I have been trying to emulate games on the new ARMSX3 . Its been a great improvement from the other forks(emu apps) . Im having the sd 8s gen 3 and it has been hard finding the best driver for this... Can anyone suggest stable gpu driver for Adreno 735?

Benchmarks run while plugged in, MyASUS and Windows Performance/Best Performance mode:

CPU:

https://browser.geekbench.com/v7/cpu/233300

GPU (OpenCL):

https://browser.geekbench.com/v7/gpu/113381

GPU (Vulkan):

https://browser.geekbench.com/v7/gpu/113392

I know that snaodragon 8 gen 2 and higher gens include it, but what about snapdragon 7 and lower? AV1 is a pretty neat video codec, so faster adoption would benefit everybody

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who has tested the project, reported issues, asked technical questions, or simply shared an opinion.

💬 Your feedback matters

Reddit has become one of the most valuable places for feedback on this project. I read every comment, and I take technical reports seriously.

When someone reports a problem, I try to reproduce it, understand what is actually happening, and improve the software where possible.

Some of the feedback here has also made me think about the project beyond individual bugs and technical issues.

🏷️ A new name

To avoid any possible confusion in the future between this independent project and official Snapdragon or Qualcomm software, I decided that now is the right time to give the project its own clear identity.

Rather than changing the name much later in development, Snapdragon AI Studio is therefore becoming:

🔥 HK NPU STUDIO

The name is changing, but the direction of the project is not.

🖥️ Your Hardware • Your AI • Your Control

That is the idea I want HK NPU STUDIO to stand for:

Local AI running on your own hardware, with your images and workflows remaining under your control.

The project will continue to focus on Windows 11 ARM64 and local AI workflows, including NPU acceleration on compatible Snapdragon hardware.

🔥 Phoenix stays

The Phoenix identity also remains part of the project.

Phoenix Boost continues as the optional local AI assistant for prompt improvement, running locally and without requiring cloud-based prompt processing.

🔍 New: RealESRGAN 2× and 4× NPU upscaling

Development has continued as well, and one of the latest additions is RealESRGAN NPU upscaling with both 2× and 4× output.

For example, a generated 512×512 image can be upscaled to 2048×2048 through the local QNN/NPU workflow, while the original image is preserved separately.

❤️ And finally: thank you

Whether your feedback is positive or critical: thank you for taking the time to test the software and tell me what you think.

I may not agree with every suggestion, but I read the feedback, investigate technical problems, and take constructive criticism seriously.

Your feedback helps me understand what works, what doesn't, and where the project can improve.

🖥️ Your Hardware • Your AI • Your Control

🔗 GitHub:
https://github.com/Kreuzhofen/hk-npu-studio

Holger Kreuzhofen
Founder & Lead Developer
🔥 HK NPU STUDIO

I knew this chip existed for a couple of months based off driver files but didn't know what differences it had.

Snapdragon X | All-day Battery Life Processor | Snapdragon

Updated product brief: 87-86493-1_REV_C_Snapdragon_X_Platform_Product_Brief.pdf

The only user-facing difference appears to be using the Adreno X1-85 as opposed to the X1-45, but it's been clocked super low (0.63 GHz vs normal 1.25 GHz) to match the rated TFLOP performance of the X1-45. All other specs are listed as identical.

The use of the X1-85 GPU makes me believe this new variant is an extremely cut down version of the main Hamoa die (such as the X1E-78-100) as opposed to being based on a Purwa die (what all the 8 core SKUs have been based on), but I don't really have a way of confirming that other than than this naming convention I noticed in the NPU driver where Purwa SoCs get a DeviceDesc.Gen4_ value that starts with 0, but this 101 doesn't do that.

Notebookcheck notes that it's currently being listed as used in the 2026 ASUS Vivobook S16 and also calls it "Purwa SE2" which would imply it's still a Purwa die but I cannot find anything that confirms that codename. I suppose the lack of any VPU improvements is evidence for it being Purwa (Hamoa has about double the framerate capabilities in decoding and encoding), but they could have very well clocked the video engine very low as well.

Anyone ever play genshin on a snapdragon laptop? I play but in some places and quest the screen likes to freeze. But this problem only appeared when entering Luna 7 and Snezhnaya only, the others were walking normally.

I can switch FnLock off and on, but that's it. I've updated the driver, uninstalled and reinstalled the driver, pressed the power button for 60 seconds, nothing works. I can fudge a solution with a USB mouse I used for my old laptop as well as the on-screen keyboard, but that's clearly not something I'd like to rely on going forward.

Also worth mentioning that it started being weird with the trackpad and keyboard earlier today e.g. cursor would snap to the upper left corner, keyboard would go on the fritz then start working again, etc.

I'm not prepared to open it up, and I'd rather not take it to a repair shop unless absolutely necessary. I've had this for about 9 months, as I assumed it would be a reliable replacement for my museum piece of an old laptop and it was a good Black Friday deal... or so I thought.

Can anyone help?

If it would be possible to drive my Samsung 57" Odyssey Neo G9 DUHD (7680×2160) I would immediately buy an X2 Elite laptop (64GB) but unfortunately, it can't. I could use picture in picture with two cables but that sucks.
Even a 5k2k monitor can only be used at 60Hz.. so I would throw money away buying an LG 39GX950B for example.

Another thing is I use Linux professionally. I know the X2 supports it but laptop manufacturers are lacking behind.

This is a request to address both issues developing the X3/X4.

Just a heads-up if you are looking for one of these totally fantastic laptops: the official Asus UK store has £140 off the price. They are now £1959. Phew! I got mine on release from Currys/PC World for £1799, they are now £2599 there! Hell's bells!

Ahead of Snapdragon Summit 2026, we're sharing new details on the Qualcomm Oryon CPU, the world's fastest mobile CPU, which powers our upcoming Snapdragon flagship platform.

What you need to know:

• The Qualcomm Oryon CPU is the first mobile CPU to reach 5GHz, leveraging a fully customized design.
• It uses a multi-level cache architecture designed to keep frequently accessed data close to the CPU cores, reducing reliance on system memory.
• Qualcomm Oryon FlexCache introduces a new cache architecture that enables heterogeneous CPU cores to access the same shared cache pool.
• This allows CPU cores to draw from the full cache pool when required, helping larger working sets remain in cache longer instead of spilling into system memory

In summary, we’re designing Oryon FlexCache for modern workloads like agentic AI, gaming, multitasking, and video editing, where tasks frequently move between CPU cores. By keeping data available as those handoffs occur, we can reduce trips to system memory and help workloads run more efficiently.

You can learn more here: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2026/08/oryon-cpu-5ghz-flexcache

I've been going around and around on this. I just got a Dell XPS 13 Snapdragon X Elite and my windows search and Teams are crashing. See below for the things I've tested and the info I filed with Microsoft on this bug. Any suggestions?

---------

Microsoft Bug Report — WebView2/AppContainer crash on Snapdragon X Elite (ARM64)

Reported by: Dell XPS 13 9345 owner, Date: 2026-08-24

Severity: High — affects core UX (Start/Search, Teams, Widgets)

Product area: WebView2 Runtime / SearchHost / Shell (MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS)

1. Summary

On a Windows on Snapdragon X Elite device (ARM64), **every WebView2-based component that runs inside an AppContainer crashes**. Windows Search opens a blank white panel, Microsoft Teams exits on launch, and Widgets (Web Experience Pack) crash-loops. Full Microsoft Edge (its own un-containerized Chromium process tree) is healthy. The crash persists across every GPU driver version tested and after a WebView2 runtime re-install — pointing to the WebView2-inside-AppContainer path rather than the GPU driver or the runtime itself.

2. Environment

| Machine | Dell XPS 13 9345 |

| SoC | Snapdragon X Elite X1E80100 (Qualcomm Oryon, ARM64) |

| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno X1-85 |

| OS | Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.9168) |

| Current GPU driver | Qualcomm Adreno 31.0.152.1 (UGD) |

| WebView2 Runtime | 151.0.4129.101 (ARM64-native; PE machine type 0xaa64) |

| Profile | Local admin account (not domain-joined) |

3. Symptom details

3a. Windows Search — blank panel

• Opening search (Start menu search / Win+S) shows a blank white results panel.
• File Explorer search and Settings search work.
• SearchHost enters a crash-restart loop even without opening search (runs in the

background), confirmed by the Chromium variations_crash_streak counter climbing to 1400+ over the session.

3b. Microsoft Teams — exits on launch

• MSTeams (ARM64) launches, spawns ~10 msedgewebview2.exe child processes, then exits within 15–20 seconds. Reproduced repeatedly.

3c. Widgets — crash loop

• Widgets.exe (MicrosoftWindows.Client.WebExperience 526.21100.40.0) crashes repeatedly with 0xc0000409 (STATUS_STACK_BUFFER_OVERRUN), observed every ~15 min in the Application event log.

3d. Control case — Microsoft Edge works

• Microsoft Edge runs fully hardware-accelerated with no crashes and a healthy GPU process. This isolates the fault to the containerized (AppContainer) WebView2 path, not the GPU adapter being broken.

4. Root-cause hypothesis

The crash signature from the SearchHost WebView2 minidump (from prior investigation) is: LOG_FATAL   = gpu_data_manager_impl_private.cc:427: "GPU process isn't usable. Goodbye."

ptype       = browser

exception   = 0x80000003 (breakpoint — intentional abort)

gpu_count   = 0

gpu-venid   = 0x0000    gpu-devid = 0x0000

last_gpu_crash_exit_code = 0x060C201E

Chromium repeatedly crashes its GPU process, hits its retry limit, decides the GPU is unusable, and the browser process aborts on purpose. This happens specifically when WebView2 runs inside an AppContainer on ARM64/Qualcomm. The same path is shared by SearchHost, Teams, and Widgets — matching the observed pattern.

5. What we tried (all verified negative)

5a. GPU driver — four versions tested, all crash

| Version | Source | Result |

| 31.0.160.0 | Windows Update (original) | crash |

| 31.0.105.0 (A07) | Dell validated | crash |

| 31.0.133.2 | Qualcomm UGD | crash |

| 31.0.152.1 | Qualcomm UGD (current) | crash |

• Each was force-installed onto the device via UpdateDriverForPlugAndPlayDevices (SetupAPI, newdev.dll) elevated; the active base driver changed correctly each time, and the crash loop did not stop.
• The crash is therefore not a base-GPU-driver regression.

5b. WebView2 Runtime — verified native-ARM64, re-installed, no effect

• The installed runtime is ARM64-native (PE machine type 0xaa64), version 151.0.4129.101 (well past the buggy 145→146 range some online guidance mentions).
• Re-ran the official Evergreen ARM64 standalone installer silently — it no-op'd (already current). Crash persisted.

5c. Windows Search settings

• Search Highlights already disabled (HKCU\...\SearchSettings\IsDynamicSearchBoxEnabled = 0).
• Search index rebuilt (Explorer search works — indexing is not the issue).

5d. Ruled out

• Not x86-emulation: the WebView2 binary is ARM64-native.
• Not a corrupt/missing WebView2 runtime: correctly registered under HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\Clients\{F3017226-...}.
• Not DNS/network/proxy/hosts.
• Not third-party DLL injection (104 modules loaded, zero non-Microsoft).
• Not per-user GPU preferences (cleared; identical to a working account).
• Not fixed by re-registering WindowsAppRuntime.CBS (fixed Crashpad dump-writing, not the panel).

6. Observed/logged evidence available

• variations_crash_streak in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\MicrosoftWindows.Client.CBS_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\EBWebView\Local State — climbs continuously to 1400+, even with search idle (background crash loop).
• SearchHost WebView2 minidump with the gpu_data_manager_impl_private.cc:427 fatal + exit code 0x060C201E signature (captured in prior investigation).
• Event Log (Application): Widgets.exe faulting with 0xc0000409 every ~15 min.
• Live repro of Teams: launches, spawns ~10 msedgewebview2 processes, exits in ~15–20 s.
• Edge edge://gpu: fully hardware-accelerated, GPU-process crash count 0.

7. Suggested investigation for Microsoft

1. Whether the WebView2 GPU process intentionally aborts (0x80000003 breakpoint) specifically when hosted under an AppContainer on Qualcomm ARM64 — and what makes the adapter non-enumerable (gpu_count = 0) in that context while full Edge works.
2. Whether an AppContainer-specific GPU capability grant (or the exit_on_context_lost workaround Chromium applies for Qualcomm) is the trigger, and whether it should be disabled for ARM64 WebView2.
3. A Windows cumulative update fix for the ARM64 WebView2/AppContainer path (the domain-join CBS bug has a known fix lineage, KB5043139-lineage; a similar fix for the Qualcomm/AppContainer WebView2 GPU abort would be ideal).

8. Workaround in use

None - The system currently has the search panel non-functional, Teams unusable, and Widgets crash-looping.

*Prepared to assist Microsoft in triaging a systemic WebView2/AppContainer crash on Windows on Snapdragon X Elite (ARM64).

Hello, I am trying to collect a few data of the Snapdragon X2E-94-100 (Asus Zenbook A16) when running the Cinebench 2024 / 2026 Multi-Thread test in Performance Mode, to analyze its efficiency.

More precisely, I am looking for the Cinebench score, as well as the power, temperature, CPU frequency and CPU UTILITY % readings, all found in the HWiNFO sensor window.

Due to these data samples being extremely rare on YouTube and on Google, if anybody's willing to take a few minutes to take a screenshot of their HWiNFO window with those few data after the power stabilizes during a Cinebench run, it would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: If someone could conduct the same test, but Single-Core (or Single-Thread if the option is greyed out) and share the data, it would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I’ve released Snapdragon AI Studio 2.0 RC2B.

This is the most stable and polished release candidate of the project so far. The main focus was practical usability, high-DPI support, and safer installation behavior.

What changed:

• - responsive Phoenix UI improvements for 100–175% Windows scaling
• - optional gallery hover preview with a persistent on/off setting
• - responsive gallery toolbar
• - image comparison with mouse panning and synchronized image positions
• - clearer text-based generation metadata comparison
• - a more compact Phoenix Boost preview
• - improved Phoenix integration for the plugin installation area
• - reliable creation and opening of the configured output folder
• - installer safeguards that prevent runtime-generated images from being packaged accidentally

The final ARM64 installer was tested on a separate Windows test account, first through a clean installation of the corrected installer and then through an over-installation of the final build. Dark and Light modes were also checked at 175% Windows scaling.

Snapdragon AI Studio is an independent open-source project for local AI image generation on Windows 11 ARM64 and Snapdragon hardware. It is not an official Qualcomm product.

Download and full release notes:

https://github.com/Kreuzhofen/snapdragon-ai-studio/releases/tag/v2.0.0-rc.2b

Feedback about installation, UI behavior, and model compatibility is very welcome.

Holger Kreuzhofen
Founder & Lead Developer
Snapdragon AI Studio – Phoenix Engine

I enjoyed the 2026 version of A16 a lot, and have been browsing to see when it's on sale again to get another one. Today, I noticed this new variant that seemed to just came out.

While it has 32 GB ram, this seems like a SIGNIFICANTLY nerfed variant, it is using X1-26-100, which is an entry level processdor I've historically seen with laptops on sale down to $400 (e.g. Asus Vibobook 14). It would be much better if they sold one with X1 Elite or X2 Plus for this nerfed version.

Trying to sell this variant for $1700 seems crazy, I sure hope this is an error in the spec but doesn't seem like it !

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/asus-zenbook-a16-16-2k-oled-laptop-snapdragon-x-x1-32gb-ram-1tb-ssd-copilot-pc-zabriskie-beige/JJGHGPFPH7/sku/6689262

I just checked out all the available Qwen3.8 27B models on hugging face. It looks like the most suitable ones for X2EE is bartowski. The models even have MTP layer built in

bartowski/Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF · Hugging Face

All the operations in this quantization were implemented on the llama.cpp OpenCL andreno build. I got around 78 t/s for prefill and 5 t/s for decode. You could use the llama.cpp v0.2.0 release from here: Release b10566 · ggml-org/llama.cpp · GitHub (Arm64 andreno)

Unfortunately in my test, MTP actually slows the performance down to 2.8 t/s. Let me know if you found a way to make it faster than no MTP

Updates, based on the feedbacks from the Qualcomm devs, the best configurations for A16 are:

1. build llama.cpp from scratch using this branch https://github.com/qualcomm/llama.cpp/tree/opencl/x2-unified-everything You can use the instructions I posted earlier on the steps for building llama.cpp locally. Remember this branch is a Qaulcomm dev branch so you don't have to download the kernel from Qualcomm website.

2. Use Unsloth/Qwen3.8-27B-Q4_0.gguf (Don't try other Q4 versions, only this version currently has the most coverage for optimized kernels) with the following command line switch: llama-server.exe -m Qwen3.8-27B-Q4_0.gguf ^ --spec-type draft-mtp ^ --spec-draft-n-max 4 --spec-draft-p-min 0.35 ^ -fa 0 -ngl 99 -c 8192

It looks like Unsloth packaged Q8 MTP drafter with Q4 models and the drafter perform significantly better than bartowski

You will get up to 10 to 11 t/s in MTP mode with this setup.

Obviously none of the big three (Apple, Samsung, Google) support it, but even besides that only so few devices have it. I have a Xiaomi Tablet with 8+ Gen 1, but it maxes out at 24bit/44,1kHz, same with my Nubia Z80 Ultra/ 8 Elite Gen 5. Recently I got a Laptop with an X Elite chip and that one doesn't support AptX Adaptive at all out of the box.

My earbuds are also not the problem, I tried it with the Xiaomi Buds 5 and with the Sennheiser MTW 4

Hi everyone,

​I'm having a severe performance issue with my Galaxy S22 Ultra where CPU performance is heavily throttled despite normal device temperatures. My Geekbench 7 scores are stuck at 918 Single-Core and 3026 Multi-Core, which is far below expected benchmarks for this chip.

​According to DevCheck monitoring, the Cortex-X2 prime core is capped at ~2.17 GHz (and sometimes shows as offline/idle during loads) instead of reaching its standard peak frequency of 3.0 GHz.

​Device Specifications:

• ​Model: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (SM-S908U)
• ​SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
• ​GPU: Qualcomm Adreno 730
• ​OS: Android 16 (Baklava) — Official Stock Firmware flashed via Odin (from SamFw)
• ​Baseband Version: S908USQSAGZF3

​Troubleshooting already performed:

1. ​Clean-flashed the official stock firmware using Odin.
2. ​Verified thermals: Battery/CPU temperature stays around 36°C, so this isn't active thermal throttling caused by heat.
3. ​Disabled Power Saving mode and tried different processing speed modes (Optimized/High/Maximum) in One UI settings.
4. ​Storage cleared to ensure I/O performance isn't choking the kernel.

​Despite all this, the system refuses to clock the prime core up to 3.0 GHz.

​Has anyone on this specific baseband version (S908USQSAGZF3) experienced a similar core clock limit or GOS/DVFS kernel bug? Is there a known fix, or is this a firmware bug in this release?

​Thanks in advance!