AMD has a new feature for its graphics cards called AFMF 2, and after taking it out for a spin, I’m shocked by the quality.
AMD did exactly what I hoped it would do. Its Fluid Motion Frames feature, referred to as AFMF, originally promised a way to add frame generation to virtually any game. There was just one problem — AFMF was bad. Really bad. Now, AMD is taking another swing at driver-level frame generation with AFMF 2, which works in any game for any of AMD’s RX 6000 or RX 7000 graphics cards.
The new version takes a lot of cues from Lossless Scaling, a $7 Steam app that has catapulted in popularity over the past few months due to its ability to add frame generation to any game. AMD is now able to provide a similar level of quality, and with some clear upsides over Lossless Scaling if you own one of AMD’s best graphics cards.What’s new here?
AMD calls AFMF 2 a “significant upgrade” over the original version, so it’s worth looking at what exactly that means. First and most prominently is AI, which is a tricky aspect of AFMF 2 to cover. The feature doesn’t use AI like Nvidia’s DLSS 3.5. There’s no AI inference — the task of actually running a model locally — happening when you turn AFMF 2 on. Instead, AMD used AI to develop the algorithm for AFMF 2 that’s deployed through the driver.
It’s better described as machine learning — AMD leveraged machine learning to develop an algorithm, so there’s no AI funny business happening in real time. It’s a similar approach as we’ve seen with Lossless Scaling. Instead of requiring specific hardware to run an AI model, AMD is passing along some benefits it saw from developing an algorithm with AI. Because of this approach, AFMF 2 works on just about any device that the original feature worked on.
The benefits of AI most clearly show up in the new Search Mode. The original AFMF didn’t include any settings, but AFMF 2 includes two new options, one of which is Search Mode. According to AMD, this adjusts how fallback works in AFMF 2. The feature will automatically turn itself off during fast motion, just like the original, in order to preserve image quality. Now, AMD is giving users some control over how the fallback works.
This fallback was one of the biggest issues with the original AFMF. It led to a wildly inconsistent experience, where you would oscillate between a high and low frame rate during any fast motion. Now, you can use the High Search Mode, which reduces how often the fallback triggers. AMD recommends only using this mode at a resolution of 1440p or above.
That’s the big difference, but AMD also added a Performance mode with AFMF 2. This is built specifically for integrated graphics, reducing the image quality and the overhead of running AFMF 2 on top of your game.
