Qualcomm Can’t Make Me Care About Gaming on Snapdragon

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X and X2 processors could lastly have entry to Fortnite and Epic’s Easy Anti-Cheat, however regardless of how a lot Qualcomm is making an attempt to push gaming on the Snapdragon platform this yr, I simply don’t care.

Fortnite runs on smartphones, in any case. And whereas Easy Anti-Cheat opens up a complete new slate of video games for Snapdragon X-series laptops, a lot of the titles we’ve seen working on Qualcomm programs aren’t precisely GPU intensive. Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of many greater video games proven on the unique Snapdragon X Elite platform, although efficiency on Qualcomm’s reference designs hardly held up when in comparison with precise client programs.

And at CES 2026, Qualcomm was displaying off its new high-end Snapdragon X2 Extreme chip working Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 2026?

Look. I really like Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It’s an ideal recreation. It’s an ideal benchmark. But the sport hit gaming PCs manner again in September 2018 – over 7 years in the past. It was a graphically intense recreation again on the RTX 2080. While it’s spectacular to see how easy the sport runs on built-in GPUs at 1080p and High graphics settings lately, it’s not precisely a bragging level.

Especially when AMD was working Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 at over 30 fps native on the Lenovo Legion Go 2’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme final yr, and Intel is displaying off skinny and lightweight Panther Lake laptops working Battlefield 6 with body charges hitting over 200 fps (although that’s with multi-frame era).

While Qualcomm’s reference design Snapdragon X2 Extreme laptop computer did have Cyberpunk 2077 and Black Myth: Wukong put in, neither recreation was working for the press demos. Instead, the corporate needed to speak about utilizing AI voice altering options whereas gaming, somewhat than discuss efficiency.

Integrated GPU Performance Matters Most on Handhelds

When it involves iGPU gaming, handheld gaming PCs are king. While I really like having the ability to play some video games on a common client or enterprise laptop computer as a result of I’m a monster, few persons are going to make use of a Lenovo Yoga or Dell laptop computer for gaming.

And in relation to handhelds, nicely. AMD bought an early lead within the handheld market, and Intel remains to be making an attempt to claw out area for itself. Qualcomm hasn’t even tried. At this level, it’s in all probability too late. Between the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, Intel Lunar Lake, and the just lately teased Intel Panther Lake handheld chips, Qualcomm’s alternative to get a Snapdragon handheld out in the marketplace has handed.

iGPU Gaming Only Goes So Far

While each gaming handheld round proper now could be an iGPU machine, nobody goes to purchase a common client laptop computer for gaming. Since Qualcomm doesn’t have a handheld, this makes the Snapdragon X platform’s lack of discrete GPUs much more apparent.

After all, a Microsoft Surface Laptop isn’t a gaming machine. If it could possibly run video games, cool. But it’s not a gaming platform. Sure, Qualcomm laptops can now make the most of AMD FSR and Qualcomm’s customized Snapdragon Game Super Resolution upscaling options, however it’s simply not sufficient cause to care. Between having no handhelds, utilizing reference design laptops that received’t hit the market, and never speaking precise efficiency expectations utilizing trendy recreation titles, Snapdragon gaming isn’t any extra compelling than it was final era.

Madeline (She/Her) is a contributing author at IGN. She’s been writing about comics, tech, and gaming since 2013. Her byline has appeared at websites like Laptop Mag, PCMag, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, CGMagazine, and Bleeding Cool.