AMD’s new system lag measurement is a nifty trick for its GPUs – but there are catches
AMD is introducing a new capability for its Adrenalin graphics drivers, letting you see the system slowdown holding your PC back – with some notable notes.
VideoCardz noted that CapFrameX (the developer of a tool for capturing and analyzing frame times) posted about the new feature on X (formerly Twitter).
New Adrenaline Overlay Stat: System Lag 🔥The feature is available with 23.30.01.02 preview driver if Radeon Anti-Lag+ is supported. The numbers are very similar to Nvidia’s PC Latency, so there must be information directly from the game (start render) to cover the… pic.twitter.com/odgJHJ7AFPOctober 8, 2023
As you can see, AMD has introduced this with a new graphics driver (version 23.30.01.02, which is still in testing – it’s a preview release), and it looks a lot like Nvidia’s PC Latency measurement.
What this does in both cases is give the gamer a figure in milliseconds for the delay experienced between the game commanding a frame to be generated and the GPU actually finishing rendering that frame.
This is a useful metric to know, perhaps an even more important metric than fps (frames per second) in terms of a game running smoothly (if the lag is high it is very disruptive). Although of course ideally you have optimal performance for both fps (high) and system lag (low).
We made some caveats at the beginning, so here they go. First, the feature is only supported on RDNA 3 (current generation) GPUs that take advantage of Radeon Anti-Lag+ technology. Secondly, the game must also support and run Radeon Anti-Lag+ – only a small number of PC games currently do (12 to be exact).
Analysis: Catching up with Nvidia
It’s a good job on AMD’s part to implement this feature, although it won’t be useful for every gamer. Only those who play fast-paced games where lag is crucial (like shooters) in some competitive way will really need to delve into these kinds of details. Although more casual gamers may find the information interesting.
That said, AMD is playing catch-up with Nvidia here, as mentioned above, and that’s been a theme of late. Nvidia comes with DLSS 3 with frame generation, after which AMD follows (at a considerable distance) with FSR 3 (and a broader attempt at the technology with AFMF).
Speaking of frame generation, this new system latency measurement isn’t the all-encompassing latency experienced on a gaming PC, as things like frame generation can also be a factor here (which is why the technology has been quite controversial since DLSS 3 introduced it). And there’s the latency of your peripherals and display to consider as well, as well as PC latency.
All of these factors contribute to the overall delay you experience between pulling the trigger with your mouse (or controller) and seeing that shot on your monitor.
AMD’s early incarnation of this delay measurement (remember, it’s still in a preview driver now) apparently works well, according to another tweet from CapFrameX. In it, CapFrameX notes that they have both Nvidia’s PC Latency and AMD’s System Lag features working with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, finding that both measured the lag on their PC as 23ms.