After six months, Microsoft’s Auto SR finally gives the ROG Xbox Ally X what it always needed

Of all the areas that AI has touched in our daily lives, I think its effect on video game scaling is the one that seems the most magical. When done correctly, this essentially allows you to play your games at better framerates without sacrificing visual fidelity. And while some eagle-eyed enthusiasts may be able to tell the difference between a native game and a high-end game, it’s getting scary now.

When the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X was first announced, the tech company promised consumers that it would eventually receive Microsoft’s Auto SR technology. Well, a little over six months later, the feature has finally arrived on the preview branch, and you should see up to 30% higher frame rates when enabled.

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X’s Auto SR technology is now ready for preview

Hopefully it will be ready for general release soon

As announced on the Microsoft Dev Blogs, Auto SR is now ready on the Xbox Insiders branch for the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. At first glance, Auto SR appears to work very similarly to other upscaling technologies; the idea being that you run the game at a lower resolution than normal and Auto SR scales it to the best of its ability. Ideally, this should mean you get all the benefits of running a game at a lower resolution without actually vision the game at a lower resolution.

You can see the technology in action above. The left side is the game running natively at 1440p on the ROG Xbox Ally X, and it manages around 35-40 FPS. On the right side, the game runs at a lower resolution, with Auto SR upscaling it up to 1440p. This side runs at a steady 46-50 FPS, and if I’m honest, I really struggle to see a visual difference between the two sides. It really seems like you’re getting both high FPS and good visual quality.

Currently, Xbox Insiders can only use Auto SR when the console is connected, and for good reason:

Docked gaming means larger screens and higher resolutions, where drops in image quality are more noticeable or some games struggle to maintain smooth FPS. This is exactly the problem Auto SR was designed to solve, which is why we’re starting the preview with docked mode where we hope players will see the most value.

If you want to give it a try, sign up for the Xbox Insider program and then update your system. You’ll know you have the update if you see a new Auto SR tab in the Game Bar. Enable it from there and you should get higher frame rates without sacrificing visual acuity.