Recently, a well-known tech channel on YouTube released a stunning real-device demonstration video, showcasing that on the REDMAGIC 11 Pro+ Golden Saga Gold Legend Edition smartphone equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, it successfully ran AAA titles such as Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Resident Evil 9: Requiem through local emulation, with quite impressive frame rate performance.

REDMAGIC 11 Pro+ Runs AAA Games

This marks that the mobile gaming experience has officially entered a brand-new era, but at the same time, it also exposes the high power consumption cost behind the performance.

Benefiting from the powerful hardware stacking of the REDMAGIC 11 Pro—24GB LPDDR5T memory, 1TB UFS 4.1 Pro storage, and the built-in GameHub emulation layer (which can translate x86 instructions into ARM architecture), this phone successfully ran multiple PC games with extremely demanding configuration requirements.

REDMAGIC 11 Pro+ Runs AAA Games

Test results show that under 720P low graphics settings, the frame rate of Resident Evil 9: Requiem can soar to 80–90 FPS, while Red Dead Redemption 2 can remain stable at around 50 FPS in outdoor scenes, and can even reach the smooth line of 60 FPS indoors. These data indicate that the graphics processing capability of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is already sufficient to simulate performance close to handheld devices such as Steam Deck on mobile devices.

REDMAGIC 11 Pro+ Runs AAA Games

However, behind the astonishing performance is equally astonishing energy consumption. Test data show that when running these large-scale games, the phone’s peak power consumption was once misreported as close to 50W, and after software correction, the actual measured value was still as high as around 24W. In comparison, the power consumption of Apple’s M5 chip running Cyberpunk 2077 on a MacBook Pro is only about 20W.

REDMAGIC 11 Pro+ Runs AAA Games

REDMAGIC provides a feasible cooling solution for high-performance output through its built-in active fan and liquid cooling system, but this does not solve the problem at the root. Future mobile chips, such as the rumored Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, must seek greater breakthroughs in process technology and architectural design in order to truly make AAA gaming an “instant-play” daily experience on smartphones.