The latest AI-powered Microsoft Copilot+ PCs deliver high levels of performance for AI tasks and other benefits. However, there is a problem: the processors that many AI computers are equipped with are not compatible with many modern games. This has been known for several months, but it does not seem that the situation has somehow improved.
Image source: Microsoft
We are talking about Copilot+ PC computers based on Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM processors, which combine a CPU, GPU and a neural coprocessor (NPU) designed to speed up the execution of artificial intelligence tasks. It turns out that Microsoft is facing the same problems that Apple has with its Mac computers, such as the inability to run popular games designed for x86 processors. Copilot+ PC class systems on the latest Intel and AMD chips have no problems running games.
To solve this problem, Microsoft developers created the Prism emulator, which is essentially an analogue of Rosetta 2 for Mac computers. Using Prism, users can run x86 applications on Windows computers and Arm processors. However, it turned out that the emulator does not completely solve the problem. During testing of 1,300 PC games, it was found that only about half of them work in Prism without errors, crashes, or can even be launched.
In some cases, anti-cheat software does not work, which is why even low-resource games such as Fortnite and League of Legends cannot be run on Arm-based Copilot+ PCs. There appears to be no quick fix to this problem. Interestingly, problems with Prism were noted in reviews of Copilot+ PC back in June. Microsoft, commenting on this issue, recommended that users choose an alternative computer to ensure high-quality gaming experience.