Qualcomm revealed independent GPU driver update support for the latest Snapdragon 865 and 865+ processors along with the mid-range Snapdragon 765/765G SoC. Xiaomi became the first OEM to take advantage of this functionality by pushing standalone driver update for the Adreno 650 GPU on Mi 10 series and the Redmi K30 series. Now OPPO joins the list as another OEM updating the GPU drivers for the flagship Find X2 and X2 Pro smartphones.
The update is available for the Chinese variants of the smartphone courtesy an app available on the company’s app store. Labeled as OplusGpudriver, the updater has the OpenGL ES and Vulkan libraries with new features, just like the Xiaomi’s updater. For now, there is no support for the international versions of the device(s). Even though you can try to install the APK of the app, the phone will not get the update as discovered by XDA Developers.
The core idea behind the ability to have separate updater for the GPU is the cycle of updates pushed by OEMs for security patches, bug fixes, and Android versions. Since these updates come at their own pace, even if there is an update for GPU by Qualcomm, the users receive it bundled with the OEM updates. This creates a delivery time lag which can hamper the end-user experience.
Full modulization of Android OS is the primary goal behind having a separate GPU driver update regime and more OEMs will adopt it in the coming months. In the end, it will provide better integrity of hardware and OS which Android lacks at times when compared to iOS. This will fine-tune the harmony between powerful hardware well complemented by the driver updates.
