AMD Boosts Gaming Performance on Ryzen AI 300 Series with AFMF 2 and VGM Technologies

AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series delivers up to 100 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 with new AFMF 2 driver

AMD has released Technical Preview drivers for its driver-based AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2 or AFMF 2 frame generation technology. Without waiting for per-game implementation like FSR 3 or DLSS 3, AFMF 2 sits within AMD's Radeon drivers or Adrenaline Edition software and can be enabled in thousands of PC games. It's an exciting technology, and even though the image quality isn't on par with something like DLSS 3, it can be a game-changer for a range of Radeon GPUs. Especially in improved AFMF 2 for, Today, we can add the integrated RDNA 3.5 graphics in notebooks with AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series APUs to the AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2 compatible chips supported in AMD's Technical Preview drivers for AFMF 2. The new mobile chips also use the Variable Graphics Memory (VGM) tech as part of HYPR-RX to further boost performance. By default, integrated graphics have a "dedicated" graphics allocation of 512 MB and AMD recommends leaving at least 16 GB RAM for the CPU. This means that if you set Variable Graphics Memory (VGM) to "medium" on a 32 GB system, it will allocate 8 GB from that pool and convert it into 8 GB vRAM for the AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics card after a reboot - an increase of 7.5 GB from the default "dedicated" vRAM allocation of 512 MB. This technology makes perfect sense for the mobile Radeon graphics found in the AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series, with impressive integrated graphics performance but several steps behind dedicated desktop GPUs. With AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2, in-game FSR support, and VGM, performance in Cyberpunk 2077 can hit 100 FPS in 1080p. Granted, this is "up to 100 FPS," and playing the game using the 'Low' graphics preset with FSR 2 set to 'Balanced,' so it's not going to look anywhere as good as it can when running on something like the desktop Radeon RX 7700 XT or the GeForce RTX 4060, but it's impressive nonetheless. According to AMD, this is a 78% improvement in performance compared to playing Cyberpunk 2077 without AFMF 2. AMD has provided additional AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series gaming benchmarks with AFMF 2 and VGM enabled. VGM looks to be the secret sauce for integrated GPUs, pushing performance in Far Cry 6 from 65 FPS with just AFMF 2 to 105 FPS with AFMF 2 and VGM. AMD also showcases that on the ASUS Zenbook S16, with its OLED display with a native resolution of 2880 x 1800, performance can push past 60 FPS thanks to AFMF 2 and VGM. "Performance will vary depending on the exact game title and settings used, and we look forward to hearing feedback from you about your experience with AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2, VGM, and HYPR-RX," AMD writes. "On mobility platforms like AMD Ryzen AI 300 series processors, AMD recommends first tuning the game settings to be able to maintain an FPS of 50 (1080p) before turning on AFMF 2." It's fascinating tech that opens the door to gaming laptops without dedicated mobile GPUs.

AMD introduces AFMF 2 & VGM tech to boost Ryzen AI 300 CPU gaming performance -- AFMF 2 offers up to 78% higher frame rates in Cyberpunk 2077

Variable Graphics Memory is a feature tailored for integrated graphics users, who usually have to split RAM between CPU and GPU tasks. By default, this split is very much in the CPU's favor, but this can be a severe problem with modern games and their high VRAM requirements. Variable Graphics Memory allows Ryzen AI 300 Series CPU users to easily adjust this balance in their favor without resorting to tweaking BIOS settings, as would otherwise be needed. In AMD's official release, VGM is highlighted as making certain incompatible games, like Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, playable and considerably improving performance in other titles, especially when using HYPR-RX, which now includes AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2. AMD's official results with these technologies enabled saw most titles gain about 20-30% in FPS, making even the likes of Far Cry 6 playable at up to 78 FPS using Medium settings and Balanced FSR at a whopping 2800 x 1800 target resolution. AMD highlighted that a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip could run Cyberpunk 2077 at 100 FPS by enabling AFMF 2 at A 1080p resolution on the low preset and using a Balanced FSR preset. AFMF 2 increased the frame rates by 78%. As impressive as these results are, it is still important to remember that users aren't recommended to enable Frame Generation until they've done what they can to optimize their in-game settings for smooth performance. AMD recommends that users are first able to meet 50 FPS in a game before enabling Fluid Motion Frames 2. Since Frame Generation can add input lag, I agree it's ideal to have native FPS be as stable and responsive as possible before flipping on Frame Gen "cheats" for the rest. Fortunately, even if you have no interest in Frame Generation or other AMD HYPR-RX features, you can still use the Variable Graphics Memory feature to make tangible performance improvements to your Ryzen AI 300 Series device. And now, it's easier than ever to enable. We expect this feature to be a mainstay of future Ryzen APUs and hope to see it creep backward to last-generation Ryzen APU users as well. After all, you can technically already do this with BIOS tweaks -- it's just way harder for most users than a quick settings change in graphics software.

AMD AFMF 2 & Variable Graphics Memory Now Available With Ryzen AI 300 APUs, Boost FPS By 78%

AMD is officially bringing AFMF (Fluid Motion Frames) 2 & Variable Graphics Memory features to Ryzen AI 300 APUs for a nice boost in FPS. AMD's Ryzen AI 300 APUs launched in July and have slowly been entering the retail markets from various OEM partners. These new APUs are equipped with the latest RDNA 3.5 architecture which offers a good uplift in performance over the RDNA 3 SKUs. Since its launch, the Ryzen AI 300 APUs got two driver releases, the 24.7.1 which is also considered the launch driver, and the most recent one, the 24.8.1, which introduced new game support, Anti-Lag 2 and HYPR-Tune & a range of AI enhancements. Today, AMD is releasing a new Software: Adrenalin preview driver with support for Ryzen AI 300 APUs, and that comes as a technical preview package. With this new technical preview driver, the Ryzen AI 300 APUs will be able to leverage two technologies, the first of which is AFMF 2 of Fluid Motion Frames 2. This cutting-edge frame generation technology, designed to boost frame rates and enhance gameplay, is now available for gamers to instantly improve performance for gamers using AMD Ryzen™ AI 300 series processors. Gamers can expect up to 78% higher FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 when using AFMF 2 with an AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 370. In conjunction with AFMF 2, Variable Graphics Memory (VGM) will also be supported, allowing you to maximize performance on AMD Ryzen™ AI 300 Series processors. AMD introduced Fluid Motion Frames 2 at the end of July which is geared at RDNA 2, RDNA 3, and RDNA 3.5 dGPUs and iGPUs. The feature is part of the HYPR-RX feature suite which is now entirely available on Ryzen AI 300 devices and users can now enable it through the gaming tab in the AMD Adrenalin application. Turning on Fluid Motion Frames 2 will also enable Anti-Lag, ensuring lag-free and smooth gameplay. The option to enable Radeon Super Resolution is also available to the Ryzen AI 300 audiences. In one example, AMD shows Cyberpunk 2077 running at up to 100 FPS by enabling AFMF 2 (Fluid Motion Frames 2) at 1080p and using a Balanced FSR preset. That's a 78% FPS gain compared to non-AFMF 2. The other big feature coming to AMD Ryzen AI 300 APUs is support for VGM or Variable Graphics Memory. This feature allows users to allocate a dedicated pool of memory to the integrated graphics from the system memory. The memory will be in addition to the 512 MB dedicated allocation that is there by default and should not be confused with "Shared" graphics memory which is a feature already available on modern-day AMD APUs with integrated graphics. You can allocate the amount of memory through the Performance tab within the Adrenalin app which gives you the option to select from Low, Medium, and High. If you have a Ryzen AI 300 PC with 32 GB of system memory and set the variable graphics memory mode to "Medium", it will allocate 8 GB of memory to the iGPU. The high preset will allocate 16 GB of memory while the Low preset will allocate 4 GB of memory. With higher memory allocated to the integrated GPU, AMD's Ryzen AI 300 PCs with RDNA 3.5 iGPUs can see a nice boost in performance, and more so, they will be able to run games with higher VRAM requirements such as Guardians of The Galaxy which requires at least 3 GB VRAM to run & the 512 MB frame buffer is just not enough to even open the application. The higher VRAM is also useful for loading games faster and improving performance in VRAM-constrained scenarios. So overall, these are two interesting features for AMD Ryzen AI 300 and Radeon 800M iGPUs which users can now try out for themselves and since it is a technical preview, users can share their feedback with AMD to further optimize both features before an official release. You can download the latest driver here.

AMD Ryzen AI HX 300 Gets Support for AFMF 2 and Variable Graphics Memory - Preview Driver Release

AMD has announced early driver support for its Radeon 800M series integrated graphics in the Ryzen AI 300 series mobile processors, enabling new technologies such as AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2 (AFMF 2) and Variable Graphics Memory (VGM). These features have been optimized for the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, which powers the integrated GPU in the "Strix Point" silicon found in Ryzen AI 300 series processors. The technology works independently of a game's native support for frame generation features like FSR 3 Frame Generation. AFMF operates outside of the game's graphics pipeline, which introduces minimal system latency. The AFMF 2 update focuses on reducing this latency while maintaining the benefit of increased frame rates. Variable Graphics Memory (VGM) is another key feature that enhances AMD's unified memory architecture in processors with integrated graphics. VGM dynamically allocates up to 75% of the system's total memory as video memory for the integrated GPU, depending on the demands of 3D applications. This allocation helps avoid performance bottlenecks caused by excessive memory usage from the iGPU. For VGM to function effectively, a system must have at least 16 GB of main memory. It is important to note that VGM is separate from the default shared memory assigned to the iGPU, which typically ranges between 512 MB and 2 GB. AMD has released benchmark results that demonstrate how VGM improves performance in top-tier games such as Far Cry 6, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, F1 23, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. For Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, using VGM is crucial for operating the game on the Radeon 890M integrated GPU found in the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor. The benchmarks also show that enabling both AFMF 2 and VGM can boost game performance by 30-50%, varying by game. Both AFMF 2 and VGM can be configured within the Performance > Tuning section of AMD Software. To enable these features, AMD has released a Technical Preview driver (version 24.20.11.01), which is compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11 64-bit systems.

AMD's AFMF 2 gives you more frames for free on Ryzen AI 300 laptops

AMD's next-gen game enhancement technology uses AI and a new graphics memory option to boost framerates. AMD is offering gamers an early version of what it calls AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2 (AFMF2), an AI-powered technology that creates additional frames per second for those gamers with laptops powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300 processors. The improvements appear significant: about 30 to 40 percent. Specifically, AMD says that AFMF 2 will boost frame rates in Cyberpunk: 2077 from 56 frames (1080p, Low settings, Balanced FSR) to about 100 FPS using the new technology, and other games will see a similar boost. For now, AMD is offering AFMF 2 as a technical preview, though the technology will be added to AMD's Adrenalin Edition software at a later date. AFMF2 is the second generation of the AFMF technology AMD launched in January. The Adrenalin Edition software offers several tools to enhance gameplay; Radeon Super Resolution, for example, upscales a rendered frame of a game to approximate a higher-resolution scene. Gamers tend to prefer the highest frame rates at the highest resolution at the highest visual quality possible. AFMF2 addresses the first portion of that, using AI and artificially creating additional frames in between what the game demands the GPU draw. The additional frames smooth out the gameplay experience, making it look and feel like a more powerful GPU is in place. All of these new capabilities are stored within what AMD calls its HYPR-RX profiles for games. There is something new, however. AFMF 2 works in conjunction with Variable Graphics Memory, a new feature which AMD is adding to its bag of tricks. VGM allows the laptop to re-allocate up to 75 percent of the system memory to dedicated VRAM (as opposed to memory that's already shared between the CPU and GPU). The message here is pretty simple: if you buy a Ryzen AI 300 laptop with lots of system RAM (32GB, say, versus a 16GB system) some of that system RAM can be allocated to the GPU, increasing gaming performance. On a 32GB system, for example, AMD said that the "dedicated" VRAM would be increased from 512MB to a whopping 8GB on a Radeon 890M system, upping the overall graphics performance. VGM must also be enabled, however. Under the Performance settings inside the Adrenalin application, VGM can be turned on using the Tuning tab. Your options will be Low, Medium or High; the latter two options will essentially turn on VGM to its maximum capabilities. Like AFMF, the second-generation AFMF 2 and VGM can't create something from nothing. The company said Wednesday that it recommends gamers try to tune the game to allow for at least 50 fps using various combinations of resolution and graphics level, than let AFMF 2 boost the frame rates further. The AFMF 2 boost will also vary by system and by game, of course. Still, the projected improvements are impressive. AMD compared two AI 9 HX 370 systems, one with AFMF 2/VGM off, and one with it on. Frame rates shot up dramatically. Even better, the improvements carried over from 1080p gaming to older games run at up to 2,880×1,800 resolution. These AI-boosted improvements to gaming aren't exclusive to AMD, of course. Nvidia has its own AI-powered frame interpolation technology, within the DLSS 3 technology that both upscales graphics and injects additional AI-powered frames -- though you need a dedicated Nvidia graphics card installed to use it, while AMD's AFMF2 also works with integrated laptop graphics. Still, however, you cut it, they're both solid arguments for investing in the latest CPU and GPU technology.