AMD is set to bring back its AMD Anti-Lag+ feature, three months after it had to pull the plug on the technology following many users reports of the feature triggering bans in online games.
The first version of AMD Anti-Lag+ was an ambitious attempt by the company to introduce a driver-level means by which to have games be able to reduce input lag through some clever CPU/GPU optimizations. Unfortunately, anti-cheat apps used by some of the most popular online games flagged the software as a cheat, resulting in users getting banned.
As such, AMD pulled the plug on the feature, removing it completely while it worked on a means to fix the issue. All has been quiet in the three months since that happened but today AMD’s chief architect of gaming solutions & marketing, Frank Azor, confirmed via X (formerly Twitter) that “yes, [the feature was] coming soon.”
Aimed at elevating the responsiveness of games, by reducing any potential CPU to GPU bottlenecks, AMD Anti-Lag+ is the sort of software feature that the company hopes will elevate the likes of its RX 7700 XT and RX 7600 XT to best graphics card entrants. With Nvidia in many ways leading the charge on software features with its own Nvidia Reflex anti-lag technology along with its DLSS suite of AI-enhanced upscaling and frame generating technologies, AMD clearly hoped Anti-Lag+ would help to bridge the gap, but that plan backfired.
There are actually two versions of AMD Anti-Lag, with the non-plus version working to control “the pace of the CPU work to make sure it doesn’t get too far ahead of the GPU, reducing the amount of CPU work queued up”. This remains an active and available feature to this day.
However, AMD Anti-Lag+ introduces the ability to have the driver apply frame alignment with the game, by essentially modifying the game’s DLL files. This alignment essentially means the delay between your interactions with the game and those actions being output to your monitor are as closely timed as possible. According to AMD’s numbers, the feature handily reduces average input latency but evidently anti-cheat software wasn’t so keen.
AMD hasn’t clarified how soon ‘soon’ might be for Anti-Lag+ to return and nor has it confirmed whether the feature will be available for all games via a driver or if it will require being built in to games, like is needed with Nvidia’s Reflex technology. However, it’s good to see the company is still actively working on the feature. Fingers crossed it arrives sooner, rather than later.
While we wait, be sure to check out our best graphics card guide for our current pick of the best GPUs, regardless of which software features you like to use.