- Fortnite finally runs on Windows on Arm laptops as the Anti-Cheat (EAC) tool is now compatible with the architecture
- The game also reportedly runs well on these Snapdragon X chips
- This move was aided by the new SDK for Epic Online Services, and other EAC games should soon run on Arm
Finally it happened – now you can play Fortnite on a Windows 11 laptop with an Arm processor.
Latest Windows reports that Epic delivered on its promise to get Fortnite’s anti-cheat tool that works with Windows on Arm machines, those super-slim Copilot+ laptops with Snapdragon X chips that use a different architecture compared to traditional Windows 11 laptops.
What is the problem? Well, the Arm architecture is different from x86 processors (from AMD and Intel) means that emulation (specifically a translation layer called Prism) is required to run apps and games on Snapdragon X laptops unless they’re coded for Arm (and many certainly aren’t).
As you can imagine, this level of translation comes at a performance overhead, but even more problematic is that some technology doesn’t work at all on Arm systems, particularly anti-cheat tools in the gaming world. Hence such online games as Fortnite, Call of Duty, Valorant, Apex Legends and so on will not work on a Snapdragon X device as they all use some kind of anti-cheat utility.
As of version 38.00 Fortnitethe shooter now works on Arm PCs as the Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) system is now natively supported, although this change was not documented in the release notes, strangely enough.
However, Windows Latest and others have confirmed that the game runs fine on Snapdragon X laptops reports on reddit. Everyone agrees with this Fortnite runs nice and smooth, even on lower end Snapdragon chips.
Analysis: Hopefully more online games will follow soon
Nice to see Fortnite finally got it working on Arm devices and works fine considering the game is emulated. (There is now native support for EAC, but not the game itself, running through Prism – and the translation layer, by all accounts, does a good job here).
Compatibility with EAC has been ensured in The Epic Online Services SDK was released back in August, but game developers still need to implement this support in their titles – it took Epic a few months to implement this Fortnite myself, of course. Other EAC games include Apex Legends and Elden Ringso hopefully we’ll see them running on Snapdragon X laptops before too long.
Outside of the EAC, Arm CPU support will be more of a challenge, and anti-cheat systems like Riot Vanguard (Valiant) and BattlEye (which is part of PUBG an arsenal of anti-cheat technologies as well Rainbow Six Siege and many other shooters) will need their own solutions, which may or may not be available. Given that Arm isn’t a pressing issue for many developers, we could be waiting a long time – maybe forever if you’re pessimistic (same goes for Linux support for these anti-cheat tools for SteamOS and PDA owners).
It’s worth noting that Microsoft also recently made improvements to Prism to allow more games to run on Snapdragon X chips, addressing the issue with AVX and AVX2 extensions, so Windows on Arm gaming has come a long way in the last month.
This is good news because these Copilot+ laptops are very portable devices with impressive battery life, so being able to engage in meaningful gaming on the go is a definite benefit.
The best PC games
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as your preferred source to receive our experts’ news, reviews and opinions in your channels. Don’t forget to click the “Subscribe” button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok news, reviews, unboxing videos and get regular updates from us WhatsApp too.
