Microsoft Photos app gets AI super resolution upscaling in Windows Insider build
For some time, certain smartphones have offered locally-processed AI applications to edit and enhance photos
Super Resolution upscaling is now available on all Windows 11 24H2 Insider Channels for Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. This feature allows users to increase an image's resolution by up to eight times while maintaining clarity. Unfortunately Snapdragon-based PCs represent a small fraction of Windows users, so the feature will be sparingly used. Microsoft will say it's because it relies on the NPU, but most modern laptops and desktop PCs carry plenty of power to handle upscaling anyway.
For some time, certain smartphones have offered locally-processed AI applications to edit and enhance photos, and with the introduction of Snapdragon X Elite SoCs and other NPU-enhanced processors, Microsoft has gradually started bringing similar functionality to bundled Windows apps like Paint and Photos. The latest feature to enter testing is Super Resolution upscaling.
Upscaling is useful for tasks such as cropping images while retaining high resolution, enhancing low-quality photos, zooming in without pixelation, or preparing pictures for large screens and prints. To enable Super Resolution, click the icon on the far right of the top row in version 2024.11100.17007.0 of the Photos app.
The feature leverages NPUs to handle generative AI tasks. Although it currently supports only Snapdragon Copilot+ PCs, it is expected to extend to Intel Core 200 and AMD Ryzen AI 300 CPUs in the future.
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