Qualcomm promises major improvements for PC gaming on Snapdragon-powered Windows 11 PCs — with anti-cheat support, Razer peripherals, and more in the pipeline

Snapdragon X2 Elite gaming enhancements
Gaming on Snapdragon and Arm-based Windows 11 PCs is about to get a lot better. (Image credit: Qualcomm)

During yesterday's Snapdragon Summit keynote, Qualcomm confirmed that major improvements are in the pipeline for games on Snapdragon-based Windows 11 on Arm PCs. It's fair to say that gaming has been somewhat of a letdown on Arm-based PCs so far, but Qualcomm is promising that big updates are on the way that will improve the experience.

"We've made some tremendous progress with gaming. We are collaborating across the industry to bring more titles to Snapdragon" said Qualcomm's Kedar Kondap on stage. With the new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, popular AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are seeing 2x performance gains over the current Snapdragon X Elite, which is a huge jump in performance year-over-year.

Additionally, Kondap confirmed that Epic is bringing its Anti-Cheat Software and Game Services to Windows on Arm. "Epic's Anti-Cheat Software and Game Services are now available to Windows Insiders ... This will open up a whole new catalog of titles like Fortnite, Gears of War: Reloaded, and many more."

It's not just Epic that's looking to support Windows on Arm either. Razer has announced that it's bringing its Razer Synapse software to Arm, which will allow Snapdragon-powered PCs to configure and customize Razer's peripherals with RGB and more with no compatibility issues. Razer's CEO confirmed the plans during the keynote:

"We believe that devices powered by Snapdragon represent a powerful opportunity to reach more gamers with high-perf experiences. We are actively working with Qualcomm to bring Razer synapse to Windows on Snapdragon as part of the growing ecosystem that's reshaping how gamers connect, customize, and compete ... We are excited about what Snapdragon unlocks for the future of gaming."

Qualcomm also announced that the upcoming title Alien: Rogue Incursion will be available on Snapdragon PCs, and that it will leverage the on-board NPU to power a unique in-game AI experience that uses a large language model for real-time character recognition. No other details were given.

Voicemod, another popular app with gamers, is also gaining support for Windows on Arm and will leverage the NPU on Snapdragon PCs to process the real-time vocal synthesizers and effects that are possible using that application, letting you transform your voice into a robot and more without impacting the CPU or GPU.

Of course, it remains to be seen how long it takes for all these promises to materialize on Arm-based Windows 11 PCs. Qualcomm says Epic's Anti-Cheat support is already in testing in the Windows Insider Canary Channel, which should hopefully mean it'll begin rolling out some time in 2026. As for the rest, we don't know when Razer or Voicemod intend to begin rolling out their Arm-native updates.

Zac Bowden
Senior Editor

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central and has been with the site since 2016. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows, Surface, and hardware. He's also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter and Threads

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.