Arm is joining the AI-powered super sampling club with the introduction of its NSS solution, which can provide near-native visuals while reducing the GPU workload. Upscaling super sampling solutions have more or less taken over every aspect of gaming over the last decade. While there are still some that do not require any kind of proprietary hardware, such as older versions of AMD FSR or Intel XeSS, and open-source projects like OptiScaler, GPU manufacturers are all moving to requiring some sort of onboard AI hardware. NVIDIA began this trend with its GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in 2018, when it introduced DLSS that required an RTX GPU because it uses Tensor cores to perform DLSS calculations. AMD recently released FSR4, which requires a Radeon RX 9000 series GPU because it depends on dedicated hardware AI as well. Now, Arm is doing the same with its Neural Super Sampling (NSS) technology that utilizes similar AI hardware found on newer Arm processors.
“Arm neural technology is an industry first, adding dedicated neural accelerators to Arm GPUs, bringing PC-quality, AI powered graphics to mobile for the first time – and laying the foundation for future on-device AI innovation.”
-Arm
Arm announced NSS at SIGGRAPH and has said it will officially become available in 2026. NSS succeeds Arm Accuracy Super Resolution (Arm ASR), which was introduced in 2024 and also added to Fortnite a couple of months ago. Arm has said that NSS can reduce the GPU workload by up to 50% while providing near-native quality. NSS can be implemented at resolutions ranging from 540p up to 1080p with a max added latency of 4ms per frame. In addition to upscaling NSS is further being developed to add multi-frame generation capability, something also found in NVIDIA’s and AMD’s solutions, along with a Denoising feature.
“In 2026, we’ll expand our roadmap of neural technology applications with Neural Frame Rate Upscaling – which uses AI to double frame rates without doubling the rendering load – and Neural Super Sampling and Denoising – which applies AI to enable real-time path tracing on mobile with fewer rays per pixel. Both will be available ahead of hardware.”
-Arm
So gamers on the go will soon have another feature commonly found on PCs and all current-gen consoles in their pocket. From phones to gaming handhelds, AI-powered super sampling and MFG are making their way to increase performance in the mobile arena.