- Windows 11’s latest update packs an important feature for Arm CPUs
- It introduces support for AVX and AVX2 with Prism emulation
- Some PC games use these extensions, and previously wouldn’t work with the likes of Snapdragon X chips – but they now should
Microsoft just gave Windows 11 laptops with Arm processors better support for games (and software too) courtesy of the latest update for the OS.
Windows Latest reports that the October 2025 update (KB5066835) for Windows 11 (both versions 24H2 and 25H2, which are essentially the same thing) comes with a big update for Prism. This is Microsoft’s emulation layer to run x86 (AMD and Intel) apps and games on Arm chips like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X.
Not all games work with Prism, and one problem area has been titles that use AVX or AVX2. These are extensions to the x86 instruction set which, on a basic level, pull off some fancy CPU tricks to run faster – and now Prism can handle those extensions. (And others besides, including BMI, FMA, F16C, and more, but AVX is the main advance here).
In short, some games that use AVX or AVX2 which didn’t load up at all will now work, so gamers have a wider range of compatibility with Windows on Arm.
As mentioned, it’s not just games, but also software, and that includes some Adobe Creative Cloud apps, for example, which those with a Snapdragon X laptop haven’t had access to before.
Analysis: a year-long wait
This expanded support for Prism entered testing almost a year ago (November 2024, in fact), so it has taken Microsoft quite some time to work this through and get it out of preview.
Windows Latest tested the beefed-up version of Arm emulation, and found that it allowed most of the PC games in their Steam collection to successfully launch and work. However, the tech site observed that there was “wildly varying performance” from game to game.
Reports on Reddit reflect this, so sadly this isn’t a panacea for all AVX-related gaming woes on Windows 11 with Arm. We must also bear in mind that emulating a game or app will always have some overheads, and performance is never going to be as good as running a native piece of software (coded for Arm, rather than x86 AMD or Intel).
Still, Microsoft finally getting this new feature for Prism live is a big step forward, even if it did take a long time. While complaints remain around the frequency of Qualcomm’s (integrated Adreno) GPU updates, and hardware driver compatibility issues with Windows on Arm in general, progress is definitely being made towards making Arm laptops a more reliable platform. Anti-cheat tools remain a problem for gamers, too, but a solution is finally in the works and seemingly imminent.