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AMD has announced that the second generation of its frame-generation technology is now available via a new preview version of its Adrenalin software. The company says the latest version contains many improvements and is a “significant upgrade” over the first version. The biggest changes include more fine-grain controls for those who want to tweak their settings, support for more gaming APIs, and options for folks with older hardware. AMD is releasing it to gamers today in technical preview form, so proceed with caution.
The company calls this technology AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2, so when abbreviated it’s now AFMF2—a bit clunky, but we’ll allow it. A lot of changes are in version two, with AMD adding AI to the mix, support for more APIs, more controls for those who prefer to tweak their settings, and better overall performance, according to AMD. When the new version is enabled for a game, the optimal settings will be automatically applied, but so-called advanced users can now fine-tune some settings. This is not how the previous version worked, where it was like Nvidia’s frame generation in that it was a binary switch; either it was on or off.
AMD has added some controls to its frame-generation technology, including this new Search Mode along with a Performance Mode as well.
Credit: AMD
AMD has added a new “search mode” that can be customized, and the company says it dictates how “fallback” works, which is when frame generation is disabled during scenes with a lot of movement. It sounds like in some cases, jitter can be introduced when this feature is turned off and on in rapid succession automatically. You can now set this to Auto, Standard, or High, which can achieve better results depending on the resolution you’re using. For example, AMD says in Auto mode at 1440p or higher, it will default to High, which will reduce fallback. If you’re at 1080p, the Standard setting will be applied, though you can also choose these settings manually now if you prefer that approach. AMD says it used AI to help optimize the algorithm it uses for fallback, so this is the “AI-enhanced” optimization it is talking about with this release.
It’s also added a new Performance mode for frame generation, reminiscent of the modes we can choose when using upscaling (quality, performance, balanced, etc.). The three options available include Auto, Performance, and Quality. The Performance mode reduces frame-generation overhead for a higher overall frame rate, which might sacrifice image quality but allows smoother operation on older GPUs such as Radeon 6000 or RDNA 3 mobile and integrated GPUs.
AMD also says it’s been able to reduce latency introduced by frame generation on any supported hardware at any resolution. It claims a latency reduction of 28% in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K with ray tracing Ultra settings on its flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU. Still, it doesn’t use specific numbers to indicate what kind of latency we’re dealing with. These numbers are achieved when AFMF2 is combined with its Anti-Lag technology, which is also included in the Adrenalin drivers.
Finally, AMD has also added support for full-screen, borderless gaming on Radeon 7000 GPUs, both discrete and integrated. AFMF2 is also adding support for games running on Vulcan and OpenGL. The technology has previously been supported on any DX11 and DX12 game.
The company said it was so excited to get the new version of Adrenalin to Radeon users that it’s launching it now as a Technical Preview rather than an approved driver for Windows. Theoretically, users of this preview version will be able to offer feedback on it for the full release at a later date.