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With mobile intelligence built to fit the form factor of a powerful PC, Snapdragon X processors are an interesting prospect for mobile and laptop enthusiasts alike. I’m lucky enough to have my hands on the new Microsoft Surface Laptop, complete with Snapdragon X Elite (1xE80100) on board, and I couldn’t resist seeing if this chip could handle some AAA gaming (off the clock, of course, boss) .

As a parent of two, my Steam library needed a little cleaning, but it’s not like Qualcomm is positioning the Snapdragon X platform at hardcore gamers. Its Adreno X1 GPU is still an integrated component, after all, with this model’s low 3.8 TFLOPS of compute putting it well behind discrete mobile cards, let alone powerful desktop GPUs. Instead, Copilot Plus computers are marketed for their intelligent AI and battery life. Still, between modern classics including GTA V, Hitman 3, Crysis Remastered and The Witcher 3, I feel like I’ve got a reasonable sampling of games you might be tempted to launch on the go. Let’s find out if they can really run.

Before we jump into the benchmark results, there are a few important things to note. First, all these games (and indeed anything you run through Steam or other launchers) are currently compiled for x64 processors (see AMD and Intel), not Arm (see Snapdragon X). This means that Windows secretly cranks up its Prism emulation layer to run these games, resulting in performance degradation. How much? We’ll just have to see.

Second, I noticed that some of these games run with Windows’ “Auto Super Resolution” (Auto SR) enabled by default. This new feature is exclusive to Copilot Plus PCs, using their NPU capabilities to enhance low-resolution rendering for better performance. We’ll get into that a bit later, but the main thing to note is that it drops the native resolution of the Surface Laptop I’m using down to just 1152 x 768.

Snapdragon X Elite gaming tests

My expectations for the Adreno X1 GPU are firmly justified, so I started by setting all these games to medium graphics settings. GTA V and Witcher 3 have SSAO enabled, but I turned down anti-aliasing and ray tracing in every game where possible in favor of extra frames. The results below track the minimum and average frame rates in the benchmark apps for these games (and a pretty quick run around some enemies in The Witcher 3). First, let’s run the tests at the Surface Laptop’s native 2496 x 1664 resolution (or as close as possible in the case of the Crysis benchmark).

As you might expect, the results aren’t great even at medium settings. Crysis limps off the Adreno X1 at this resolution, with an average FPS of just 19. Dismal. Hitman is hardly any better, with a low average and minimal framerate that makes the game choppy. The Witcher 3 is slightly more playable, but it drops below 30fps too regularly to be enjoyable. Likewise, GTA V has a much higher average frame rate, but the game turns into a slideshow when using heavy physics. It’s clear that AMD and NVIDIA won’t be losing sleep over the Snapdragon X Elite.

At native resolutions, the framerate is a pretty dismal operation below 30fps, which is headache-inducing when playing for more than a few minutes. However, the Copilot Plus computers have a trick up their sleeve — Auto SR. This works at a very low resolution, making it a bit behind compared to competing technologies that are regularly used to output 4K. Obviously the low resolution will perform much better than the display’s native pixel count, so I ran all the games again at 1152 x 768 (or 720p if that’s not a supported option) and then ran them again with the AI-powered one super resolution zoom technology enabled.

So can the Snapdragon X Elite run Crysis? Unfortunately, Windows’ super-resolution feature doesn’t support Crysis, so it’s of no use here, much to my dismay. Still, it technically runs at an average of 41fps at 720p, which is no doubt faster than when I ran the original on my beloved ATi X1950 Pro. You’ll have to settle for low settings if you want anything approaching silky-smooth frame rates, but the game runs passably well on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite even without Auto SR support. It’s not terrible.

Of course, the other games on our list also benefited from the resolution drop, reaching frame rates above 30fps and in some cases closer to 60fps. Still, flipping the AI ​​Auto SR switch yields even more shots. Well, most of the time at least.

GTA V sees the smallest change in average framerate, which is well over 60fps anyway. However, the minimum fps jumped by 46%, making for a smoother ride, but still hampered by CPU-dependent scenes. In contrast, the more GPU-intensive Witcher 3 saw little change in its minimum fps, but a 30% increase in its average frame rate, taking it to a comfortable 60 fps mark. Hitman 3 is more of a mixed bag. The Dubai benchmark sees a whopping 60% gain in its minimum and average fps by turning to this AI upscaling technology, again making the game much more playable than by simply reducing the resolution.

Now I ran both tests on Hitman because Dartmoor is incredibly physics heavy, stressing any decent CPU and applying even more pressure when running under emulation here. This explains the super low minimum fps results we see regardless of whether super resolution is enabled or not. So Auto SR obviously helps in GPU-bound instances, but cannot improve framerate for CPU-bound scenes. However, Hitman performs quite well in real-world gameplay when using AI upscaling.

Windows’ little-talked-about feature, Automatic Super-Resolution, is something of a silver bullet for Copilot Plus PCs — and their Snapdragon X chips inside. Flip the switch and these laptops feel like far more capable gamers than they appear. While it’s obviously not yet capable of providing truly high-end graphics options, frame rates or native resolutions, it’s a brilliant addition for sneaking into a game on the go. Jumping from under 30 to 45-60 fps makes a huge difference in playback and turns your sane work laptop into something a little more fun.

So how does it work? According to Microsoft, “Auto SR works by automatically reducing the game’s rendering resolution to increase frame rates, then uses sophisticated AI technology to deliver enhanced high-resolution visuals.” With that in mind, it helps to think about it like NVIDIA’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR in reverse. It’s more like a cross between variable speed shading and AI-enhanced super-resolution detail.

See, Windows Auto SR doesn’t upscale the game to match a high resolution display. In fact, you have to settle for a resolution that is far below the typical modern gaming targets of 1440p and 4K. There’s no getting around the fact that 1152 x 768 doesn’t look particularly sharp, even on the Surface Pro’s modest 15-inch screen. Alias ​​artifacts are plentiful, and you’ll have to give up some of those precious frames you just pulled back if you want to get rid of them.

Instead, what I believe is happening is that the render resolution is sometimes even lower than 1152 x 768. AI is used to scale these frames so you can’t see the difference, which explains why this technique is quite good for improving minimum fps values ​​in GPU bound games. I suspect that the overall low resolution is ultimately a limitation of the 45TOPS of NPU power found in the Copilot Plus computers. NVIDIA’s DLSS, for example, runs on much more powerful hardware to reach 4K. To Microsoft’s credit, I really couldn’t tell if and when this was happening. Every shot I captured looked the same with the AI ​​on or off, and it’s even harder to distinguish the changes that happen while in motion.

However, Auto SR exacerbates jitteriness when the framerate drops very low. This was evident in the Dartmoor benchmark; several runs temporarily slipped into Matrix-style Deja Vu. Despite the higher frame rates, I’m not convinced any of these titles feel buttery smooth with Auto SR enabled. It also makes the text warp into drunken fonts, which can give the appearance of a goofy SNES emulator upscaler.

Still, running graphics scaling on a dedicated on-chip NPU (required to be classified as a Copilot Plus PC) is an inspired idea, as it doesn’t steal much, if any, resources from the GPU. In this case, Auto SR uses Qualcomm’s Hexagon NPU, which sits alongside the Adreno X1 GPU in the Snapdragon X chipset, but this technique should also work on future AMD and Intel PCs with integrated NPUs. Frankly, I’m surprised we haven’t seen something like this in the Android gaming space, considering the hardware is already there and the pixel requirements are much lower.

You can find a list of Auto SR compatible titles at this link, which includes newer titles like Cyberpunk and The Last of Us. I can’t be sure that these demanding titles will work well without testing them, but they should still have some use. Unfortunately, not every game supports or even works well with automatic super resolution enabled. GTA V, for example, ships with super resolution turned off by default, and while enabling it dramatically improves framerates, menus and UI elements flicker and sometimes completely black box. On the other hand, Crysis Remastered and many other games don’t support the feature at all, so it’s certainly not a panacea for gaming on Arm-based PCs. The experience isn’t quite ready for prime time, like Windows Recall.

Also, I’m not entirely convinced by the decision to have this enabled by default for some games. This deprives gamers of balancing resolution and graphics settings themselves. The fact that the setting is tucked away in the new Display > Graphics menu also means another panel for gamers to fiddle with before they start playing. Although Windows displays a nice prompt to let you know that Auto SR is working when you start the game.

Still, who can turn their nose up at free extra footage? Auto SR can’t disguise the Snapdragon X as a serious contender for a true gaming laptop, but it does mean that Copilot Plus PCs can get into some light gaming without framerates dragging down your W/L ratio.