Auto SR on the ROG Xbox Ally X improves performance by around 30% in several games when upscaling from 720p to 1080p

Microsoft recently launched several new updates for the ROG Xbox Ally X, including the enablement of its Auto SR AI upscaling technology. YouTube ETA Prime tested the upscaler on the handheld and found noticeably improved image quality at the cost of performance. Performance-wise, activating Auto SR at 720p yielded better performance than native 1080p, but was still slower than native 720p by a noticeable amount.

To recap, Auto SR is Microsoft's competitor to DLSS, FSR, and XeSS and uses an AI algorithm to upscale images from a lower resolution to a higher resolution. The tech differs from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel's implementations in that it can be activated on all games through the game bar or Windows 11 settings app on supported hardware. Auto SR initially launched in laptops using Microsoft's Copilot+ branding in 2024, but has slowly filtered out to other devices. Currently, it is supported on Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD SoCs as long as the SoCs have an NPU.

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The ROG Xbox Ally X is the first handheld to gain Auto SR compatibility. Microsoft specifically designed the tech to be used on external monitors or TVs, as the tech can't be turned on when using the built-in screen. That said, ETA Prime noted a workaround where plugging in the handheld into a charger will allow users to turn Auto SR on using the built-in screen.

The YouTuber tested Auto SR on the ROG Xbox Ally X in several games featuring Cyberpunk 2077, Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarok, Black Myth: Wukong, and Red Dead Redemption 2. In Cyberpunk 2077 at the Steam Deck graphical preset, the game ran at 56 FPS average at 1080p native with no Auto SR active. Reducing the in-game resolution to 720p and enabling Auto SR saw average frame rates boosted by 12.5% to 63 FPS. However, performance was still not nearly as good as 720p native, where the handheld was capable of outputting 73 FPS average, translating to 30.4% better performance compared to the 1080p baseline testing.

God of War: Ragnarok in balanced mode ran at 40 FPS average at 1080p. Using Auto SR and a 720p internal resolution improved FPS by 42.5% to 57 FPS average. Black Myth: Wukong on the low preset achieved 51 FPS average at 1080p. Using Auto SR at 720p improved performance by 29.4% to 66 FPS average. Red Dead Redemption 2 in DX12 mode at balanced settings ran at 52 FPS average at 1080p. Dropping to 720p and using Auto SR improved performance by 28.8% to 67 FPS average. The only game that did not see a noticeable performance difference was Spider-Man 2, where the difference between 720p with Auto SR enabled and 1080p with no Auto SR was just one FPS (53 FPS vs 52 FPS average).

The performance results show that Auto SR has a noticeable impact on GPU performance. The YouTuber noted that CPU and GPU clock speeds suffer when Auto SR is enabled due to the NPU consuming part of the APU's power budget (this is not even counting the additional render time that's needed for the NPU to upscale the image). But for that performance penalty, image quality improves massively. ETA Prime compared images of Auto SR on vs off using a 720p internal resolution, revealing a significantly sharper and cleaner image with Auto SR.

The extra performance cost will likely require gamers to smartly choose when to enable Auto SR, but in games where performance is not an issue, the higher image quality will likely be well worth it when hooking the handheld up to a large TV or external monitor.