AMD Radeon Anti-Lag 2 lands with even more latency improvements and without any risk of false-positive bans

AMD initially introduced Anti-Lag in 2019 as a way to reduce latency in games without any explicit need for game developers to integrate the software into their games. Anti-Lag worked at a driver level to coordinate work between the CPU and the GPU ensuring latency was kept to a minimum. Users could enable the solution from inside AMD Software: Adrenaline Edition.

As a follow-up to the original Anti-Lag, AMD launched Anti-Lag+ in 2023. The software provided even more latency reduction by aligning frames from inside the game code. However, the company pulled the software shortly after eSports games like Counter-Strike 2 were banning users who were using Anti-Lag+ after falsely identifying the tool as a cheat. AMD has now released a new version of Anti-Lag, the Radeon Anti-Lag 2.

Anti-Lag 2 essentially combines the qualities of Anti-Lag and Anti-Lag+ by using driver-level CPU frame pacing like the former and in-game frame alignment like the latter. However, Anti-Lag 2 is no longer an in-driver solution like its predecessor, and game developers will need to integrate it on a per-game basis.

By integrating the solution on a per-game basis, eSport titles will no longer flag Anti-Lag, eliminating the risk of bans.

Counter-Strike 2 is the first game that has Anti-Lag 2 built in. Gamers who want to use the software will need to download the AMD Software: Adrenaline Edition 24.5.1 for Anti-Lag 2 Technical Preview. After downloading and installing the update, Anti-Lag 2 will turn on by default in Counter-Strike 2.

AMD claims that Anti-Lag 2 improves upon the original Anti-Lag by a wide margin. For instance, the company reports that with an RX 7900 GRE running Counter-Strike 2 at 4K, enabling Anti-Lag 2 brings the latency down to 11 ms vs 16 ms with Anti-Lag and 19 ms without any Anti-Lag.

Similarly, mid-range RX 7800 XT (Available on Amazon) also gets a massive latency reduction with Anti-Lag 2 figure coming in at 12 ms at 4K vs 17 and 20 ms with and without Anti-Lag respectively.

Finally, Anti-Lag 2 will be available only for users of Radeon RX 5000 and newer GPUs. CPUs like Ryzen 6000 and newer with Radeon series GPUs are also supported.