Wednesday, September 11th 2024
AMD Unveils Ryzen AI HX 300 Support for AFMF 2, VGM, and Releases a Preview Driver
AMD today released early driver support for the Radeon 800M series integrated graphics of Ryzen AI 300 series mobile processors to use AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2 (AFMF 2), and Variable Graphics Memory (VGM) technologies. The two technologies receive optimization for the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture driving the iGPU of the "Strix Point" silicon on which the Ryzen AI 300 series processors are based on. AFMF 2 is the second generation of AMD Fluid Motion Frames, a technology that lets you nearly double frame-rates on any Direct3D 11 or later game, without the gaming having explicit support for a frame generation technology, such as FSR 3 Frame Generation. AFMF operates out of the game's graphics pipeline, which adds a tiny bit of system latency. AFMF 2 seeks to reduce this latency.
Variable Graphics Memory (VGM) is another interesting feature that builds on top of the UMA (unified memory architecture) implementation of AMD processors with iGPUs. Depending on a 3D application's demands, the technology dynamically allocates up to 75% of the system memory as video memory for the iGPU, while ensuring the game doesn't run into unintentional performance bottlenecks arising from paging main memory if too much of it is used up by the iGPU. For VGM to work, a system needs at least 16 GB of main memory. VGM is not meant to be confused with the shared memory area that the processor allots to the iGPU by default (which ranges between 512 MB and 2 GB), it's designed to augment to this by eating into the system memory.
AMD posted its first party benchmark results on how VGM enables significant performance improvements in AAA games such as "Far Cry 6," "Marvel's GotG," "F1 23," and "Horizon: Zero Dawn." GotG in fact needs VGM enabled to even play on the Radeon 890M iGPU of the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor. AMD also posted its performance results for a combination of AFMF 2 and VGM being enabled, where the four games are shown posting 30-50% increases in frame-rates. Both technologies can be managed in the Performance>Tuning section of AMD Software.
To let those with a notebook powered by the Ryzen AI 300 series mobile processor experience the two technologies, AMD released an off-branch Technical Preview driver bearing version number 24.20.11.01, which works on Windows 11 and Windows 10 64-bit. You can find the driver here.
Variable Graphics Memory (VGM) is another interesting feature that builds on top of the UMA (unified memory architecture) implementation of AMD processors with iGPUs. Depending on a 3D application's demands, the technology dynamically allocates up to 75% of the system memory as video memory for the iGPU, while ensuring the game doesn't run into unintentional performance bottlenecks arising from paging main memory if too much of it is used up by the iGPU. For VGM to work, a system needs at least 16 GB of main memory. VGM is not meant to be confused with the shared memory area that the processor allots to the iGPU by default (which ranges between 512 MB and 2 GB), it's designed to augment to this by eating into the system memory.
24 Comments on AMD Unveils Ryzen AI HX 300 Support for AFMF 2, VGM, and Releases a Preview Driver
No resolution reduction gimmicks in any comparison, only real numbers!
We are not sheeple, give us real metrics.
Edit: Or am I thinking of the 790m here
Before: ~30 fps
After (AFMF 2): ~60 fps
Double the fps without any noticeable visual change and no perceptible difference in latency. To me that's a win.
Advantage, sure. Huge? Nah.
Also, AMD has done this before, Athlon XP comes to mind, which as you guessed, piggybacked on the Windows XP.
That and they're still fake frames. Its a nice feature though.Oh yeah handheld and mobile chips are definitely going to benefit, that's true
Would it be looking much better with a 7900XTX/4080 with no upscaling and fake frames? Yes, probably, but that's 4-5 times the money I gave for the RX 6600 and I don't really feel that I need something more. Fake frames, upscaling, I think we are mostly educated by now to forget what clear, crisp, precise graphics look like and drool on higher framerates with sometimes unstable, approximate graphics sprinkled with a little ghosting here and there.What if there was no Lossless Scaling for you to buy? Considering you bought the app, you agree that it is nice to have upscaling and FG in every title.
Well, AMD is giving this in it's driver. Nvidia doesn't. That's a fact and it would have been important, it would have been a reason to buy Nvidia over AMD, only if it was vice versa. Only if Nvidia was giving it and AMD wasn't. Now that AMD is giving it and Nvidia doesn't..... "Advantage, sure. Huge? Nah.". My point exactly.Your 3080 supports AFMF?I am pretty sure Nvidia will convince MS to change it's mind on this one. And I am pretty sure that Nvidia GPUs will be considered Copilot+ hardware at least 3 months before Radeon cards, for obvious reasons.