Windows 11 is getting a trick to make the best PC games run smoother, although this previously rumored feature has a catch: it will only be available to those who have a Copilot+ PC with a Snapdragon X Elite processor.
The feature in question, which leaked in preview builds of Windows 11 earlier this year, is called Auto Super Resolution (or Auto SR), and the idea is that it will automatically scale up a game’s (or even app’s) resolution in real-time . time.
An upscaling feature like this essentially means that the game – and it seems like gaming is very much the focus (we’ll get to that) – runs at a certain (lower) resolution, with the image upscaled to a higher resolution.
This means that something running at, say, 720p can be upscaled to 1080p or Full HD resolution and look almost as good as native 1080p – but it may render faster (because it’s still 720p in reality). If this sounds familiar, that’s because similar solutions already exist, such as Nvidia DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS to name a few.
As outlined by Microsoft in its verse details about Copilot+ PCs (featured by VideoCardz), the catch is that Auto SR is exclusive to these laptops. In fact, you have to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, so the lesser Plus version of this CPU is out of the question (for now anyway).
The other caveat to keep in mind here is that this is just for a “curated set of games” to begin with, so it will be quite limited in scope at first.
Analysis: The beginning of a long scale-up process
Back when it was just a leak, there was some discussion about whether Auto SR could be a feature for upscaling anything – games or apps – but Microsoft is talking specifically about PC games here, so that’s in mainly the intended use. We also expected it to be an all-encompassing technology in terms of game support, and that’s clearly not the case.
But ultimately, we think Auto SR will see a much wider rollout, and perhaps that will happen before too long. After all, AI is also being heavily pushed to help gamers – as a kind of gaming co-pilot – so this is another string to that bow, and an important pillar that we can imagine Microsoft is working hard on.
The real fly in the ointment is of course the requirement for a Snapdragon X Elite chip, which of course rules out most PCs. This is likely due to the demanding nature of the task and the feature being built around the presence of a powerful NPU (Neural Processing Unit) to accelerate the AI workload involved. Only Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon
Newer laptop chips from Intel such as Lunar Lake (and Arrow Lake) and AMD’s Strix Point are arriving later this year and will deliver the goods in terms of NPU and qualify as the engine for a Copilot+ PC – and therefore also capable of Auto SR to be carried out.
Of course, we still have to see how well Microsoft implements this feature, and how upscaling games using a powerful NPU turns out. But as mentioned, the company has so much to do with AI, and the gaming side of the equation seems important enough, that we’d expect Microsoft to do its best to impress.