AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+ is making a comeback with the game that caused it go away in the first instance—Counter Strike 2. The technology is undergoing a rebranding as Anti-Lag 2, to reflect the several under-the-hood changes made by AMD. AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+ was supposed to be AMD's answer to NVIDIA Reflex, a whole-system latency reduction technology that wouldn't just benefit competitive online games such as Counter Strike 2; but also form an essential component of FSR 3 Frame Generation. The technology briefly launched last year before gamers started noticing that the tech would trigger anti-cheat mechanisms in online games, such as the VAC that polices CS 2, forcing AMD to withdraw the technology, and for Valve to manually detect and restore thousands of gamer accounts.

It seems AMD has fixed the way Anti-Lag+ works with the new Anti-Lag 2 technology. The company in particular is testing its stability with Counter Strike 2, so you don't get banned again by VAC. The company worked with Valve to release an update to the game so it supports the tech, and released a special AMD Software Adrenalin Anti-Lag 2 Preview driver based on the recent 24.5.1 version. You'll need the latest patch to CS 2, and this driver to experience the "technical preview" of Anti-Lag 2. The company also released a technology brief of Anti-Lag 2. The most important change with Anti-Lag 2 that sets it apart from the failed Anti-Lag+, is that it is not a driver-based solution, but rather a game engine-based one. This is why you'll need the latest update to CS 2, because it contains the Anti Lag 2 code.

"Sons of the Forest" is an open-world survival horror game, in which you are cast away on a remote island with a dangerous forest and cave network, and have to find the means to survive and thrive. This isn't Far Cry, there are no missions as such, you craft your own journey of survival against hostile weather, wildlife, cannibalistic tribes, hunger, and disease. The overarching story is that you're sent on a remote island to find a missing billionaire. The game just released yesterday, and is a sequel to the 2014 title "The Forest." This is one of the first titles to support AMD FSR 3 at launch, including frame generation.

Consequently, FSR 3 Support has grown to 15 titles. AMD's answer to NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation, FSR 3 nearly doubles performance in games using a proprietary interpolation technology. The list of titles featuring FSR 3 include Forspoken, Immortals of Aveum, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, MotorCubs RC, Call of Duty Modern Warfare III & Warzone, Farming Simulator 22, The Talos Principle 2, Estencel, Mortal Online 2, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Starship Troopers: Extermination, The Thaumaturge, Starfield, and now Sons of the Forest. The list is expected to grow as AMD works to bring back Anti-Lag+, a whole-system latency reduction technology, which was also a vital component of FSR 3.

Redevelopment of the AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+ feature is in full swing, and the feature is coming back soon, the company confirmed. Responding to a specific question on Twitter on reintroduction of Anti-Lag+, AMD's gaming solutions head Frank Azor confirmed that it is coming soon. Anti-Lag+ is AMD's whole system latency reduction technology that rivals NVIDIA Reflex.

Anti-Lag+ benefits not just competitive online gaming, but is also supposed to be a vital component for FSR 3 frame-generation, as the technology imposes a considerable amount of latency. You can notice this in current titles with FSR 3, including in some cases, ghosting artifacts with fast-moving objects in a 3D scene. This is why NVIDIA Reflex is an integral component of DLSS 3 Frame Generation, and is enabled along with it. AMD had withdrawn Anti-Lag+ as the technology had inadvertently tripped Anti-Cheat mechanisms of several online games, causing automated player bans that game developers had to manually identify and reverse. The company will have to redesign the way Anti-Lag+ works, and extensively test it with competitive games before reintroducing it.

With the release of AMD Software Adrenalin drivers version 23.10.1 WHQL, AMD has added Anti-Lag+ support for Counter Strike 2, but it appears that this will only result in a VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) ban. Apparently, the Anti-Lag+ feature is implemented by detouring engine dll functions, and any tampering with CS code will result in a VAC ban.

Valve was keen to note that once AMD ships an update, it will work on identifying affected users and reversing the ban. Luckily, the Anti-Lag+ technology only works on Radeon RX 7000 series RDNA 3 graphics cards, so it could be a limited number of Counter Strike 2 players. The issue comes as a surprise considering that Anti-Lag+ has already been implemented in various games, including competitive ones like Apex Legends, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Fortnite, and others, and only has issues with Counter Strike 2 and its VAC system. Hopefully, AMD will fix the issue pretty soon and we will keep an eye out for an update.

AMD has updated its Radeon Adrenalin driver with the latest edition, 23.9.2. The newest version brings unified driver support for AMD Radeon RX 7700 and RX 7800, which the previous driver lacked, and there was a separate download for these two SKUs. Besides merging into a single unified driver, the new update brings Lies of P, Party Animals, and The Crew Motorfest game support for AMD Radeon graphics. In this driver release, the AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+ feature is introduced for Starfield, Witcher 3, ELDEN RING, Immortals of Aveum, and an Anti-Lag+ screen overlay for system latency. AMD fixed some issues like application crashing while playing Baldur Gate 3 with Vulkan API on RX 7900 XTX, limited GPU clock tuning on RX 7700 XT and RX 7800 XT, application crash while playing SMITE on RX 7900 XTX, and application crash or driver timeout while playing F1 2023 on RX 7800 XT. There is no Cyberpunk 2077 update yet in this driver release.

You can download the Radeon Adrenalin Edition 23.9.2 Driver here.See the full list of changes below:

AMD has released the latest version of the Adrenalin software, the version 23.9.1 WHQL. The new AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 23.9.1 WHQL adds support for Radeon RX 7700 and RX 7800 series graphics cards which will be available as of today, as well as adds support for AMD Radeon Anti-Lag, Radeon Boost, and AMD HYPR-RX features.

The AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+ initially supports 12 games, including Apex Legends, Overwatch 2, Dying Light 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 4, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Fortnite, Last of Us: Part 1, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Resident Evil 3, and Borderlands 3, with more promised in the coming months. It also adds support for AMD HYPER-X, a one click solution which combines AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+, Boost, and Radeon Super Resolution to achieve improved performance and latency reduction.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.9.1 WHQL for AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and RX 7800 XT
DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.9.1