DirectSR, a new feature Super automatic graphics resolution in Windowsit will be available (at first launch) only on Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon Elite launched this week.

For years, the major manufacturers of graphics chips (NVIDIA, AMD or Intel) have been developing functions that can increase the spatial resolution of an image using certain techniques and algorithms. They will sound like DLSS, FSR or XeSS to you.

The DirectSR that Microsoft announced is different because it doesn’t use graphics chips, but new neural processing units (NPUs) or another type of AI accelerator compatible with Microsoft APIs. The upscaling component of this feature apparently uses AI to reconstruct details. Although on paper it could be used in any type of graphics application, its preferred target is gaming, and the launch of the Copilot+ PC platform confirms this: “automatically improves the frame rate of games in real time”.

The bad news is that this Automatic Super Resolution graphics feature in Windows will only be available on Copilot+ computers with Snapdragon Elite. At least initially, as Intel Lunar Lake and AMD Strix Point will certainly support this feature. And let’s not forget that the same NVIDIA graphics chips have Tensor cores that could support this feature.

In any case, Microsoft doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to delivery OS level gaming features and for example Windows “game mode” doesn’t improve anything at all and depends more on DirectX API and graphics providers own technologies.

Knowing the extraordinary performance of NVIDIA’s DLSS, the time it took the green giant to develop it, and the large number of supported games, it seems unbelievable that Microsoft’s DirectSR will be better. Despite the brutal marketing we’ve seen this week, we’re still hopeful that AI technologies will prove in practice to help as much as they promise.

Automatic Super Resolution graphics in Windows will debut in the Windows 11 2024 Update, the big 2024 update with a stable release scheduled for next fall.