Qualcomm may be working on official GPU drivers for running PC games on Android

High-end Android phones already have a ton of power, but there’s still one big thing holding them back from feeling like proper handhelds for PC games. New reports suggest Qualcomm is working on a fix that could make running demanding Windows titles a lot more realistic on Snapdragon-powered flagships.

At Snapdragon Summit 2026, the company showed off its newest flagship chips: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the even stronger 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. Both use a 2+6 Oryon CPU setup, with two Prime cores hitting up to 5GHz and six Performance cores going up to 4GHz.

The Extreme version also adds dedicated Adreno Matrix cores that handle AI tricks like super resolution and frame generation. They’ve already shown it working in games like Diablo Immortal, War Thunder Mobile, and Farming Simulator 26.

Even with all that muscle, these chips still struggle with a lot of modern PC games that depend on Microsoft’s DirectX 12. Right now, people get around it with tools like Winlator and GameHub, plus community graphics drivers such as Turnip. Those let some Windows/x86 games run on Android through Wine and translation layers, but the results are hit-or-miss.

That might be about to change. Chinese tech channel Geekerwan says Qualcomm is working on better official GPU drivers specifically for PC game translation, and is even looking at more direct DirectX 12 support on Android.

In hands-on tests on a Qualcomm reference device with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, they managed to get Cyberpunk 2077 and Black Myth: Wukong running in DirectX 12 mode through a translation layer. Both demanding games averaged just over 30 frames per second.

Qualcomm hasn’t officially confirmed native DirectX 12 support for the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series chips or anything coming after. When the topic came up in media sessions at the summit, the company only gave vague, indirect answers. Still, the fact that these engineering tests are already working suggests they’re actively exploring it.

If Qualcomm actually ships official drivers, or eventually adds proper native DirectX 12 support, it could make a real difference. Games should run more reliably, translation overhead should drop, and performance should feel a lot more consistent.

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(Source: Geekerwan)