With Microsoft’s new Surfaces leading a wave of Copilot Plus PCs powered by Arm chips that could reshape our expectations of Windows laptops, you might be wondering: Do they play games?
We had already seen some examples, such as Baldur’s Gate 3 It is To control – but at Build, Microsoft and Qualcomm just revealed a new website with many more examples. WorksOnWoA.com has apparently already tested 1,481 games on the Surface Laptop and other devices with Arm-based Snapdragon Executes” or “Unplayable”.
Here’s what each of these terms means, according to to Linarothe Arm engineering group that built the site and counts Microsoft and Qualcomm among its supporters:
Perfect: runs at more than 60 FPS with 1080p resolution without glitches/issues that affect the gaming experience
Playable: Runs at 30+ FPS at 1080p resolution with minimal glitches/issues affecting the gaming experience
Runs: Runs with bugs that may affect the gameplay experience
Unplayable: Does not work due to anti-cheat or other flaws
Unfortunately, the site does not specify graphics settings – it is quite possible that they are running at the lowest levels of detail. Some of them are also using Microsoft’s AI upscaling to achieve the frame rate and resolution target, although the website tracks this too.
In a Build session, Microsoft and Qualcomm showed us how Frontiers 3 runs about 60 percent faster with Auto Super Resolution compared to native 1440p, taking advantage of the Qualcomm chip’s NPU, for example:
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Image: Microsoft
Although Auto Super Res could maintain the same frame rate at a higher effective resolution:
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Image: Microsoft
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Image: Microsoft
Anyway, 747 games are currently listed running at “perfect” 1080p and 60fps, including Ultimate Edition Controland it should be easy to verify Linaro’s findings when the final devices are released.
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Image: Linaro
Here is the full list of 19 “unplayable” games so far, as Fortnite, Roblox, It is PUBGmany of which notoriously don’t run on the Steam Deck due to its anti-cheat measures:
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Image: Linaro
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Image: Linaro
Microsoft says the BattlEye anti-cheat system supports Arm, although the support wouldn’t necessarily be enough to get major games that use it onto the Steam Deck.
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Image: Microsoft
As for the accuracy of these tests, Linaro says:
The information is intended to serve as a guide, but does not absolutely guarantee that the game will run. The results have been tested, but may not work on your specific machine and configuration. If your results are different, contribute your own findings to the site.
If you want to submit your own results, Linaro welcomes your contributions — in the form of commits and pull requests.