With Microsoft unveiling its Qualcomm-powered Copilot+ PCs recently, there was much expectation among gamers that the Snapdragon x Elite laptops would herald in a promising new era of lightweight and highly-capable gaming laptops however James McWhirter Senior Analyst Games at Informer in the UK is not so sure.

The relaunch of Windows on Arm also coincided with the arrival of the Copilot+ PCs. Copilot+ PCs feature dedicated hardware that can run AI models on-device, thanks to NPUs that can support trillions of operations per second.

Over a dozen PC makers have already launched Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm’s Arm-based Snapdragon X hardware platform.

Previous-generation processors built using the Arm architecture were unable to compete with processors on the x86 architecture from the likes of Intel and AMD, according to Game Developer.

Microsoft and Qualcomm have promised Arm devices that now offer greater power efficiency and performance compared to previous generation x86 processors from AMD and Intel.

“Windows 11 24H2 includes many new capabilities that utilise the high-performance hardware of Copilot+ PCs and new software optimisations,” wrote Microsoft’s Jay DiFuria. “Copilot+ PCs are a new class of Windows 11 PCs, including Arm-powered devices that are powered by the Snapdragon X Series. [They] have cutting-edge new processing power coming from the CPU, GPU, and NPU (neural processing unit). This new hardware, in combination with innovations in Windows 11, is a step forward for Arm gaming.”

Microsoft has reportedly developed a translation layer, called Prism, to improve Windows on Arm’s compatibility with x86 software.

As of the beginning of last month, there was a library of approximately more than 110,000 PC games published on Steam native to the x86 architecture.

Just over 1,300 PC games have been independently tested for compatibility on Windows on Arm by the PC gaming community, including players and developers.

Omdia analysis of this subset of tested games shows that a little over half (55 per cent) of games run smoothly without bugs or glitches.

McWhirter claims that Qualcomm’s nascent hardware is holding back the devices from realising their full potential for gaming.

Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU’s drivers are believed to be in an immature state and don’t allow its graphics hardware to fully interface with the graphical demands of PC games.

Following the relaunch of Windows on Arm in June 2024, Arm-based Windows devices accounted for just 0.05 per cent of Steam users according to Valve’s Steam hardware survey.

Until mass adoption occurs, game publishers are not incentivised to produce native versions of their software.

Omdia’s Mobile PC Market Tracker estimates that Arm-based laptops will account for just 1 per cent of shipments of consumer laptops shipped with the Windows operating system in 2024. That situation will improve over the coming years. This share is expected to grow to 30 per cent by 2029.

Even if publishers were to begin producing Arm-native versions of their games today, the vast majority release games via third-party distribution platforms.

Microsoft doesn’t support local playback of Xbox PC games on Arm devices via the preinstalled Xbox app on Windows 11. Also, Steam, the world’s largest PC games distribution platform, is focused on serving the existing x86 audience.

Publishers cannot distribute Arm versions of their software on Steam and this reduces publishers’ incentive to better support the currently small audience on Windows on Arm, reducing Steam’s incentive to support Arm devices.

In early 2024, Sarah Bond, President of Xbox, announced the formation of a team dedicated to forwards-compatibility of its games catalogue that spans PC and console, though this is unlikely to happen before 2026.

With Qualcomm’s graphic drivers still in need of improvements, other hardware vendors such as Nvidia entering the Windows on Arm space could improve the situation with their mature graphics driver, but Omdia doesn’t anticipate this to happen until 2026.