Microsoft’s Automatic Super Resolution will only work with games on select PCs

Microsoft’s much-awaited Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) is here to bring upscaling tech like Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR directly into Windows, but there’s a catch. The new Auto SR will only work with games on select PCs that have Copilot+ AI with a Snapdragon X Elite processor.

This means that all the anticipation came out to be nothing for the majority of the Windows users. Not only that, but the tech itself is currently limited to select games. One of the main reasons behind this is that Snapdragon X Elite processors are currently the only ones meeting the neural processing unit (NPU) requirement.

The ASR uses AI similar to Tensor cores in Nvidia GPUs and requires 40 tera operations per second (TOPS) at minimum, which are only available in Snapdragon X Elite processors. Furthermore, it also acts as a promotion for their new devices.

With time, this tech is expected to be integrated with other processors, like newer-generation AMD or Intel chips. By the time, supported numbers of games will also likely increase. Sadly, gamers in the current generation will likely not see this piece of tech on their current systems.

Limitations for Auto SR as of now -

At least 1080p in display resolution of or greater.

Currently not available for x86-based processors.

Cannot be used together with HDR.

Restricted to native ARM titles with no support for DirectX 9, OpenGL and Vulkan.

DirectX 11/12 games using 10-bit formats are also unsupported.

Some of the games that can take advantage of Auto SR currently are God of War, Tomb Raider, Sekiro, Resident Evil 2 & 3, The Witcher 3, Borderlands 3 and a few more. The concept of Auto SR itself is quite interesting, however, with the current state, only a few will be able to take advantage of it.

Upscaling tech has already been proven to be very useful, however, gamers seem to be limited in one way or another. Auto SR and DLSS 3 are limited to new-gen CPUs and GPUs, while FSR 3 is available for all, it is limited to the game developer’s implementation.