Snapdragon’s New “G” Series SoCs Bring Ray-Tracing to Android Handhelds
Two years ago, Qualcomm launched a dedicated gaming chip line for handheld systems. Now, the company is expanding its three-tiered Snapdragon “G” series with two second-generation SoCs and one third-generation SoC. Not to confuse these with the mobile lineup, these SoCs are purpose-built for “sustained” gaming over long intervals.
Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 Is the First Handheld SoC to Support Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen System; G1 to Stick to Cloud Gaming
At the Game Developers Conference 2025, Qualcomm announced the new Snapdragon G3 Gen 3, Snapdragon G2 Gen 2, and the Snapdragon G1 Gen 2, in order of relative performance metrics. Each of the three variants sport an octa-core configuration, alebit with different combinations of prime, performance and efficiency cores.
The flagship SoC, Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 comes with a 1+5+2 (1x prime, 5x performance, 2x efficiency) configuration, with the top-end Adreno A32 GPU, which for reference, is 28% faster than its predecessor. This year, Qualcomm has announced that the GPU will allow G3 to be the first chip to support Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen, which is a fully dynamic global illumination and reflections system.
The chip offers a decent uplift over its predecessor, with Qualcomm claiming leaps of around 30% with the G3 Gen3 this year. It’s also the only chip in the line to support hardware-accelerated ray-tracing in games.
The mid-tier Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 is one big upgrade. It comes with a 1+4+3 configuration, and is expected to ship with a whopping 2.3x better CPU performance, and 3.8x in GPU upgrades. The GPU it sports, is the Adreno A22.
The affordable Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 comes with a 2+6 configuration, holding back on the “prime” core. This is because this SoC is primarily gerared towards cloud gaming, and thus comes with an 80% CPU boost, and a fairly adequate 25% increase in its GPU’s capabilities, which is the Adreno A12.
Both the higher-end variants, the Snapdragon G3 Gen3 and the Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 come with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 support, with an option for 5G, too. On the visual side of things, these SoCs can support up to maximum of 144Hz, with the G1 capping out on 120Hz.
This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.
