Windows 11 is getting a hack to help the best PC games run smoothly, 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 increase the resolution of a game (or even an app) in real time. time.
An upscaling feature like this effectively means that the game (and it seems the game is largely the focus (we'll come back 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 can render faster (because it's actually still 720p). If this sounds familiar, it's because similar solutions already exist, such as Nvidia DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS, to name a few.
As Microsoft described in its new details on the Copilot+ PCs (highlighted by VideoCardz), the problem is that Auto SR is exclusive to these laptops. In fact, it must run Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, so that rules out the lesser Plus version of this CPU (at least for now).
The other caveat to note here is that this is only for a “select set of games” to begin with, so it will initially be fairly limited in scope.
Analysis: the beginning of a long journey of improvement
When it was just a leak, there was some debate about whether Auto SR could be a feature to enhance anything (games or apps), but Microsoft is talking specifically about PC games here, so that's the general intended use. We also expected it to be some kind of all-in-one technology in terms of gaming support, and that's clearly not the case.
However, over time we think the Auto SR will have a much wider release, and perhaps that will happen before too long. After all, AI is also being pushed heavily to assist players, as a sort of gaming co-pilot, so this is another strand of that arc, and an important one we can imagine Microsoft working on. hard.
Of course, the real issue is the requirement for a Snapdragon X Elite chip, which rules out most PCs, of course. This is likely due to the demanding nature of the task and the feature being built around the presence of a robust NPU (Neural Processing Unit) to accelerate the AI workloads involved. Only Qualcomm's new Snapdragon
Intel's newest laptop chips, such as Lunar Lake (and Arrow Lake) and AMD's Strix Point, will arrive later this year and will meet the requirements in terms of NPU and qualify as an engine for a Copilot+ PC, so they will be capable of running Auto SR.
Naturally, we have yet to see how well Microsoft implements this feature and how improving games by taking advantage of a powerful NPU works. But as mentioned, the company has so much riding on AI, and the gaming side of the equation seems to be important enough, that we'd expect Microsoft to go out of its way to impress.
