AMD ripped off my favorite app — and I love it

By Jacob Roach Published July 29, 2024

Cyberpunk 2077 on the LG UltraGear Dual Mode OLED. — Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Just months of releasing AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF), the company revealed the second version of the frame generation feature. Now infused with AI, AFMF 2 promises lower latency, better performance on low-end hardware, and “significant improvements” to image quality. Better yet, you don’t have to wait for it. If you have a supported AMD GPU, AFMF 2 is available now through the latest Radeon Software driver.

There’s a lot here, and it sounds strikingly similar to what we’ve seen with Lossless Scaling. I’ve written about Lossless Scaling in the past, which is a $7 Steam app that can add frame generation to any game. AMD clearly took some pointers from the utility. For starters, it’s using a frame generation model that’s been trained on machine learning, which Lossless Scaling also includes. Most significantly, AMD now includes a Performance mode to reduce the overhead of the frame generation on low-end hardware — that’s also a key feature of Lossless Scaling.

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Regardless of where AMD got its inspiration, these are welcome changes. I haven’t been shy about the lackluster performance and image quality of AFMF, all while consistently singing the praises of Lossless Scaling. If AFMF 2 is able to match what Lossless Scaling offers, that’s great. At the very least, it saves AMD users $7 on picking up the app on Steam.

In addition to the headlining changes, AFMF 2 includes better API support. Previously, AFMF was restricted to DirectX 11 and 12 games only. AFMF 2 supports both of those APIs, along with OpenGL and Vulkan.

As with the previous version, AFMF 2 works across RX 6000 and RX 7000 GPUs, both on desktop and mobile. It also works with Ryzen 7000 and 8000 processors that include integrated graphics, though AMD says some models aren’t supported. It hasn’t specified which models yet. For me, the lingering question is the ROG Ally. Asus’ handheld, along with the updated ROG Ally X, supports AFMF. I’ve asked AMD if the handheld will also support AFMF 2, and I’ll update this story when I hear back.

Although AFMF 2 is available now, it’s in a technical preview. That means you can expect some bugs and oddities as you use the feature in some games. AMD says it welcomes bug reports and that it expects to release AFMF 2 officially toward the end of the year.

Former Lead Reporter, PC Hardware

Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…

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