With the vast majority of handheld gaming PCs using an AMD chip to handle graphics duties, users have been mostly limited to using FSR upscaling to give frame rates a healthy bump. However, with its latest update, the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X now offers Microsoft's Auto SR as a different option, and this upscaler is powered by the processor's NPU.
You know what an NPU or neural processing unit is, right? It's that thing inside some processors that seldom gets used for anything. Don't get me wrong, it's a neat bit of hardware that's great for handling AI models without using masses of power, but hardly any applications require one to be present.
But with the Auto SR Preview feature in the new Asus ROG Xbox Ally X update, that's no longer the case, because Microsoft's upscaler doesn't run on the GPU inside the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme that powers the handheld PC. Instead, it's all done on the chip's NPU.
Microsoft explains why this is a good thing in a
English (US)