owners of devices powered by Snapdragon X Series can keep their device’s Adreno GPU graphics drivers updated to get the best out of the system’s capabilities.

The latest Adreno GPU driver is here, and it includes: 

  • Fixes and improvements for 100+ games since launch.
  • Bug fixes for app & system stability.
  • Day 0 support and availability of upgradable graphics drivers (UGD) for Snapdragon X2 Elite, available first half of 2026.

 

AVX emulation released in Windows

X86 Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX and AVX2) are crucial for some games and apps, and are now supported on Snapdragon X Series Platforms through improvements to Microsoft’s Prism Emulator. Unlock more games and get the best performance today through Windows Update.

 

Fortnite, Easy Anti-Cheat and improved multiplayer compatibility

Everyone’s favorite battle royale, Fortnite, is now available and optimized with UGD with performance optimizations (release v121.1 or later). 

This was made possible with support for Epic Online Services’ Easy Anti-Cheat, we have worked with developers to provide Kernel Level Anti-cheat support for Windows on Snapdragon.  

Plus, we’re working with leading anti-cheat service providers to make sure you can jump into the lobbies of your favorite games. They include: 

  • Tencent’s Anti-Cheat Expert (ACE)
  • Roblox’s Hyperion
  • Denuvo by Irdeto
  • InProtect GameGuard
  • BattleEye
  • Uncheater

 

We can’t wait for you to experience these improvements for yourself:

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Opinions expressed in the content posted here are the personal opinions of the original authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Qualcomm Incorporated or its subsidiaries ("Qualcomm"). The content is provided for informational purposes only and is not meant to be an endorsement or representation by Qualcomm or any other party. This site may also provide links or references to non-Qualcomm sites and resources. Qualcomm makes no representations, warranties, or other commitments whatsoever about any non-Qualcomm sites or third-party resources that may be referenced, accessible from, or linked to this site.

Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

References:

*CPU performance & power is based on Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core score on Windows 11 OS, run in September 2025. Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) was tested using a Qualcomm reference design. Intel Core Ultra 9 285H was tested using an ASUS Zephyrus G16 (GU605CP). Intel Core Ultra 9 288V was tested using an Acer Swift 16 AI OLED (SF16-51T-98SE). AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 was tested using a ASUS Vivobook S14 (M5406). Maximum performance reflected by Intel platforms represent maximum achievable results in given platforms under unconstrained PL1/PL2 settings and no thermal limitations. Maximum performance reflected by AMD platforms represent maximum achievable results in unconstrained SlowLimit/FastLimit settings and no thermal limitations. Power and performance comparison reflects results based on measurements and hardware instrumentation of given devices. Lowest power and performance figures may not represent the lowest achievable platform power and performance. Idle-normalized platform power is measured with idle periods removed.

About the Author
Kevin Hawkins
Kevin HawkinsSenior Director, Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
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Qualcomm relentlessly innovates to deliver intelligent computing everywhere, helping the world tackle some of its most important challenges. Our leading-edge AI, high performance, low-power computing, and unrivaled connectivity deliver proven solutions that transform major industries. At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress.

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