AMD introduces a beta preview of Fluid Motion Frames 2, with 'AI-optimized enhancements for improved quality, lower latency, and better performance'

In January of this year, AMD updated its Adrenalin software for RX 7000 and RX 6000 series GPUs to include a driver-based frame generation system called AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF), which didn't require any support from a game to use it. Now, six months on, AMD's coding wizards are back at it again, this time launching a preview version of AFMF 2.

So, what's new? Well, it's mostly about fine-tuning what was already there but reading through the dev blog on AFMF 2 suggests that quite a lot has been tweaked and twiddled with.

First up are some 'AI-optimized enhancements' in the form of a smoother fallback system, which temporarily disables AFMF 2 in high-motion scenes to preserve image quality and an updated frame generation algorithm. It's worth noting that, unlike Nvidia, AMD's frame gen tech doesn't use AI directly to do, just that AMD have used it to tweak the system.

Next up, the whole system is now far more adjustable. Up to now, AFMF has simply been an on-off toggle in the Adrenalin software, but now you can choose a resolution-appropriate fallback system (High for 1440p or greater, Standard for 1080p), and you can lower how much shader power is required to run the algorithm, by switching between Quality or Performance—the latter being aimed at chips with integrated Radeon GPUs, such as those in most handheld gaming PCs.

AMD has also reduced the amount of latency the use of Fluid Motion Frames adds to a game, claiming a 28% reduction in Cyberpunk 2077 and a 12% reduction in Counter-Strike 2. Lastly, AFMF 2 now works in games running in borderless windowed mode, as well as exclusive fullscreen, and it also supports OpenGL and Vulkan-powered games.

Actually, no. Lastly lastly, is the fact that if you enable Radeon Chill (an FPS limiter) after switching on AFMF 2, the former will prevent the FPS from going above your monitor's maximum refresh rate, helping to prevent screen-tearing.

That's an awful lot of changes but the important thing to ask here is, do they