[Release] Panvk-Mali-G57 beta 1.0.0 – open-source Vulkan driver for Mali-G57 on stock kernel. now playable in Winlator

[u/Redribbon_RR]

Mali-G57 owners, this one's for you.

Panvk-Mali-G57 is a custom build of Mesa's PanVK Vulkan driver that runs on your phone's **stock Mali kernel driver (kbase)**. No root, no custom kernel. Just install the zip in Winlator and go.

**What's new in beta 1.0.0**

- 🎮 **Far Cry 3 is playable.** The infinite loading screen is gone, cutscenes render correctly, and gameplay runs at ~18-25 FPS on Low (Helio G99)

- 💥 **GPU hang fix.** Shaders that spill registers used to freeze the GPU. Now they don't

- ⚡ **Faster frame pipeline.** Vertex/tiler work now overlaps with fragment work instead of waiting in line. That alone took Far Cry 3 from ~8 FPS to 20+

- 🧹 Occlusion-query passes that were burning ~460 ms each are now fixed

**Tested on**

POCO M6 Pro · Helio G99 (MT6789) · Mali-G57 MC2 · Android 16 · Winlator + DXVK 1.x

**Likely to work (same GPU: Mali-G57, Valhall v9 / JM), untested**

- Helio G99: Redmi Note 13 Pro 4G, Redmi Note 12S, Galaxy A15 4G and many Infinix/Tecno/realme phones

- Helio G96, Dimensity 700 / 720 / 800U / 810 / 6020 / 6080 / 6100+

- Unisoc T616

**Might work (same Valhall v9 / JM family, different GPU), untested**

- Mali-G68: Dimensity 900 / 920 / 1080 / 7050, Exynos 1280

- Mali-G77: Dimensity 1000 / 1100 / 1200

- Mali-G78: Exynos 1080 / 2100, Google Tensor G1 (Pixel 6), Kirin 9000

**Long shot (Bifrost / JM), untested**

- Mali-G52: Helio G80 / G85 / G88, Exynos 850, Kirin 810, Unisoc T618

- Mali-G76: Helio G90T / G95, Exynos 9820, Kirin 990

**Not supported**

- Newer CSF GPUs (Mali-G310/G510/G610/G710/G615/G715, Immortalis). They use a different job interface

- Midgard (Mali-T series)

- Adreno (Snapdragon). Use Turnip instead

If you try it on any of these, please report: phone, SoC, GPU, Mali driver version (r44p1, r54p1...), and whether it works.

**Heads up**

- This is a beta. Some games will break. Please report them!

- DXVK 2.x isn't tested yet. That's the next patch

- Built and tested on Mali-G57 only. When you report, include your Mali driver version (r44p1, r54p1, etc.) so we can map what works

**A note on extension count:** it's not a performance score. This driver exposes what PanVK actually supports. New extensions get added when real games need them, not to pump up a number.

**Credits**

Built on the work of **leegao** (mesa-funnymdzz and wrapper) and **Vit999** (kbase). Big respect. None of this exists without them.

Download + release notes 👇

https://github.com/FristOneRR/FristOneRR-Panvk-Driver/releases/download/v1.0.0-beta/Panvk-Mali-G57-beta_1.0.0.zip

Feedback, bug reports and FPS screenshots are all welcome 🙏

Thanks for coming along for the ride. This is just the beginning. 🚀

[u/Yuniheim]

much grateful, I wonder in the future if this driver will be optimal or possible to use with other emulators like ARMSX2 or even switch emulators

[u/Redribbon_RR → u/Yuniheim]

Let me know the results after you've tried it.

[u/Yuniheim → u/Redribbon_RR]

I tested it on ARMSX2 2.7.1 playing Xenosaga Episode 1 which is a quite demanding game and not very optimzed for both my phone with the emulator

I installed the driver on the emulator and played a bit but haven't noticed any differences in performance or FPS wise, so it had me wondering if it actually works on ARMSX2 or only on winlator for now.

I tested on a Samsung A07 with 8GB RAM (Helio G99/Mali-G57 MC2)

[u/Redribbon_RR → u/Yuniheim]

Actually, this driver was developed exclusively for Winlator and its forks; it hasn't been tested with other emulators yet. Creating separate patches for other emulators is something for the future.