Open a blank text document (be it Word, OpenDoc or whatever you want) and press any key. You will see that the pressed key “instantly” appears on the screen. Actually, between when we press and it appears on the screen there is a latency or lag time, which is milliseconds, totally imperceptible. AMD Anti-lag and Anti-lag+ They are two technologies that reduce latency and we are going to explain their use. operation and features.
The first thing you should know is that there is a parameter called input-lag. It is the time or latency between when we click on the keyboard or mouse (input) until the action is executed.
We are talking about values of milliseconds or even less. Actually, we are not able to perceive that period of time, since when we write a text it is reflected “instantly” on the screen. Although it is not barely noticeable, precision when we play is very important and can determine the game.
What is Anti-lag
It is a solution that allows reduce latency entry focused on video games. Said lag in video games can mean the “loss” from among 1-3 frames from when we do the action until it is reflected on the screen.
AMD seeks to mitigate its loss in its graphics cards as much as possible. According to company data, in fast action games such as Apex Legends, Fornite or PUBG you can obtain a reduction of the latency in up to 35%.
How this technology works
The only thing that is sought to be achieved with this technology is the improvement of system response times. Although we have talked about frames or FPS, really, does not attack directly this point.
It focuses on reduce action processing times which can generate a slight improvement in performance. This is done in different ways depending on the version of this technology.
Anti-lag
This first version of the technology performs adjustments in the work of the processor so that it does not distance itself too much from the graphics card. Seeks reduce processor workload in the process of image rendering so that it can work optimally on the input of user actions
Hardly he processor can follow the rhythm of the Graphic card when the load is very high, such as in games. What this generates is a bottleneck and ends in a mismatch of orders.
It assumes that the processor make a additional job that does not offer no benefit. Furthermore, it generates saturation in the card graph and that is when problems arise failures in the image and of answer to one action. It has been greatly improved to make this as small as possible.
Although the adjustment is minimal, it achieves improvement in the response times. They are not excessive, but they can be felt.
The solution to date was to use powerful hardware to obtain high FPS rates. In addition, monitors with high refresh rates and low response times were required.
Necessary requirements to use it:
- Polaros or later architecture graphics cards or AMD Ryzen 2000 and later APUs, including hybrid or removable graphics card configurations
- The game is required to make use of the DirectX 9, 10 and 11 APIs
- It is only compatible with Windows 10 and 11
- The game must be compatible with this technology
Anti-lag+
Although the first iteration offers good performance, AMD has worked to improve this technology. The new variant performs a analysis of the frames inside of the game code. Furthermore, you get a improvement in the frame synchronization. It also helps reduce latency and improve the experience.
The big problem with this new version of technology is its exclusivity. The following is required for use:
- It is only compatible with AMD RDNA 3 architecture graphics cards, such as the Radeon RX 7000 Series.
- The game is required to make use of the DirectX 11 and 12 APIs
- It is only compatible with Windows 10 and 11
- Games must have specific support to use this technology. Currently only these games support it:
- 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
- Borderlands 3
Conclusion
We can say that it is an interesting technology that, if the game allows it, we should activate it. We will not have problems and the quality of the game will be improved, obtaining a little more precision in the shot.
Obtaining a shorter response time, even when we have a high FPS rate, can always help. In addition, efficiency is slightly improved as the processing is not doing “work” that does not contribute.
