ARM
From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Developers | |
---|---|
Arm Ltd. | |
Release dates | |
Linux | February 24, 2012 |
Windows | October 26, 2012 |
macOS (OS X) | November 10, 2020 |
Key points
- Energy-efficient, which makes it suited for laptops and tablets.
- Very limited range of hardware as of May 2021, with virtually no mid-range desktop PCs.
- Drivers for graphics cards and gaming may not be easily accessible, if at all.
- Very few third-party storefronts support native ARM games.
Hardware
Hardware type | OS support | Other notes |
---|---|---|
Raspberry Pi | Linux, fan-modified versions of Windows 10[1] |
|
Other microcomputers | Linux | |
Apple Silicon M1 Mac | OS X, Windows 10 |
|
Windows tablets | Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows RT |
|
Phones and tablets designed for Android | Linux, Windows 10[5] |
|
ARM Chromebooks | Linux apps |
|
Operating systems
Operating system | Official support | Installation methods | Software support |
---|---|---|---|
Windows 10 | ARM builds are in beta as of May 2021. Actively developed. Not to be mistaken for Windows 10 IoT, which is a far inferior version that can't run any known games. |
• Official version (Requires Microsoft account and having joined the Windows Insider program.) • Raspberry Pi-specific fanmade custom versions |
All builds are ARM64, and have full native support for ARM32 and ARM64 software. Emulation of x86 is considered good; emulation of x86-64 is relatively new (Added in November 2020) and not much tested.[10] |
Windows RT | No new models have been released since 2013. Support ends on January 10, 2023. | No known ways to install it on systems that weren't shipped with it. |
|
macOS | Stable from 11.0 Big Sur onwards. Poised by Apple to completely replace x86-64 in the long term. | No known ways to install it on systems that weren't shipped with it. | All builds are ARM64, and have full native support for ARM64 software. Emulation of x86-64 is mostly good, but not always.
|
Linux (Debian-based) | High degree of support, with a majority of native repository packages supporting it, and increasingly more distros adding ARM64 builds. | Downloaded from the distros' homepages, and can run from USBs and memory cards. Imager tools exist to simplify the process.[11] | ARM32 (armhf) and ARM64 (aarch64) builds exist. ARM64 builds can run ARM32 software with multiarch.
|
Linux (Red Hat-based) | Most distros have high ARM64 package support, sometimes having packages that Debian-based ARM distros lack. | Downloaded from the distros' homepages, and can run from USBs and memory cards. Imager tools exist to simplify the process.[12] | ARM32 (armv7; armhfp) and ARM64 (aarch64) builds exist, with priority given to ARM64.
|
Storefronts
Storefront | OS | ARM game support | ARM game searching |
---|---|---|---|
Microsoft Store | Windows 10, Windows RT | Most non-'Game Pass' games released between 2012 and early 2016 have native ARM support. Native support in other games is spotty. | No known way to filter searches to native ARM only. PCGW's list of Windows ARM games is a de facto substitute. |
Mac App Store | OS X | A few games, both ones intended for Mac and iPad, slowly began adding Mac ARM versions/support in game updates from early 2021 onwards. | No known way to filter searches to native ARM only. |
itch.io | OS X, Linux | A few games offer OS X and/or Linux ARM versions, and they are technically able to add Windows ARM versions as well. | Search filters for ARM are very limited. Searching for raspberry pi in the top bar is one of few half-functional options. |
Snap Store | Linux | Around half the games offer ARM versions, mostly due to the large overlap between Snap Store and distro repositories. | No known way to filter searches to native ARM only. |
Chrome Web Store | Windows, OS X, Linux | All extensions and games are believed to offer ARM versions by default. | Searching for games as a standalone category, requires following this guide to make Chrome think you're using Chrome OS. |
GOG.com | OS X | Has begun to offer a very small amount of macOS Universal Binary games as of July 2021. | No known way to filter searches to macOS Universal Binaries only. |
- Nvidia's official driver page offer Linux aarch64 (ARM64) drivers for Nvidia GeForce 630 GPUs and higher, and ARM32 legacy drivers for GeForce 410 and higher. For older GPUs than GeForce 1010, one must go to "Operating System:" → "Show all operating systems" to make these drivers show up.
PCGamingWiki resources
- AppleGamingWiki aims to cover M1 Macs in general, including emulators and non-Mac operating systems.
- ARM API fields were added to PCGamingWiki in May 2021, ready for use on pages about individual games.
- PCGamingWiki's native ARM support lists: Windows, OS X, Linux
References
- ↑ How to Install Windows 10 on a Raspberry Pi 4 - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ Jetson AGX Xavier Developer Kit - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ Linux Support on Apple's M1 Macs Set to Arrive via New Kernel - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ https://www.anandtech.com/show/16697/qualcomm-shows-off-snapdragon-dev-kit-for-windows-on-arm-development - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ OnePlus 6/6T Windows on ARM - test list - last accessed on 2021-07-14
- ↑ https://medium.com/@quantvc/running-debian-on-android-device-natively-73545c9b0757 - last accessed on 221-05-27
- ↑ How to Run Linux on Android Devices - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ Pinephone - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ Set up Linux (Beta) on your Chromebook - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ Windows on Arm: This is how well 64-bit emulation is working - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ Introducing Raspberry Pi Imager, our new imaging utility - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ Fedora Media Writer - The fastest way to create Live-USB boot media - last accessed on 2021-05-27
- ↑ Changes/aarch64 32bit containers - last accessed on 2021-07-04