Microsoft flips Auto SR to 120 FPS Performance Mode on the Ally X and X20

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Auto SR just graduated. Microsoft has taken Automatic Super Resolution out of preview on the ROG Xbox Ally X and the ROG Xbox Ally X20, after months of testing through the Xbox Insider program. It’s a free software drop.

The headline addition is a Performance Mode with a much higher ceiling. Until now the upscaler topped out somewhere between 60 and 75 frames per second, and Performance Mode lifts that ceiling to a full 120 FPS for supported games. Faster games finally get the room they needed. The rest of the package fixes annoyances that preview players kept hitting, rather than chasing a bigger number for the box.

Performance Mode lives in Game Bar

Both modes sit inside Game Bar, one overlay away while a game runs. Tap over, flip from Quality to Performance, and the frame rate moves in real time. No restart needed.

ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X
AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme · 7-inch 1080p 120Hz display · 24GB RAM and 1TB SSD
Price: $1,149 at Amazon
Where to buy: Buy on Amazon

Microsoft published its own test numbers. In Rocket League on an Ally X at 720p with high in-game graphics settings, Quality Mode averaged 70 frames per second across the run. Performance Mode averaged 115 in the same run. That’s Microsoft’s lab, not a promise for your library. Even discounted, 115 sits far above the ceiling the preview shipped with. Two modes beat one compromise.

The names give the trade away. Quality spends the upscaling budget on the prettier picture, while Performance spends it on frame rate for shooters and racers that punish a low count. A slower story game loses nothing in Quality, and its picture stays the priority. A ranked match wants the frames.

The Ally X screen already refreshes at 120Hz. A 120 FPS ceiling means the upscaler can finally feed every refresh that panel offers in supported games, instead of stranding the top of its range unused.

The dock lost its veto

During the Insider preview, Auto SR only woke up while the Ally sat in a dock, which turned a handheld feature into a desk feature for months. That leash is gone. Microsoft started docked on purpose, since a big TV is where upscaling earns its keep fastest.

Auto SR now runs on the built-in screen too, unplugged, on battery power, right where a handheld actually gets used most. It also finally accepts games that run at 1080p, the native resolution of the Ally’s screen, so nobody has to lower a game’s resolution first just to switch the upscaler on. Dock the handheld to a TV or monitor and it upscales the game to 1440p for the bigger screen instead. One less trip into settings menus.

Microsoft does flag one soft spot. 1080p in handheld mode may run less optimally, with older games gaining the most.

Auto HDR also stops being an either-or choice. It now works alongside Auto SR, so games without native HDR support still get brighter highlights and richer color on an HDR display. Microsoft lists the X20 itself alongside HDR TVs and monitors as a place the pairing works. The upscaling itself runs on the chip’s neural processing unit, the NPU, instead of the graphics cores. The graphics side keeps its full budget for the game itself, every session.

That NPU lives inside the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, the chip in the Ally X and the X20. ASUS bills the Ally X as the first AI-powered handheld, built around that neural hardware. The X20 is the black-and-gold anniversary model in Gadgeteer’s October hands-on. Its screen is the OLED one, if the colors in photos caught your eye.

The hardware around the chip helps the case: an 80Wh battery feeds longer unplugged sessions, and the 7-inch 1080p touchscreen already runs a 120Hz refresh with FreeSync Premium. Gorilla Glass covers the screen.

Select Copilot+ PCs powered by AMD Ryzen chips get Auto SR in the same wave. The base ROG Xbox Ally, running the Ryzen Z2 A, isn’t named in Microsoft’s announcement. Performance Mode and the Auto HDR pairing roll out separately through Windows updates, and Microsoft says they may take a little time to reach each device. Handheld mode, the wider PC reach and 1080p support lead the release instead.

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Owners should grab the update and try Performance Mode first. Buying the hardware through Amazon takes more patience, since the Ally X route there sits at $1,149 from marketplace sellers. Wait for that Amazon price to come back to earth.

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