Mobile GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are equipped with neural technology, enhancing their graphics capabilities.

Mobile GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are equipped with neural technology, enhancing their graphics capabilities.

Arm has announced its latest technology development: a neural accelerator designed for mobile graphics processor designs, scheduled for launch in 2026. The new hardware aims to deliver higher quality visuals and boost AI performance, marking a significant leap in mobile gaming capabilities.

At the heart of this innovation is Neural Super Sampling (NSS), a technology designed to upscale lower-resolution frames to higher resolutions using AI-driven neural networks. By offloading the GPU workload, NSS can reduce it by up to 50%, allowing mobile GPUs to deliver near-native visual fidelity at much lower rendering costs. With a 4 ms upscale time per frame, NSS promises outstanding performance that can enable higher frame rates, better battery life, or improved visuals on next-gen Mali GPUs slated for late 2026.

NSS preserves important graphical elements like surface detail, lighting, and motion clarity, giving developers flexible control to balance energy efficiency and visual fidelity depending on their game’s requirements. This makes NSS stand out from traditional spatial upscaling by leveraging temporal and AI-enhanced information to produce sharper and smarter visuals specifically optimized for mobile constraints.

In addition to NSS, Arm is also working on Neural Frame Rate Upscaling (NFRU) and Neural Super Sampling and Denoising (NSSD). While precise details remain sparse, these technologies are expected to respectively allow smoother frame rates by generating intermediate frames using neural networks and improve visual quality through AI-based denoising combined with super sampling, reducing artifacts and noise common in real-time rendering. These capabilities will extend the productivity of the neural accelerators beyond upscaling, enhancing the overall graphical experience on mobile.

Underpinning these capabilities is Arm’s Neural Graphics Development Kit. This toolkit provides developers with open-source neural network models, Unreal Engine plugins, Vulkan ML extensions, emulation platforms, and sample code. This enables game developers to experiment with and optimize AI-enhanced graphics, ensuring smooth adoption in upcoming mobile titles.

The programming model for Arm's new technology is graphics-first, but not exclusively graphic-focused and could theoretically be used for some inferencing. Arm has also released ML Extensions for the Vulkan Graphics API, allowing native AI integration directly in the rendering pipeline rather than burdening traditional GPU cores. This innovation helps reduce power consumption while delivering advanced AI graphics effects.

Arm's announcement follows Qualcomm's push for AI capabilities in its smartphone platforms with neural processing units (NPUs) embedded into its processors. At MWC last year, Qualcomm showcased a 7 billion parameter large language model running on an Android phone.

Arm's enthusiasm for its latest technology remains to be seen, but with the potential to bring desktop-class neural upscaling and denoising technologies to mobile GPUs for the first time, the future of mobile gaming looks brighter than ever.

1. Arm's new technology development, a neural accelerator, is designed for mobile graphics processor designs, introducing AI-driven Neural Super Sampling (NSS) to upscale lower-resolution frames and boost AI performance.
2. NSS, along with upcoming technologies such as Neural Frame Rate Upscaling (NFRU) and Neural Super Sampling and Denoising (NSSD), are expected to enhance the overall graphical experience on mobile devices.
3. The Neural Graphics Development Kit, provided by Arm, enables developers to experiment with and optimize AI-enhanced graphics, ensuring smooth adoption in upcoming mobile titles.
4. arm's new tech also includes ML Extensions for the Vulkan Graphics API, allowing native AI integration directly in the rendering pipeline, which reduces power consumption while delivering advanced AI graphics effects.
5. With the potential to bring desktop-class neural upscaling and denoising technologies to mobile GPUs for the first time, the future of mobile gaming could see a significant improvement, following Arm's latest technology developments.

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