Auto SR upscaling tech is limited to Copilot+ PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite... for now

Microsoft will soon have AI upscaling technology available at the operating system level with Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) technology... which will debut with new Copilot+ PC laptops powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite processor.

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Auto SR upscaling tech on Windows with Copilot+ PCs (source: Microsoft)

Microsoft has officially announced that Automatic Super Resolution technology will be integrated into Windows, and will "automatically enhance the framerate of games in real-time". The only issue here is that it won't work on regular gaming systems, rather it's exclusive to Copilot+ PCs running Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Elite X processor... for now.

There's no support for x86 CPUs or even the Snapdragon X Plus processor, only the Snapdragon X Elite. There's also another limitation in that there are only particular games that will work with AutoSR + Snapdragon X Elite, something Microsoft calls a "curated set" of games.

Microsoft explains: "Auto super resolution (Auto SR) seamlessly integrates with Windows to automatically enhance the frame rates of existing games in real-time while also providing detailed visuals on screen, offering a balance that exceeds what your PC hardware can achieve on its own. At initial launch, this feature will be exclusive to Copilot+ PCs equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor and a curated set of games".

• Read more: Microsoft announces DirectSR for DirectX, a single API for NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS

We should expect AMD's next-generation Zen 5-powered Strix Point and Strix Halo APUs, as well as Intel's next-generation Lunar Lake CPUs to roll out with Auto SR support later this year as they'll be part of the Copilot+ PC ecosystem. I do hope we don't see Microsoft being massive fools to lock Auto SR to just AI-powered PCs within the Copilot+ ecosystem.

This brings up some questions... will you need an "AI processor" starting with Zen 5 from AMD and then Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake from Intel? Will gaming PCs of today, and in the past (3-5 years) not be capable of running Auto SR? If that's the case, Auto SR is DOA. NVIDIA GeForce RTX series GPU owners will use DLSS (they'd be silly not to) and AMD Radeon RX series GPU owners will use FSR (they'd also be silly not to).

• Read more: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite: all SKUs have NPU with 45 TOPS for AI workloads
• Read more: Microsoft intros Copilot+ PCs: Copilot+ AI PCs need 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, NPU

Auto SR isn't going to blow DLSS or FSR (or even XeSS) out of the water, but rather it appears to be something that will increase frame rates on systems that don't have powerful GPUs. Kinda perfect for the new Copilot+ PCs that are Arm-based processors for now (Qualcomm Snapdragon X SoCs) while x86-based AMD and Intel CPUs with upgraded NPUs are on the way. I guess we'll have to wait and see over the coming months what Microsoft is attempting to do with Auto SR and Copilot+ PCs.