On Binary Translation and Its Consequences

Arm processors are gaining viability in the PC market thanks to Windows 11's new Prism binary translator, which converts x86-64 software to run on aarch64 chips, though this translation introduces performance penalties compared to native code. The article examines these performance trade-offs using Geekbench 7 benchmarks on Snapdragon X2 Elite hardware, testing whether binary translation can provide acceptable performance for PC users who expect traditional Windows software to run seamlessly on Arm-based devices.