While one can switch between the factory-installed build and the newer updated release using Developer options => Graphics driver preferences on a per-app basis, it ultimately boils down to the OEM's decision when to push the graphics driver update. Android maintains a hierarchical arrangement when it comes to loading the graphics driver. Next comes the stability-versus-enhancement paradox. You can, of course, manually replace the driver package in the vendor partition of the target device, provided you have root access and somehow get your hands on the necessary files, but that's not an ideal solution for many. First of all, Google's mechanism doesn't provide an easy way to substitute the closed-source vendor driver with a third-party open-source offering. Nonetheless, a few worrying questions are still left unanswered. Since then, several mainstream Android OEMs collaborated with Google and major GPU vendors, including ARM and Qualcomm, to distribute updates for their phones’ GPU drivers independent of larger software releases.ĭoes the updatable graphics driver design reduce fragmentation? Matter of fact, in an effort to modularize Android via Project Treble, Google actually made it possible to wrap the graphics driver set for a particular platform as an app and update it through the Play Store. Nowadays, smartphones are bigger and faster than ever, making them the perfect vehicle for gaming, hence porting the PC-esque driver design to them does make sense.

Updatable GPU drivers can come in handy for fixing bugs, improving graphics performance, or adding new features from OpenGL or Vulkan APIs. In the case of Android, however, driver updates generally only come to your phone alongside larger OS updates. This is possible because of the modular architecture of PC hardware drivers, which allows power users to tinker with closed source driver packages, or even opt for open-source drivers instead of OEM-provided binaries. Unlike the smartphone ecosystem, updating the graphics driver on your PC is something you can always think about.

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