Asus ROG Ally gets its most important update yet: a free boost to make games run much faster

Asus just released an update for its ROG Ally which will make games run faster on the handheld device.

How is this frame rate sorcery achieved? Well, it’s not magic, but rather it's thanks to  tech from AMD which is being introduced to the ROG Ally, known as AFMF (AMD Fluid Motion Frames).

This is essentially a driver-level take on frame generation – artificially generating extra frames to make the frame rate higher – that works across all DX11 and DX12 PC games. (As opposed to tech like FSR 3, which contains frame generation – and more besides – but requires support to be coded into the game by the developer).

You might have heard of AFMF previously, as it’s been around for a while, having entered beta later on last year, and getting an official release in January 2024.

Asus has now officially brought it over to the ROG Ally in an update that’s out today, so you should be able to get it now.

After updating, Asus explains: “Just open the AMD Software and head to Gaming > Graphics to toggle AMD Fluid Motion Frames on. AFMF is not yet available in the Command Center, but we are working on integrating it further.”

Analysis: Frame-changer

This is something many Asus ROG Ally owners have been keenly awaiting for a while now, with some folks having unofficially fudged an installation of AFMF already. Now you don’t have to bother with such workarounds, and can get the feature officially on the handheld by just grabbing the latest update.

Some people describe it as an absolute game-changer – and there’s no denying it makes many games considerably faster, ramping up the frames per second (fps) substantially – while others are a bit more wary.

What’s the latter more cautious camp all about? Well, AFMF is not exactly a silver bullet for frame rate heaven – not across the board. For fast-paced twitch games such as shooters, it introduces additional input lag (due to the process of the artificial frames being generated), which is bad news for competitive play, certainly.

Also, with fast-moving games in general, AFMF will intelligently switch itself off during fast motion sequences to avoid artifacts and blemishes that’ll likely happen – that price isn’t worth paying for the extra fps. (Smooth but glitchy doesn’t really work, let’s face it, anyway). So, high octane action games will switch off the tech more often, and it’ll have less impact overall.

There’s also the fact that AFMF tends to work better increasing the smoothness of an already decent frame rate. So, if you’re looking to boost a game that already hits 60 fps for example, it’ll do a sterling job – but not so much if you’re trying to turbocharge a title that’s chugging along at, say, 20 fps. Not that it won’t work – it’s just that the results aren’t as good with a lower fps game.

Still, you can always try it out with any given PC game, and if you don’t like it, don’t use it. But as noted, some find AFMF to be excellent in boosting fps across many titles, and it’s especially helpful in getting already decently running games up towards that magic 120 fps to make the most of the Ally’s 120Hz display.

Certainly, this is a very important update for the ROG Ally – the most vital to date in our books, anyway. Indeed, the biggest criticism from some is that it took a while to arrive, being deployed four months after AFMF officially went live in AMD’s Adrenalin GPU driver.

Via VideoCardz

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