OPPO Find X2 and Find X2 Pro with Snapdragon 865 receive GPU driver update

Modularizing the internal components of an operating system is a monumental undertaking, but the result is that future software updates become easier to perform. Project Treble is the perfect example of such an effort in the Android ecosystem. While Google is exploring different ways to reduce fragmentation of the OS and kernel, chipmakers themselves are also working with OEMs to decouple low-level drivers from the Android OS itself and reduce update fragmentation. A handful of current-generation Qualcomm SoCs support updatable GPU drivers, which can be installed like standalone driver updates on PCs. Xiaomi has already adapted the design and published a “GPU Driver Updater” app on its Chinese app store, which is compatible with the Snapdragon 865-powered Mi 10, Mi 10 Pro, and Redmi K30 Pro. Following Xiaomi’s footsteps, OPPO has now released a similar Adreno 650 GPU driver updater app for the OPPO Find X2 and the Find X2 Pro.

OPPO Find X2 XDA Forums ||| OPPO Find X2 Pro XDA Forums

Just like Xiaomi, OPPO’s driver updater (labeled as “OplusGpudriver“) is available for download only in China as of now. The package name of the app is com.oplus.gpudrivers.sm8250.api29 and the version number of the latest build is 0.0474.0. Notable Android developer Isaac Chen, known on our forums as XDA Senior Member TingyiChen, managed to get his hands on the APK file, which contains a bunch of GPU drivers from Qualcomm along with OpenGL ES and Vulkan related libraries.

Although the APK file can be manually sideloaded onto the international variants of the OPPO Find X2/X2 Pro as well, users on our forums report that the OpenGL version isn’t being incremented. Thus, it appears that the graphics driver can only be updated on Chinese builds of ColorOS for the Find X2 series.

Decoupling the GPU driver from the base OS is undoubtedly a big step towards the full modularization of Android. It is exciting to see that more OEMs are utilizing the new driver update schema, even though it has yet to gain support for different hardware elements apart from the GPU.

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