Microsoft is bringing next-gen Xbox console's AI features to the ROG Xbox Ally handheld

In the most recent episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft VP of Xbox Gaming Jason Ronald talked extensively about the future of Xbox gaming devices, services like Game Pass, and how AI will play an integral role in shaping the future of everything Xbox. Part of the discussion revolved around Xbox and AMD's long-term partnership, and how it was planning to create a 'unified platform' for console, cloud, PC, and handheld.

3

To pull this off, Xbox and AMD will be co-developing custom Ryzen, Radeon, and AI hardware that will share similar architecture and technologies across all devices - where that's dedicated ray-tracing processors to power the next-generation of path-traced gaming, or AI-powered upscaling and frame generation to enhance performance similar to AMD's FSR 4 technology on desktop PC Radeon RX 9000 Series products and its upcoming FSR Redstone initiative.

The upcoming ROG Xbox Ally gaming handheld from ASUS and Xbox will debut with a custom gaming-focused version of Windows, which will likely become the interface for the next Xbox console. However, during the discussion, Jason Ronald confirmed that the Xbox team will be using the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds to test new AI features that are coming to the next-gen Xbox console.

"We're also investing in dedicated silicon to enable the next generation of AI capabilities, which will be transformative in how you experience gameplay," Jason Ronald said. "All of this actually starts this year with the Xbox Ally X, because it has a dedicated NPU. This allows us to start experimenting and trying some of these AI-powered experiences well before our next-generation console."

3

The flagship ROG Xbox Ally X gaming handheld is powered by the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme Processor, which features integrated RDNA 3.5 graphics and an NPU with up to 50 TOPS of performance. This puts its AI capabilities in the realm of a Copilot+ PC, so whatever new AI features Microsoft will be testing out on the handheld will be relatively light.

In addition to the already announced Gaming Copilot assistant, we'd love to see a lightweight and efficient AI-powered variant of AMD's impressive FSR 4 and Frame Generation become available, as it would be a game-changer for PC gaming, handheld performance, and image fidelity. Upscaling with native-like image quality on a handheld is different from a desktop PC, as it not only boosts performance but also allows for potentially doubling the battery life of ROG Xbox Ally X when gaming.