Arm’s AI graphics tech debuts in Xiaomi 18 Fold, promising DLSS-like boost for mobile gaming

The technology, developed over five years, lets GPUs offload rendering work to a neural accelerator, producing higher resolutions, additional frames, and denoised images in ways similar to Nvidia’s DLSS on PC. Arm says the result can be up to four times the frame rate when three techniques, Neural Super Sampling, Neural Frame Rate Upscaling, and Neural Denoising, are enabled together.

According to The Verge, Arm’s executive vice president of Edge AI, Chris Bergey, said the chips will reach other phones and large-screen devices next year. “You will be able to buy it; you will be able to get it in phones next year, you will be able to get it in other types of larger screen devices, whether that be tablets or Chromebooks,” he said, adding that he couldn't confirm which partners may adopt it, though some of Google’s upcoming “Googlebooks” might.

Technical details from Android Authority show the new NX is an optional neural accelerator inside the GPU’s shader core, supporting INT8 and INT16 operations and including its own motion engine. Arm also reworked the GPU execution engines to support larger desktop-class shaders and introduced a third-generation ray-tracing unit.

Arm demonstrated its Neural Dawn demo running at a sustained 60 frames per second, up from an unplayable 15fps, while drawing just over 2 watts—a claim of a 4x performance-per-watt improvement and 70 percent less DRAM traffic. Bergey said a phone with this GPU can sustain 1080p/60fps gaming for about three hours, compared to roughly 30 minutes previously.

Bergey said early “neural graphics” titles will mainly use super sampling, with frame generation arriving around early 2027 and denoising soon after. Arm also plans to bring the feature to lower-tier Premium and Pro configurations, not just flagship devices.

In a separate review, Chinese tech outlet ifanr said the Xiaomi 18 Fold is priced from 10,999 yuan for 12GB/256GB, 14,999 yuan for top spec, and 15,999 yuan for a limited ceramic edition. The review praised the Xring O3’s performance with Chinese-made CXMT LPDDR6 memory, but noted that Xiaomi’s HyperOS 4 software still needs polish on foldable screens.