In the wake of theQualcomm Snapdragon Xand the ever-present desire to pushWindows 11on Arm to the forefront,Microsoftannounced and explained an exclusive feature for Arm Windows 11 today— Auto SR. Microsoft Auto SR, or “Automatic super resolution”, is an AI-powered image upscaling solution intended to be used similarly toDLSS,FSR, and other such upscaling solutions. It should not be confused with the more recently announcedDirectSR, which functions as an API to integrate any upscaling solution from any vendor easily.
Based on the information on the official Microsoft support page for enabling this feature, there are some significant downsides. However, this is still quite nice to have since Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X may otherwise be restricted in upscaling options, particularly in titles without existing upscaling settings. It also shows that Microsoft is still serious about Windows 11 on Arm, and the Snapdragon X CPUs look pretty powerful indeed, even while running x86/x64 applications.
Notable Restrictions of Microsoft Auto SR
The games currently confirmed to automatically support AutoSR include AAA titles likeBorderlands 3, God of War (2018), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, andDark Souls III. A full list of games known to be supported can be found onWorksonwoa.com(literally ‘Works on Windows on Arm’) with the Auto SR filter applied.
Following Microsoft’s instructions, other games can be manually tested with Auto SR. As long as it works and you aren’t using a device with (or connected to) an HDR display, you have no reason not to enable this to squeeze the most power out of a mobile chipset. However, only actual time and testing will determine whether this upscaling solution looks as good as Nvidia DLSS 2 or AMD FSR 3— though using AI in these upscaling solutions is usually a good sign.
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Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.