I used DeX to turn my Galaxy S25 Ultra into a lightweight gaming PC — and it actually worked

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PC gaming on Android has made major strides since apps like Winlator were launched a few years ago. In fact, you can now play older, somewhat demanding games that you wouldn’t have dreamed of playing on your mobile back in 2021 or 2022.

We’ve also seen two major developments in recent times. The first is that GameNative has become one of the most polished, capable, and popular PC “emulators” on Android. We’ve also seen the rise of custom Turnip GPU drivers for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chips. Without these unofficial drivers, devices with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips and earlier were considered better for PC games.

Between these developments and my prior experience with PC gaming apps, that got me wondering. Could Samsung’s last two generations of Galaxy flagship phones, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite family, deliver a lightweight gaming PC experience when plugged into an external monitor? I’m not expecting to play the latest and greatest games, but is this a viable alternative to using my work laptop after hours?

I’m using a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hooked up to an old Jsaux dock, which is typically used for the Steam Deck and similar handheld consoles. I’m also running the GameNative app due to its integrated Steam support. My plan here is to try out various PC games, only really switching between the system GPU driver and the community-driven Turnip drivers. Does switching drivers reveal a big difference in performance and heating?

I started with some lightweight 2D games, and I was able to play games like Baba is You, Mina the Hollower, and Battleblock Theater at smooth speeds regardless of the GPU driver. Temperatures were also very reasonable here. It’s not a clean slate with every lightweight game, as Call of Duty 2 (2005) simply encountered a Steam-related error and refused to boot up regardless of the GPU driver.

I then switched to 3D titles from the late 2000s to early 2010s, and encountered a few pleasant surprises. Crysis actually runs at a good pace at 1080p with low graphics. There is some noticeable judder during firefights, but I played this game on Xbox 360, so I’ve seen worse. It’s not a complete surprise, as colleague Rob Triggs showcased Crysis on the ASUS ROG Phone 9 Pro last year. But it’s still crazy to see Crysis running on a smartphone. Temperatures did hit peaks of around 68 to 70 degrees Celsius, but it didn’t stay in this range, and the phone itself didn’t feel like a furnace.

Tetris Effect is caught in an awkward middle ground. It’s not quite as demanding in theory as older action titles, nor is it exactly a lightweight 2D title. Nevertheless, the Galaxy S25 Ultra delivers smooth performance here regardless of the driver. It did seem like the system driver yielded slightly higher peak temperatures in the 60s, though. Deus Ex: Human Revolution also turned in respectable performance with both system and Turnip drivers. The classic title mostly ran at 60fps, with occasional big dips to the high 30fps range. It’s also worth noting that I experienced some micro-stutter even when it ran at an otherwise smooth frame rate. I also noticed temperatures in the low 60s.