Valorant Introduces Anti-Lag 2: Is It Worth the Hype for AMD Users?
Valorant has just rolled out its Anti-Lag 2 feature, and it’s especially aimed at gamers using AMD’s RDNA 6000-series graphics cards or newer. This feature is designed to compete with Nvidia’s acclaimed Reflex technology for reducing latency. However, after my testing, I’m not convinced it’s a game-changer for everyone, especially those with high-end AMD setups.
Interestingly, this feature has actually been available in Valorant for about a week now, thanks to the 12.09 patch. But don’t get too excited just yet; it doesn’t turn on automatically. If you’ve been playing recently, you’ll need to manually enable it from the Graphics settings menu.
To put Anti-Lag 2 to the test, I employed an Nvidia Latency and Display Analysis Tool (LDAT) to measure the response times between clicking and seeing the muzzle flash of my weapon in-game. After testing over 150 clicks, here’s what I found:
- Anti-Lag 2 OFF: 10 ms (934 fps)
- Anti-Lag 2 ON: 9.84 ms (921 fps)
The difference is barely noticeable. When I experimented with both the AMD driver’s Anti-Lag and the in-game Anti-Lag 2 on, I clocked in a slightly slower latency of 10.03 ms. It’s tough to say if the driver setting is actually negating the benefits of Anti-Lag 2 or if these results are just typical fluctuations.
It seems that the advantage of enabling this latency-reducing setting might be more beneficial for those using lower-end systems. My rig, featuring an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, already processes input-to-display actions quite rapidly, especially in a fast-paced game like Valorant.
If you’re rocking a less powerful setup, giving it a shot could still be worth it. Just keep in mind that while enabling it might lower your frame rate slightly, the impact can vary. In my practice matches, the average frame rate barely budged, but I did see my 1% low frame rate drop from 565 fps to 489 fps, which is a bit more noticeable.
The good news? Flipping this setting on and off is a breeze within the game, making it simple for you to test how it performs on your own machine.