Qualcomm was the first chipmaker to introduce support for updateable GPU drivers with the launch of Snapdragon 865. A few months later, ARM also announced support for the same. That said, Xiaomi became the first OEM to release an app to update GPU drivers on its devices earlier this year. The company was later followed by OPPO and vivo. Now, Samsung has also joined this bandwagon with its new GameDriver app.
Smartphones are the gateway to the internet in many developing nations. They are also the people’s first computer and gaming device. Therefore, with the introduction of more affordable smartphones, the smartphone gaming industry has been growing at a higher rate than ever before.
As a result, a new breed of handsets called gaming smartphones emerged. Even companies began to promote gaming on their devices no matter whether it is a premium or budget device.
With the growth of this industry, chipmakers added support for updateable GPU drivers just like on PC. Therefore, with a proper app, OEMs can deliver GPU driver updates without relying on system updates. This also allows them to fix issues quickly.
Coming back to Samsung, the South Korean tech giant calls its GPU updater app GameDriver and it is part of the firm’s Galaxy GameDev initiative. There are two variants of this app, one for ARM Mali GPUs (Exynos-powered phones) and another for Qualcomm Adreno GPUs (Snapdragon-powered phones). Both of them are available on Google Play Store as well as Samsung Galaxy Store.
Currently, these apps are only applicable to the Galaxy S20 series and Galaxy Note20 series. Also, they only support the following games – Call of Duty: Mobile, Black Desert, and Fortnite.
Having said that, we can expect the support to extend for more handsets and games in the coming months since Samsung has partnered with more than 50 game studios, publishers, tool developers, game engine companies, and GPU vendors.
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(Via)
