AMD 24.9.1 drivers mark the proper debut of universal Fluid Motion Frames 2 — along with improved geometric downscaling

News
By
published

Improvements in both upscaling resolution and downscaling geometry.

AMD's improved Geometric Downscaling feature for videos viewed in a window smaller than native resolution.
AMD's improved Geometric Downscaling feature for videos viewed in a window smaller than native resolution. Image caption (Image credit: AMD)

AMD released Adrenalin Software 24.9.1, a new 'stable' release that also marks the debut of an improved geometric downscaling feature for windowed video. It's also the first stable release with AFMF2 (AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2). AMD provided benchmarks with the HYPR-RX suite of settings (Anti-Lag 2, FSR, AFMF2, and Radeon Boost where applicable), showing the performance gains available by enabling HYPR-RX compared to native resolution. These technologies are available for both discrete and integrated AMD GPUs.

(Image credit: AMD)

If you've previously tried AFMF, you may not have had the greatest of first impressions. Compared to in-engine frame generation options, driver-level framegen is a different beast. Nvidia doesn't even bother yet, and the first version of AFMF was notoriously prone to increased input lag that made playability an issue. AFMF2 reduced latency by 28% compared to its predecessor, and reports from around the web point toward it being a generally acceptable solution. If you're an Nvidia user and feeling jealous of universal framegen support, you can just use Lossless Scaling and its frame generation feature as an alternative.

According to AMD's blog post, at least some of the improvements experienced by AFMF2 users come from "AI-optimized enhancements for improved quality, lower latency, and better performance on integrated graphics such as the Radeon 890M." AMD also added "interop support with AMD Radeon Chill, support for borderless fullscreen (on AMD Radeon RX 7000 Series Graphics) and support for Vulkan and OpenGL games."

You don't have to use the full HYPR-RX suite either, if you don't want that. It's intended as a quick and easy way to maximize performance at the potential cost to image fidelity. It's also possible to enable or disable AFMF2, Anti-Lag, Radeon Boost, and other features in the drivers, the same as always. So you can opt in to one or more of the technologies, according to your own personal preference.

AMD of course likes using AFMF2 to show performance improvements, because as with any framegen techniques that use interpolation, the smoothing out of frames while claiming a much higher FPS value looks great in charts. In practice, your real framerate, and the rate at which user input gets sampled, will be half the AFMF2 (or framegen) rate. Depending on the game and the individual, that can feel better or worse that "normal" gaming.

Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • emayekayee
    Why did we spend the last 15+ years telling people to turn off the "Soap Opera Effect" on their TVs just to turn around and be told that Frame Generation is the only way to boost FPS in games?
    Reply
  • dimar
    emayekayee said:
    Why did we spend the last 15+ years telling people to turn off the "Soap Opera Effect" on their TVs just to turn around and be told that Frame Generation is the only way to boost FPS in games?
    Because it changed the feel from film to video style. For games it's different, the more fps, the better. I guess it's a personal choice, and you should do whatever works for you.
    Reply
  • watzupken
    In my opinion, FPS is a metric to measure performance of a game with a given set of hardware. Adding generated frames not produced by the GPU is just inflating the FPS number just to make it look good. By itself, it introduces latency, which kind of defeats the purpose. You can improve latency with software, but you can enable it without frame gen and still benefit from it.
    Reply
  • rluker5
    emayekayee said:
    Why did we spend the last 15+ years telling people to turn off the "Soap Opera Effect" on their TVs just to turn around and be told that Frame Generation is the only way to boost FPS in games?
    It's really what people are used to.
    Most are seeing more frames on their screens nowadays so 60 doesn't seem weird.
    I don't have any issues with VR, but sometimes the low framerate at the movie theater makes me nauseous. Especially when panning and I am sitting close.

    If people are used to 60+ they will like that . Really old people might still like cinematic framerates better for movies but that will fade as well.
    Reply
  • TheyCallMeContra
    emayekayee said:
    Why did we spend the last 15+ years telling people to turn off the "Soap Opera Effect" on their TVs just to turn around and be told that Frame Generation is the only way to boost FPS in games?
    there's nuance to it! off the clock of writing articles like these, I take competitive gaming pretty seriously (including offline events)— and in the past I've disabled tech exactly like that on TVs whenever gaming. frame gen, especially in engine, is a little different. pretty much it does look smoother as long as you have stable performance, but the true input lag and thus final "feel" is still going to be pretty in-line with your true FPS. TV interpolation tended to either create huge artifacts or genuinely worsen input lag in a way that frame gen- better called frame smoothing- does not.
    Reply
  • Notton
    I'm surprised people still think the garbage implementation of frame gen in TVs is the same as gaming GPUs.

    They're vastly different technologies, and the one in TVs doesn't require active cooling, let alone a heatpipe cooler. Like totally different ballpark of computational power.
    Reply
  • DavidLejdar
    Curious if movies in 1080p will look better with this on 1440p screen. Might not, based on the description, but gonna check in a while anyhow.
    watzupken said:
    In my opinion, FPS is a metric to measure performance of a game with a given set of hardware. Adding generated frames not produced by the GPU is just inflating the FPS number just to make it look good. By itself, it introduces latency, which kind of defeats the purpose. You can improve latency with software, but you can enable it without frame gen and still benefit from it.
    Such features sure don't replace actual GPU performance, and may not be of much use for everyone. They sound like a nice boost though, in particular with newer screens. I.e. in my case, I recently picked up a 3440x1440 with up to 180 Hz. And if this or that feature sort of helps to bridge the time until next-gen GPUs, I won't complain. And particularly with games such as city builders, a bit of added input lag shouldn't be that an issue. I mean, if it would take one second when drawing a street for it to be depicted, it would be annoying. But shouldn't be that bad - and a feature that helps to not lower graphical settings, nice.
    Reply
  • DS426
    emayekayee said:
    Why did we spend the last 15+ years telling people to turn off the "Soap Opera Effect" on their TVs just to turn around and be told that Frame Generation is the only way to boost FPS in games?
    Who said FG is the only way to boost FPS in games? Upscalers have been pushed hard by first nVidia and then AMD.
    Reply
  • YSCCC
    Frame gen is ok if the required info isn’t displayed instantaneous, for some of the artefacts of frame gen like mushy number turning in a screen, for like of flight sim altitude display, the frame gen while great at other portions, makes the display unreadable so I tend to disable that, but for upscaling tech or frame gen for like, open world adventures, they are ok to use to make your gpu last longer IMO
    Reply
  • GenericUsername109
    Not sure why they used BG3. That game does not need over 60 fps, since it is turn-based and requires no reflexes or aiming what so ever.
    Reply