AMD quickly withdrew its latest Radeon driver this afternoon because using it with Valve's Counter Strike 2 could result in a ban by the Valve Anti-Cheat tool (h/t @9550pro). AMD promises to fix the issue, whereas Valve plans to identify affected users and reverse their ban once everything returns to normal.
One key feature AMD added to its AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.10.1 driver for Radeon graphics processors was Anti-Lag+ support for Valve's Counter Strike 2 game. But as it turns out, Anti-Lag+ feature support was implemented by detouring engine.dll functions, which VAC considers cheating and acts accordingly by banning users.
"AMD's latest driver has made their 'Anti-Lag+' feature available for CS2, which is implemented by detouring engine dll functions," a statement by Valve reads. "If you are an AMD customer and play CS2, DO NOT ENABLE ANTI-LAG/+; any tampering with CS code will result in a VAC ban. Once AMD ships an updated, we can do the work of identifying affected users and reversing their ban."
AMD's Anti-Lag+ is one of the major features of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 technology that currently works on AMD's latest Radeon RX 7000-series products, among the best graphics cards money can buy. Given those demanding gamers with the newest graphics cards tend to enable all advanced features on the latest games, we can only wonder how many people got banned due to AMD's Anti-Lag+ implementation in Counter-Strike 2.
Meanwhile, the latest AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.10.1 driver also supports three major titles: Assassin's Creed Mirage, The Lords of the Fallen, and Forza Motorsport. Therefore, the retraction affects gamers who want to play these titles with the latest drivers.
