Players in online shooters like Counter-Strike 2 and Apex Legends got a nasty shock last weekend, finding their game accounts banned for hacking that they hadn’t actually done. The actual culprit was found to be AMD’s new Radeon Anti-Lag+ feature, an integrated part of its Adrenalin driver and software package. The tool was getting wrongly flagged by Valve’s Anti-Cheat system (VAC) among others. After an initial outcry, AMD has released a patch disabling Anti-Lag for now.
“We have released the AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.10.2 driver that disables Anti-Lag+ technology in all supported games,” AMD says on Twitter Twexter X, “and we recommend gamers use the new driver.” Valve’s support pinned the issue on Anti-Lag+ routing around the game’s DLL files, which is also a common method for cheating in online multiplayer. Valve says that it will identify wrongly-banned accounts and restore them once AMD ships the update, which hopefully means that some players are getting their access back now.
In the meantime, AMD says that it’s “actively working with game developers on a solution,” and also that it’s helping to reinstate users who were wrongfully banned. But there’s still no indication of when an updated and hopefully corrected version of the (very cool) Anti-Lag+ software will become available. It’s a disappointing turn of events, as Anti-Lag+ is designed to reduce latency added by AMD’s new DLSS 3-like “Fluid Motion Frames” feature, a key part of FSR 3.
AMD is having a host of driver issues lately, with a recent Windows update wiping out user settings for many.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.