With the arrival of new Surface devices and Copilot Plus PCs powered by Arm chips, a question arises: how well do these devices handle gaming? Microsoft and Qualcomm recently addressed this by unveiling a new website, WorksOnWoA.com, at the Build conference. This site offers detailed information about how over 1,481 games perform on Arm-based devices, like the Surface Laptop with Snapdragon X Elite chips.
How games are categorised
The website categorises games into four distinct groups: “Perfect,” “Playable,” “Runs,” and “Unplayable.” Linaro, the Arm engineering group behind the site, defines these categories, which are supported by Microsoft and Qualcomm.
Perfect: Games in this category run at 60+ FPS at 1080p resolution without any glitches or issues affecting the gaming experience.
Playable: These games run at 30+ FPS at 1080p resolution with minimal glitches or issues affecting the gaming experience.
Runs: Games that fall under this category run but have bugs that may affect the gaming experience.
Unplayable: These games do not run due to anti-cheat systems or other failures.
The website also notes that some games might be running at the lowest graphical settings to achieve the frame rate and resolution targets. Additionally, some games use Microsoft's AI upscaling technology to maintain performance, and the site tracks this as well.
Performance insights from Build
At the Build conference, Microsoft and Qualcomm demonstrated the performance of games on Arm devices. For instance, Borderlands 3 runs about 60 per cent faster with Auto Super Resolution compared to native 1440p by leveraging the Qualcomm chip's NPU. This feature can maintain the same frame rate while offering a higher effective resolution.
Currently, 747 games, including titles like Control Ultimate Edition, are listed as running “perfectly” at 1080p and 60fps. Gamers can use the website to see if their favourite games are among those tested.
Unplayable games and anti-cheat measures
The site lists 19 “unplayable” games, including popular titles like Fortnite, Roblox, and PUBG. Many of these games fail to run due to their anti-cheat measures, similar to the issues faced by the Steam Deck. However, Microsoft mentions that the BattlEye anti-cheat system does support Arm, although this support hasn't been sufficient to make these games compatible with all devices.
Linaro clarifies that the information provided on the website is intended as a guide and does not guarantee that a game will run on every specific machine and configuration. Users experiencing different results are encouraged to contribute their findings to the site through commits and pull requests.
