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ROG Xbox Ally X gaming handheld to get Auto Super Resolution boost in April — Microsoft touts 30% performance boost thanks to AI-powered image upscaling
The ROG Xbox Ally X gaming handheld will soon be getting a performance upgrade in the form of Auto Super Resolution, or Auto SR. Microsoft confirmed the feature at the ongoing Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2026 and is expected to begin an initial rollout in April 2026. A key benefit of Auto SR is that it operates at the OS level and can run directly on the device using an NPU, in this case, the Ryzen Z2 AI Extreme chip powering the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. This approach should increase frame rates, reduce load on the GPU, and potentially improve battery life.
Auto SR was originally introduced as an exclusive feature for Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X or Snapdragon X2 processors. It is an AI-powered image upscaling solution designed to work similarly to DLSS, FSR, and other upscaling technologies.
According to Microsoft, users can expect a boost in performance by up to 30% when Auto SR is enabled on the handheld console. While that may sound impressive, in a video shared by @ethangach on X, the company showcased a quick demo using the ROG Xbox Ally X, where Forza Horizon 5 ran at 35 FPS on average with no upscaling as compared to 51 FPS average when enabling Auto SR. Click the tweet below to see a video of Microsoft's announcement:
Xbox announces automatic super resolution mode is coming to the Xbox Ally in April.Leverages AI to scale resolution up in real time to improve performance.Auto SR "fills in the gaps" by existing upscaling tools like DLSS. pic.twitter.com/XDwttHUvxVMarch 12, 2026
An important aspect to consider is that enabling Auto SR can introduce some amount of latency, which may or may not affect the gaming experience depending on the title. On top of that, Microsoft’s official documentation says that Auto SR is currently only supported in games that run on DirectX 11 or DirectX 12, although that may change once it adds support for Xbox ROG Ally X.
In related news, the company recently confirmed that its next-generation Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix, will be powered by a custom AMD SoC with support for a new upscaling tech called FSR Diamond. Much like Auto SR, FSR Diamond is going to rely on AI-assisted upscaling in addition to ray regeneration for ray tracing and path tracing, as well as multi-frame generation to deliver higher resolutions and improved visual performance. While the next Xbox is still some time away, the introduction of Auto SR on handheld hardware could offer an early glimpse of how Microsoft plans to lean more heavily on AI-driven graphics technologies in the future.
Kunal Khullar is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. He is a long time technology journalist and reviewer specializing in PC components and peripherals, and welcomes any and every question around building a PC.
I was about to mock this heavily, but it seems they've finally found a use for an NPU. FWIW Lossless Scaling can already leverage an integrated GPU so it'll be interesting to see where this goes.
I think this will solidify the fact that no self-respecting game dev will use the NPU for AI NPCs.
What game devs do with AI/ML will largely depend on the choices Sony and Microsoft make with next-gen hardware. Currently, we are looking at a 110 TOPS dedicated NPU in Xbox, and possibly no NPU in PS6. The future of NPUs is very uncertain, but it's not over until it's over.
Microsoft's presentation mentions neural texture compression. If both Xbox and PS6 are using that, it gives something new for AI to do, and it could free up more VRAM to be used for something else, including NPC LLMs.
SSDs have allowed game install sizes to shrink. Maybe texture compression can reduce the VRAM needed for graphics. Combined with 87-125% more memory than current gen consoles, AI NPC dialogue could be a thing. Whether it uses an NPU or not doesn't matter, as long as it works.
