The Xbox Series X is already a powerful console, but its graphics performance is about to be further enhanced by the power of AI

AI upscaling is nothing new, but until now it has been left to Nvidia, AMD, and others Nevertheless, new job postings suggest that Microsoft is working on its own AI upscaling technology

According to the job posting for a senior software engineer, "Xbox will leverage machine learning to provide a more efficient and better alternative to traditional rendering algorithms" In other words, much like Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FidelityFX technology

According to the job posting, the successful candidate will "implement machine learning algorithms in graphics software to delight millions of gamers Work closely with partners to develop software for future machine learning hardware have a significant impact on computer graphics and gaming"

Meanwhile, the job description for the more junior Principal Software Engineer for Graphics confirms that machine learning is also one of the things that Microsoft and Xbox's gaming team will be working on

AI upscaling basically works by generating a lower quality image and then having the AI add additional pixels to upscale the content to a higher quality or resolution The hardware itself may only output 1080p content, but the image you see will be closer to 4K

This means that the console does not need all the resources needed to output content at native 4K and can utilize the hardware for other things It can do things that even the best GPUs are not good at, such as increasing frame rates and ray tracing

From the Xbox perspective, even low-resolution consoles may be able to output seemingly higher resolutions than the hardware allows For example, the Xbox Series S currently has a maximum resolution of 1440p

It is unclear when Microsoft hopes to roll out its own AI upscaling capability, or if it will even be available for PCs In the meantime, however, AMD's FidelityFX technology will be available in the Xbox development kit In other words, we should start seeing upscaled titles as early as a few years from now