This week's Nintendo Direct provided much more info about the Switch 2 but didn't go too deep into the nitty-gritty details of what powers the console. That left NVIDIA, the Mario maker's hardware partner on the console's processor and GPU, to fill in some blanks with a blog post published on Thursday -- including the first confirmation that it uses Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) tech. NVIDIA said the Switch 2's DLSS support helps to give the console "ten times" the graphical performance of the original Switch. The tech lets games render games in a lower resolution, then uses trained AI models and dedicated Tensor Cores to fill in detail. Saying a system has ten times the graphics performance is likely a simplified marketing claim, and its graphical prowess could vary greatly depending on the title.

The rumors were true! AMD unveiled the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT during the company's CES 2025 keynote on Monday, powered by the next-generation RDNA 4 architecture with a new AI-focused version of FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) in tow. Gamers hoping for deep details were left wanting, however, as AMD classified this as a "preview" without much hard information. It was more of a tease than anything, honestly, though it's clear that AMD is finally, truly embracing AI hardware within GPUs. Here's what we do know. For years, AMD has battled Nvidia's vaunted DLSS using (mostly) graphics cores rather than integrating dedicated AI hardware. AMD says RDNA 4 was built from the ground up on TSMC's 4nm process to "supercharge" AI performance, driven by a massive overhaul to the AI compute architecture.

Even for me, someone who's an avid graphics card hardware enthusiast, it took some time to warm up to the idea of AI rdesolution upscaling. But this newfangled technology has been embraced over the past few years by virtually every major GPU manufacturer, with Nvidia leading the pack with DLSS and others following in its wake, including AMD with FSR, Intel with XeSS, and even Sony with PSSR on the PlayStation 5 Pro. And I'm now ready to say it: real-time AI upscaling tech has made native resolution graphics obsolete in gaming. Keep reading to learn what AI upscaling is, why it's revolutionary, and what it means for all the new games you'll be playing in the future. AI resolution upscaling (also just called AI upscaling) is when a game renders its frames at a resolution that's lower than your display's native resolution, then uses AI image processing techniques to scale that rendered frame back up to native resolution.

You have probably heard a lot about AI recently. One of the best ways to explore it for yourself is with a GeForce RTX 40 Series AI PC from iBUYPOWER. These PCs have access to NVIDIA's RTX AI acceleration, which supercharges AI applications and workflows you use every day. The RDY Y60 005 is one of iBUYPOWER's top NVIDIA RTX-equipped models, and this performance PC is currently selling at a tasty 400 discount, 1,949 from its original 2,349 price. It gets you a smart-looking enclosure with a transparent side wall, the incredibly powerful Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER graphics card with 12GB vRAM. Where Microsoft's CoPilot Plus laptops promise "40 TOPs" of AI computing power, an RTX 4070 SUPER commands 836 TOPs thanks to AI-specialized Tensor cores designed for the job.

Microsoft appears to have hidden its next AI-powered enhancement within a test build of Windows 11: Automatic Super Resolution, which could be Microsoft's answer to image-enhancement technologies like Nvidia's DLSS. It seems just as likely, however, to be an overarching control, like the Dynamic Lighting feature. Twitter user @PhantomofEarth was among the first to report the new feature this week, hidden away in Windows 11 Build 26052. That build right now appears in both the Canary and Dev Channels of Microsoft's Windows 11 Insider channels, and comes with the caveat that Microsoft may never release this specific feature to the general public. Given its focus on AI, though, it appears likely.

How much should you spend? Should you buy one now or wait? And, of course, should you go with Nvidia or AMD? On the CES floor, PCWorld's Adam Patrick Murray joined forces with Tom's Hardware executive editor Senior Editor Jarred Walton for a chin wag on the state of the GPU market. You can see their full discussion in our YouTube video below.

With DLAA (Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing), Nvidia launched a technology intended to offer gamers an even more intense gaming experience. This sister feature to Nvidia's vaunted DLSS using the same underlying technology to improve the visuals in games that support it. DLAA uses machine learning to effectively smooth images and eliminate unsightly "staircase" effects, similar to traditional anti-aliasing technologies. The difference to the already familiar DLSS technique: DLAA does not rely on a change in resolution. While DLSS artificially enhances low-resolution images to increase performance, DLAA works with your game's original resolution and concentrates exclusively on the anti-aliasing task, or edge smoothing.

Assassin's Creed Mirage looks to be a return to the series' roots--and fans are excited. But some have been far less stoked about a rumor from earlier this week: That the game would only support Intel's XeSS upscaling technology on PC. But those assumptions were wrong. On Tuesday, forums lit up with the idea that Mirage would be an Intel XeSS exclusive, cutting out AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce card owners from access to their respective upscaling tech, stoked by alarmist articles claiming just that. But in a same-day update to its blog post about Mirage's recommended specs and upcoming features for PC, Ubisoft now lists Intel XeSS, Nvidia Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), and AMD Fidelity Super Resolution (FSR) as supported.

AI is already here--and it's not just services like ChatGPT, Bing, or the upcoming Google Bard. Developers have already infused AI into products you use every day, with further improvements to come. AI can make "dumb" devices smarter, but at the cost of knowing more about you and your daily lives. AI isn't perfect, either--and our tolerance for its mistakes is evolving, just as the technology is. However, manufacturers across the board will continue to use AI in a bid to keep improving their products.

We want our cake, and you bet we're eating it too! What gamer doesn't want beautiful graphics and high frame rates? AMD's FSR, or FidelityFX Super Resolution, does just that by using upscaling technology. To compete with Nvidia's DLSS (or Deep Learning Super Sampling) in the battle for the best graphics cards, AMD has introduced FSR 2.0--but the original FSR is sticking around and still widely available. Should you be using FSR 1.0 or FSR 2.0?