Microsoft’s trick for speeding up PC games in Windows 11 works with only 12 games to start with – but far more are actually supported
Most games should work with Auto SR, it’s just a question of how well – but a dozen are fully verified
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
We now know a lot more about howMicrosoft’s Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) feature for speeding up gaming frame rates inWindows 11will work, and what games it will initially support.
VideoCardznoticed a newentryin Microsoft’s support database on the topic of Auto SR, which underlines the requirements, as well as detailing what games will come as fully verified for the tech.
For those who missed it, Auto SR is an upscaling feature, meaning it runs a game at a lower resolution, upscaling to a higher one, so that you get a close-to-native-resolution image quality with a faster frame rate – using AI to pull off this trickery.
The notable catches are that you need aCopilot+ PCand indeed a Snapdragon X processor, one of theARM-based chips that’ll power laptops launching next month. (You’ll also needWindows 11 24H2, which launches with those AI PCs).
As for the games which are verified and tested by Microsoft for Auto SR, the initial collection is as follows:
Analysis: Useful clarifications – and caveats
It’s interesting to see the fully verified games, and even if it’s only a small selection of a dozen right now, there are some big-name titles. However, the really interesting bit is the clarification that Automatic Super Resolution is a sweeping upscaling feature that can be applied to any game (DX11 or DX12).
We always assumed it would be a system-wide feature – after all, that was the whole point, compared to more targeted upscaling solutions that require support from the game dev such asNvidiaDLSS – and indeed this is the case. It’s just Microsoft worried us with its mention of Auto SR just applying to a “curated set of games” last week when it launched the feature, but these are just the verified games guaranteed to work well.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
The majority of games should be fine with Auto SR in theory, but some may be wonky, or some may not work at all, and to that end, Microsoft is collaborating with theWorksonwoa.comwebsite that lists games that can use the feature successfully – and also those that can’t use Auto SR for whatever reason. (This is the same website that also tells youwhether your favorite PC game will run on Windows on ARM).
There are some nuances to note here, and the first is that verified games are set to work ‘out of the box’ with Auto SR, meaning the feature will be on by default. That could cause some confusion or conflict if a gamer is using another type of upscaling potentially – though you are told that by Windows that Auto SR is being enabled when the game is launched.
We guess Microsoft feels that less tech-savvy folks will benefit from having the feature automatically applied where it makes sense, in games that are fully tested to work well with Auto SR.
The Snapdragon X requirement is the other important point to note here, although we assume this will be widened to include futureAMDandIntellaptop CPUs – those with a powerful enough NPU to qualify as the engine of a Copilot+ PC (as Auto SR will be for these PCs only).
However, we also noticed that Microsoft says Auto SR is only supported for games running on ARM64 natively or emulated x64 games (with the latter using Prism, the translation layer for running Windows games on ARM chips). Presumably that’s a reflection that currently (well, as of next month) only the new Snapdragon X can drive a Copilot+ PC, and that when AMD Strix Point orIntel Lunar LakeCPUs arrive for these AI-powered laptops, there’ll surely be fine with Auto SR.
You might also like…
Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
Alt + Tab trouble: Windows 11’s 24H2 update turns time-saving shortcut into ten-second headache
Windows 11’s Paint and Notepad apps are getting smart new AI features – though one of the best will be for Copilot+ PCs only
How to turn off Meta AI
