Late last year, Qualcomm had announced that it was bringing the ability to update GPU drivers of its chipset right through the Google Play Store. An updated GPU driver would help improve performance and efficiency and a simple update method would allow Qualcomm and device OEMs to roll it out quickly and easily for all compatible smartphones out there.
Building on that, Qualcomm today announced that it worked with Google to create the Android GPU Inspector tool that will allow game studios to enhance and optimize their games. This is a graphics profiling tool that supports GPUs in Android devices, including Qualcomm's own Adreno GPUs. It will allow game developers to analyze the performance of their game "at a detail level that was not achievable before" thereby allowing them to further optimize the performance of their games.
The tool will also allow game developers to provide optimization feedback to Google and Qualcomm. The latter will then make a beta drive available to developers with the said optimizations which they can quickly test on selected compatible devices. Once verified and passed, Qualcomm and Google can make these drivers available as an update on the Play Store to all consumers with compatible devices.
Qualcomm notes that while working with a game partner using the Android GPU Inspector tool and a Pixel 4XL, Google found an optimization opportunity that reduced GPU utilization by up to 40%. This allowed for higher frame rates as well as longer battery life while playing the game.
Google and Qualcomm are working closely on updateable GPU drivers for the Pixel 4 series, Samsung Galaxy S10, and Note10. Support for more devices is also on the cards and coming later.
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