Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Chip Could Bring Console Games to Android - Droid Gamers

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Chip Could Bring Console Games to Android – Droid Gamers

Time Stamp: October 25, 2023 7:34 AM
Source Node: 2347232

Just last month, Apple announced the A17 chip powering this year’s iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. It’s big new feature? Console gaming would come to iPhones in the form of Resident Evil Village, 4 Remake, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and Death Stranding.

Since then, us Android gamers could only look on with bitter jealousy. Capcom gave us a bit of hope by announcing that it would like to launch future titles on mobile and console simultaneously, but what we really needed was a chipset that could rival the A17.

Until Now…

Thank whoever you pray to for Qualcomm, then, as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip is exactly that. While much of it focuses on improvements outside of gaming, including a metric ton of AI features, much of it does feel like a warning shot fired at Apple.

According to GSMArena, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is “25% faster, 25% more power efficient, and brings 40% better ray tracing.”

Comparing the A17 to the A16, 9to5Mac reported a 20% boost in GPU performance and a whopping 400% faster ray tracing than the A16. Aside from the massive jump in ray tracing speed on the A17, it’s a comparable gen-on-gen leap between the two chips.

How Does the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Compare to the A17?

I can’t find a reputable source to provide a direct comparison between the previous gen Snapdragon and A16, but the consensus is that the Snapdragon Gen 2 was the better chip where gaming is concerned. The margin is fairly wide too.

So, if the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and A17 are 25% and 20% better respectively, and the Snapdragon Gen 2 was ahead of the A16, it stands to reason that the Gen 3 will beat out the A17. The only anomaly here is ray tracing, as we’d need to compare the two directly.

So, Console Games on Android?

That leads us, finally, to the point of this article: console gaming on Android. When the A17 arrived, Android didn’t have an answer. Now it does, so it’s time to see what the likes of Ubisoft and Capcom do next.

One thing I know for sure is that it will be difficult for gaming publishers to ignore the biggest mobile gaming install base in the world. Your move, publishers!

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