Qualcomm’s attempts to enter the laptop market have spanned many years. It wasn’t until the previous generation of Snapdragon X series that significant attention was garnered. However， the ecosystem’s compatibility has consistently been a stumbling block， and Qualcomm’s promised GPU driver updates have also been notably infrequent.
Recently， the Adreno GPU driver has finally received a substantial upgrade to version 31.0.121.0. This update primarily focuses on improving game stability and performance， enhancing professional application performance， and strengthening display support.
It’s important to note that this new driver still exclusively supports the Snapdragon X Elite， Snapdragon X Plus， and Snapdragon X series. The next generation of Snapdragon X2 Elite series devices have not yet been released.
Key improvements include:
- Enhanced game stability and quality for titles such as Coral Island， DIRT 5， Dota 2， Final Fantasy XV， Ghost Recon Breakpoint， Granblue Fantasy: Relink， Horizon Zero Dawn， Red Dead Redemption 2， Valheim， and World War Z.
- Improved game performance in Alien: Rogue Incursion and Fortnite.
- Better application stability and performance for AutoCAD and Adobe Camera Raw 16.5.
- Strengthened display support， including:
- Support for DP 1.1 HBR2 mode.
- Enhanced compatibility and reliability with a wide range of displays.
- New feedback mechanisms to read display information during errors.
- A bug fix for DFP port display connections to ensure maximum resolution.
- Improved developer support with the addition of OpenCL cl_khr_external_semaphore_dx_fence extension support.
New driver download address:
For the Snapdragon X series GPU drivers， many players have voiced considerable complaints. The primary issues include:
- Infrequent update frequency: Updates can take weeks， or even months， to arrive， a pace that starkly contrasts with NVIDIA and AMD. This makes it difficult for users to benefit from timely bug fixes and performance enhancements.
- Perceived incomplete driver state: Many users feel that even to this day， the Snapdragon X GPU drivers still appear unfinished. Both stability and performance are considered unsatisfactory， with a limited number of customizable options available in the control panel. This suggests a potential lack of optimization or an ongoing development phase.
- OEM support challenges: Users of Snapdragon X laptops from brands like Lenovo and Samsung often find that official Qualcomm drivers are either blocked or flagged as incompatible. While manual installation is possible， it frequently leads to issues with other hardware components， such as webcams and power management. This fragmentation of driver support highlights the complexities of the PC ecosystem.
It is evident that the journey for Snapdragon PCs is still long and arduous.
