Microsoft's Auto SR upscaling exits preview on ROG Xbox Ally X

Out of preview and onto the handheld

Microsoft has taken Automatic Super Resolution, its answer to upscaling tools such as NVIDIA's DLSS, out of testing and made it officially available on the ROG Xbox Ally X, the ROG Xbox Ally X20 and some Windows Copilot+ PCs built around AMD Ryzen chips, according to Engadget. The company had begun trying the feature on the Ally X back in April.

The biggest change is that the released version works while the device is undocked. The preview build did not support handheld play, so the technology was effectively limited to a docked setup until now.

What upscaling does on a small screen

Auto SR is designed to sharpen the image in demanding games without asking the hardware to render every pixel natively. In its original docked form, Microsoft pitched it as a way to deliver detail closer to 1440p with smooth frame rates on a larger display, such as a television.

Microsoft said it extended the feature to handheld mode because of demand from users. In its announcement, the company described Auto SR as a way to smooth out play when a demanding title feels choppy on the go, according to Engadget.

1080p by default, with a caveat

The official release works with games running at 1080p by default, which Engadget notes covers most titles played on the ASUS-made consoles. During the preview, players had to drop a game's resolution before the upscaling would engage; that step is no longer required.

Microsoft cautioned that running at 1080p in handheld mode may not perform as well as other configurations. Even so, the company said visual quality should still improve, particularly in older games.

Higher frame rates and HDR are on the way

The released version of Auto SR can reach frame rates of up to 120 fps, compared with the 60 to 75 fps range of the preview, Engadget reports. Microsoft said the extra headroom should make fast-paced and competitive titles such as shooters look and feel smoother.

The feature also gains support for HDR visuals. Microsoft calls the higher frame rate capability Performance Mode, and both that mode and HDR support will arrive through future Windows updates rather than being available immediately.

Why it matters for handheld PC gaming

Upscaling has become a standard way for PC games to trade a little image fidelity for smoother performance, and NVIDIA's DLSS is the best-known example. Microsoft's entry into that space matters most on battery-powered hardware, where rendering at full resolution is expensive in both frame rate and power.

By enabling Auto SR in handheld mode and accepting 1080p games without manual tweaking, Microsoft is making the feature far easier to use on the Ally devices. Owners of the listed hardware should watch for the Windows updates that bring Performance Mode and HDR, and can check Microsoft's announcement for the exact configurations supported.