Google Pixel 10

Pixel 10’s promised GPU update arrives in Android 16 QPR3

Ben Schoon | Dec 18 2025 - 10:30 am PT

As promised by Google earlier this year, a GPU driver update has arrived for the Pixel 10 series in Android 16 QPR3.

In October, Google confirmed that it would provide a driver update to Tensor G5’s PowerVR GPU, but there was no date attached to that. The driver update had initially launched in August, right around the time of the Pixel 10’s release, but didn’t make it to the initial software.

Now, it’s here – mostly.

Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1 introduces a new driver update for the GPU as first spotted by a 9to5Google reader, “Good_ole_pinocchio,” in our comments section. The GPU driver version is now on 25.1, the verison that was released back in August.

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That same reader also claims to be seeing minor performance improvements affecting picture-in-picture, but it’ll be hard to specifically attribute any improvements to the driver update seeing as this is being delivered with a full Android system update. As has been shown in recent weeks, Google’s other Pixel 10 software updates in recent months have delivered moderate performance improvements even without this driver update.

For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what sort of impact this has on the Pixel 10 series. It might be a while before we see wide impact, though, as the update is only available in beta right now.

You can see the new driver version in certain hardware/software info apps, including “Device Info HW” which shows the 25.1 driver under the SoC section.