Qualcomm has unveiled its 2025 lineup of Snapdragon G Series SoCs at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), featuring the new Snapdragon G3 Gen 3, Snapdragon G2 Gen 2, and Snapdragon G1 Gen 2, aimed to power a new batch of gaming handhelds launching in the coming months.
New Qualcomm Snapdragon G Series Lineup
Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 is the most powerful chip announced here, with its 1 Prime + 5 Performance + 2 Efficiency cores onboard and Adreno A32 GPU supporting ray tracing. All told, it offers a 30% increase in CPU performance and 28% faster graphics capabilities compared to its predecessor, along with improved power efficiency and support for Wi-Fi 7 standard. It is also the first in the G Series to support Lumen, Unreal Engine 5’s dynamic global illumination and reflections system, for Android-based handheld gaming devices.
Meanwhile, the Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 is designed for both conventional gaming and cloud gaming with support up to QHD+ 144FPS, and claimed to deliver 2.3x and 3.8x more performance in CPU and GPU respectively over the previous generation with its combination of 1Pr+4P+3E cores and onboard Adreno A22 GPU. Like the G3 Gen 3, it also gets Wi-Fi 7 support via Qualcomm’s FastConnect 7800 platform.
Finally, the Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 is a low-end model aimed mostly for cloud gaming use, which Qualcomm says is 80% faster over the Gen 1 chip in terms of CPU performance, and 25% in GPU performance – however, this sticks to the old Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) standard, which means connectivity capabilities is quite behind most devices today. Still, the chipmaker aims for 1080p 120FPS cloud gaming on this SoC with its Adreno A12 GPU onboard.
Qualcomm says gaming handheld manufacturers including AYANEO, ONEXSUGAR, and Retroid Pocket are expected to release their devices powered by the new Snapdragon chips starting this quarter, which includes AYANEO Pocket S2, AYANEO Gaming Pad, ONEXSUGAR SUGAR 1, Retroid Rocket PR Classic, and more.
Pokdepinion: Looks like these are still mobile-focused, unlike the Ryzen-powered Windows-based handhelds we’ve seen so far.
