Whether you are a casual gamer or competitive player on a top-ranking team, you want to ensure you have the best experiences when playing your favorite game. That means great performance, stunning visuals and quick responses to every input. Radeon Software provides several features that help lower latency to give you an edge so you can game and win.
What is Latency?
Latency or input lag is the time it takes from the moment your fingers press a key or move a mouse to when the response is shown on screen. As any gamer knows, lag is the enemy of good gaming experiences. Increased lag makes you feel disconnected from the game, and it is harder to control your movements precisely. Reduced lag just feels right; your movements are instant and agile.
The traditional way to reduce input lag is to pursue higher frame rates, since higher FPS typically translates into reduced lag. That's a good way to optimize, but it's not the only option.
How can Radeon Software Help?
AMD’s Radeon brand has a history of introducing lag-reduction technologies in hardware and software. These features help reduce latency at various stages between mouse click and display, whether latency is caused by waiting for a frame to fully render on the GPU or the time it takes for a display to present a new image after the GPU has finished rendering an image.
AMD FreeSync™ Technology - A variable refresh rate display technology that was introduced back in 2015 to deliver a fluid, tear-free experience that provides quicker responses to the screen. [Learn More]
Reduced buffering - Radeon Software moved from triple buffering to double buffering for most games, taking out a frame of latency.
Radeon Enhanced Sync - An alternative, low-latency V Sync mode offered in Radeon Software. This mode combines reduced lag with minimized visual tearing. At high frame rates, Enhanced Sync displays the most recently completed frame from the game, bypassing the queue. At low frame rates, it relaxes V Sync to get new information to screen as soon as possible. [Learn More]
Radeon Anti-Lag - Introduced with Radeon RX 5000 series GPUs, Radeon Anti-Lag was the first of its kind. This software feature reduces lag by intelligently controlling the queuing of CPU work ahead of GPU work in DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 games. The result from enabling this feature is a reduction in input lag by up to 32% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as an example. [Learn More]
Radeon Boost - Radeon Boost is a unique feature in Radeon Software that's a step beyond Radeon Anti-Lag. In fact, Radeon Anti-Lag is a subset of Radeon Boost technology. For select games, Radeon Boost offers dynamic resolution in response to your mouse or controller inputs. Radeon Boost drops the resolution during camera rotation in first- and third-person games. You may not even notice that the resolution change is happening, except that your frame rates will be higher and, as a result, responses to your input are more immediate. [Learn More]
Both Radeon Anti-Lag and Radeon Boost can be enabled via Radeon Software, and neither require a proprietary API or game integration to provide latency-reducing benefits.
Cut your latency by giving these features a try and get that competitive edge to help you play better. Download the latest driver from amd.com to get started.
Learn more about Radeon Software and be sure to keep your system up to date with the most recent driver so you have the newest features, best performance and latest updates.
If you'd like to chat with the AMD community comprised of both users and staff, be sure to check out our recently updated forum which you can access here.
Warren Eng is the Product Marketing Manager for Radeon Software at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied. GD-5
Endnotes:
Radeon Anti-Lag is compatible with DirectX 9, DirectX 11, DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs; Windows 7 and 10. Hardware compatibility includes GCN and newer consumer dGPUs and Ryzen 2000 and newer APUs, including hybrid and detachable graphics configurations. No mGPU support. Certain features require Adrenalin 2020 or later. GD-157
Radeon Boost is compatible with Windows 7 and 10 in select titles only. Hardware compatibility includes RX 400 and newer consumer dGPUs, Ryzen 2000 and newer APUs, including hybrid and detachable graphics configurations. No mGPU support. Certain features require Adrenalin 2020 or later. For a list of compatible titles see https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/radeon-boost. GD-158
AMD FreeSync technology requires AMD Radeon graphics and a display that supports FreeSync technology as certified by AMD. AMD FreeSync Premium technology adds requirements of mandatory low framerate compensation and at least 120 Hz refresh rate at minimum FHD. AMD FreeSync Premium Pro technology adds requirements for the display to meet AMD FreeSync Premium Pro compliance tests. See www.amd.com/freesync for complete details. Confirm capability with your system manufacturer before purchase. GD-127
Testing conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of October 5th, 2020 on the 16GB Radeon™ RX 6800 XT, using a test system comprising of AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU (3.7 GHz), 16GB DDR4-3200MHz memory, and Windows 10x64 with Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.45 on Fortnite, separately measuring the effects of FreeSync, Anti-Lag and Boost on latency. Click-to-response latency is measured using an Arduino-based testing tool that acts as an input device and detects on-screen visual changes in games. Performance may vary. RS-342
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©2020 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Freesync, Radeon, Ryzen, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.