There are hundreds and even thousands of chips in every single smartphone. The one that people care about the most is definitely the processor, because it directly determines how powerful your phone is and whether games can run smoothly. But is buying an expensive flagship phone the only option to improve the gaming experience? Of course not. The realme P4 Pro is only equipped with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor, yet its gaming experience can reach flagship-level performance. All of this is thanks to a chip from Pixelworks: the X7 Gen2 Visual Processor.
Realme P4 Pro
The Realme P4 series is designed specifically for the Indian market. Take the P4 Pro as an example: it comes with a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a massive 7000mAh battery with 80W wired charging, a 144Hz curved display, and an ultra-slim body. Even its design bears a striking resemblance to the newly released iPhone 17 Pro series. As a mid-range phone, it performs remarkably well. If there’s one shortcoming, it would be the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, which lacks a bit of raw power. But as mentioned earlier, Realme has equipped the device with a Pixelworks chip to make up for that final weakness.
Pixelworks X7 Gen2 Visual Processor
The X7 series of chips is probably no stranger to some users, as they have been used in models such as the OnePlus 12 and Ace 3. However, the realme P4 series is probably the cheapest model you can buy with the Pixelworks X7 Gen2. With the help of this chip, your phone can boost the frame rate of hundreds of games to as high as 144fps, and increase the resolution to 1.5K. It can also convert SDR images to HDR, allowing every player to experience an ultimate level of gaming.
So is the Pixelworks X7 Gen2 really that magical? Can it truly elevate the gaming experience of a budget phone? Real-world testing is the best evidence. This chip currently provides AI Hyper Motion, AI Hyper Clarity, and AI Always-On HDR features for Genshin Impact, so we chose it as the benchmark game to test the actual effects of each function.
AI Hyper Motion: Boost frame rate
The most important feature of the Pixelworks X7 Gen2 is AI Hyper Motion, which is the frame interpolation function. For now, you can choose to enhance the frame rate up to 144. Running Genshin Impact at 144 frames on the realme P4 Pro is no longer a difficult task for the X7 Gen2. But apart from the average frame rate, there are many other data points worth noting, such as Repeat FPS and Generated FPS.
Both of these metrics can be measured using the PerfDog testing tool. To make this possible, Pixelworks partnered with PerfDog to jointly develop the “Frame Generation” metric. This provides stronger data support for evaluating gaming performance and helps redefine the testing standard for AI frame interpolation. Simply put, the lower the Repeat FPS and the higher the Generated FPS, the better the gaming experience.
You can see that the Repeat FPS on the realme P4 Pro is very low, with a maximum of only 4fps. This indicates that the X7 Gen2 Visual Processor’s interpolation success rate is very high, meaning you can hardly feel any stuttering. But the prerequisite for achieving this effect is that your graphics quality cannot be set too high. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4’s performance cannot generate enough frames under higher graphics settings, so when running at high graphics with very complex scenes, the interpolation function may fail.
But this is not the problem of the Pixelworks X7 Gen2—it is because the base frame rate at high graphics is insufficient, making it impossible to continue working. Simply put, the performance of the phone’s processor affects its performance. However, lowering the graphics quality allows you to break free from the 60fps limitation, and enjoying 144fps in most games is already far ahead of other phones at the same price.
Latency
True geek players would also care about latency, screen tearing, and power consumption after enabling frame interpolation. Even when comparing the gameplay in slow motion before and after frame interpolation, it’s almost impossible to notice any input delay. Screen tearing is also negligible—even in slow-motion playback, it is hard to distinguish any difference from the original picture. AI Hyper Motion certainly has almost no negative impact on gaming.
AI Hyper Motion: Optimise battery use
If you don’t want to interpolate to 144fps, only want to stabilize the frame rate to reduce power consumption and lower temperature, then you can enable the second option of AI Hyper Motion.
Here, we can compare the data before and after enabling this option, and the results are obvious. Whether it is average frame rate, stutter count, or 1% Low, the performance after enabling is significantly better than before. Power consumption does not change much, and the temperature is much lower than when it is not enabled. Because this option does not trigger interpolation, latency will certainly be lower than option one. If you are playing PVP mobile games, I would recommend enabling this option.
SDR2HDR & Resolution enhancement
Since the X7 Gen2 can perform frame interpolation for games, of course, it can also do so for videos. MEMC should be familiar to everyone, and for sports fans who often watch matches on their phones, this is great news. I don’t need to say much—just by looking at the footage, you will know which one is the better choice.
You can also enable AI Hyper Clarity and AI Always-On HDR in games. The details of character and background models will increase, and contrast will also change slightly. There are also some changes that screenshots cannot capture, such as saturation, which can be clearly seen when recording the screen with a camera.
Summary
After a bunch of tests, it can be proven that the Pixelworks X7 Gen2 Visual Processor greatly enhances both gaming and video experiences. Especially for gaming, phones equipped with this chip can break frame rate limits, achieve higher frame rates with lower power consumption, and lower temperatures.
Currently, both variants of the realme P4 series are equipped with Pixelworks X7 Gen2, and PVP games such as Battlegrounds Mobile India and Free Fire also support all of the above features. For viewers who want a good gaming experience without spending too much money, they are definitely worth considering.
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