Earlier Qualcomm held the Snapdragon Technology Summit, in this summit, in addition to the official release of the new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform that everyone pays the most attention to, it also announced a game platform created by Qualcomm specifically for mobile games - the 1st generation Snapdragon G3x game platform.
In fact, don't think about it, these various moves reveal a message: in 2022, Qualcomm will shine in mobile games.
Because whether it is the new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform or the first generation of Snapdragon G3x game platform, its performance improvements and various optimizations for the operation experience are clearly designed for mobile games. In addition, Qualcomm has also cooperated with many game makers and game engine companies to optimize, which is definitely a big positive for mobile game players.
We may wish to review the configuration of the new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform and the 1st generation of Snapdragon G3x game platform in terms of specific performance, perhaps you can roughly understand how much Qualcomm has improved in terms of games.
4nm process, the new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform
The first is the new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform, which is also the biggest focus of this Snapdragon Technology Summit. Snapdragon 8 is built using Samsung 4nm process, consisting of 1 Cortex-X2 new big core (3.0GHz) + 3 Cortex-A710 (2.5GHz) + 4 Cortex-A510 (1.8GHz), official data indicates that its new generation of large core Cortex-X2 can have a 20% increase in computing performance compared to the previous generation, while its power consumption is reduced by 30%.
It is worth noting that the GPU part of the Snapdragon 8 does not continue to label the specific model as the previous generation (which is also the "concise" performance after the Snapdragon renaming convention), but the official said that the new generation of Qualcomm Adreno GPUs can have a 30% increase in computing performance or a 25% reduction in power consumption. The point is that the new generation of Qualcomm Adreno GPUs has improved Vulkan performance by 60%, and the progress is more obvious.
Snapdragon has also developed the Adreno GPU control panel, which will also be available to users. Here users can adjust game frame rate priority, game resolution, anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, etc. Another biggest feature is that the control panel supports Adreno GPU driver updates, and there is no need to wait for the upgrade package push of various manufacturers. In this way, in the future, Qualcomm can also optimize the Adreno GPU driver according to the development of the technical direction and push it to all users using Snapdragon 8 for the first time, so the performance potential of this GPU can continue to be developed.
Snapdragon 8 is certainly not just an improvement in the hardware part, Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite Gaming also welcomes new game features.
VRS Pro (Variable Resolution Rendering Plus): Building on the previous VRS technology, VRS Pro can also support developers to set variable resolutions based on screen position, enabling the GPU to render large and small pixel groups more efficiently. Provides game developers with finer rendering granularity control, greatly enhancing game performance at the same power resources.
Adreno Frame Motion Engine (Adreno Image Motion Engine): With historical frame data and GPU-optimized motion estimation, games using this technology can perform at nearly twice the frame count at the same power consumption, while maintaining low power consumption at ultra-smooth frame rates.
Stereoscopic rendering: You can realize the particle graphics of the end game level, create a realistic smoke effect, and even float or flow freely according to the environmental conditions, providing players with a more realistic game screen.
So far, Qualcomm has developed more than 50 Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, providing users and game manufacturers with a better experience.
In fact, looking back at Qualcomm's increasingly rich Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, whether it is the previous PBR, True HDR, VRS, or Snapdragon 8 VRS Pro, stereoscopic rendering and other features, Qualcomm in order to bring more terminal game-level game experience to the mobile game platform.
The 1st Generation Snapdragon G3x and development kit for gaming
In order to develop a new track in the field of mobile gaming, a new game platform designed for games was also launched at the Snapdragon Technology Summit - the 1st generation Snapdragon G3x game platform.
The new SoC official has not revealed more specific details for the time being, but on the PPT at the press conference site, it can be seen that the 1st generation Snapdragon G3x is using four large and four small eight-core architecture, 14MB total cache. Four of the large cores are all up to 3.0GHz. The four Cortex-X1 cores are piled up, and the performance is basically standing, and it is said that the overall performance performance is similar to that of the new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform.
In addition, the 1st Generation Snapdragon G3x also supports 144 frames of high frame rate games, 1 billion 10-bit HDR displays, Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 mobile connection system, support for 5G networks and Wi-Fi 6E, Snapdragon Sound Snapdragon listening technology and AKSys-powered high-precision game controller mapping technology, 4K 60 frames of screen output and various Snapdragon Elite Gaming features.
In order to let more game manufacturers and hardware manufacturers join in, Qualcomm also joined hands with Razer to launch a development kit equipped with the 1st generation of Snapdragon G3x. The development kit is powered by a 1080P 120Hz OLED screen, a large 6000 mAh battery and a 5-megapixel front camera for easy live streaming.
Due to the product has sufficient internal space, coupled with active air cooling and heat dissipation, it is foreseeable that it will have excellent performance release. Enjoy the next two or three years of mobile platform high-quality games, there should be no problem.
The development kit launched by Qualcomm and Razer is just to give everyone a sample, and if you want to build a handheld form of Android game hardware platform, it is naturally not a family that can do it.
Everything is ready, and the east wind is about to rise
After the software and hardware have been fully prepared, the game platform including smart phones and handhelds wants to be developed, and win-win cooperation will always be the main theme.
In addition to the optimization of cooperation with major game content producers around the world, cooperation with game engines that carry game content itself is a top priority.
At present, many mobile AAA games are made on Unity Engine and Unreal Engine, and Qualcomm has long cooperated with them to port these two mainstream game engines to the Android platform. Over the years of collaboration, Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite Gaming features have allowed many top game developers to get the most out of both game engines.
Qualcomm has now developed a proprietary optimization in Unreal Engine for Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, a technology that AAA games focus on when simulating ambient light interactions in environments. Compared to the UE4 standard scheme, Qualcomm's optimizations can improve performance by more than 60%. On the Snapdragon platform, Qualcomm also improved the performance of Unreal Engine's Time Domain Anti-Aliasing Technology (TAA) by 50%.
The point is that Qualcomm will bring a highly optimized Unreal Engine 5 mobile version to the new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform next year, when not only will more boutique games land on the Snapdragon platform, Snapdragon will also further bring the end-game level experience to the mobile game platform.
Those familiar with the gaming industry know that The Unreal Engine 5's two biggest new features, Nanite and Lumen, will deliver the ultimate in high-precision polygon geometry detail and full-motion global illumination. The implementation of these functions has a great impact on the game industry and even the film and television industry, and how much the Unreal Engine 5 engine on the mobile side can bring to game manufacturers and users is naturally what we are most concerned about.
But it is foreseeable that with the development and growth of Snapdragon devices, equipped with the new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform and the first generation of Snapdragon G3x game platform equipment on the listing, Qualcomm's game empire is gradually improving. The huge volume of the Snapdragon platform itself will further attract game manufacturers to enter, and the track of mobile games can be regarded as making Qualcomm wider.