Microsoft’s upscaler goes handheld

Microsoft has started rolling out Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR), its AI upscaling tech that competes with Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR, to the ROG Xbox Ally X, ROG Xbox Ally X20 and select Copilot+ PCs. The official release removes the preview’s biggest limitation: you no longer have to dock the handheld to use it. Microsoft began testing Auto SR on the Ally X in April, but only for docked play on a bigger screen. The final version works in handheld mode, even on battery. It also supports games running at the Ally’s native 1080p, so you don’t have to lower the in-game resolution first. That comes with a caveat. Microsoft product manager Stefan Bojanic said that at 1080p in handheld mode, “performance may not be as optimal as other configurations.” He added that players should still see sharper visuals, “especially in older games.” The other big addition is a new Performance mode. The preview capped the upscaler at around 60 to 75fps, and that limit still applies to the default Quality mode. Performance mode raises it to 120fps, which should help in fast shooters. Auto SR now also works with Auto HDR, which adds HDR to games that never shipped with it. Both will arrive through Windows updates, so they “may take a little time to reach your device,” Bojanic noted.

Ally X owners now have two upscalers to choose from

Last month, AMD brought FSR 4.1 to Ally handhelds with the Z2 Extreme chip, so Ally X and X20 owners already had one upscaling option. Auto SR is built into Windows and is meant for games you already own. It renders a game at a lower resolution, then uses the neural processing unit (NPU) to scale the image up, all on the device. That’s why the base ROG Xbox Ally, which has no NPU, can’t use it. Nvidia’s DLSS doesn’t run natively on any of these handhelds. Auto SR has its own limits too. Games must use DirectX 10 or later and run on x64 or Arm64, which leaves out DirectX 9, Vulkan and OpenGL titles. You turn it on per game from the Display widget in Xbox Game Bar (Win + G), and the game has to be in fullscreen.

End of Article

Latest Mobiles

View All

Poco M7 Plus

₹19,999

Realme C83 5G

₹18,999

Itel A90 Limited Edition

Infinix Note 50X

₹13,499

Realme P2 Pro 5G

₹19,999

Motorola A200

₹1,699

Itel Zeno 100

₹7,999

OPPO F29 Pro

₹20,480

Realme Narzo 80 Pro

₹16,996

iQOO Z10R

₹18,772

Moto G06 Power

₹12,299

Poco X7 5G

₹19,499

iQOO Z11 Lite

₹19,497

Lava Shark 2 5G

₹14,899

Realme P1 Pro

₹15,999

Acer Super ZX

₹14,499

Poco M8 Power 5G

₹22,475

Alcatel V3 Ultra

₹16,894

Ai+ Pulse 2

₹9,750