AMD yeets its latest GPU driver in response to Anti-Lag+ causing bans in Counter-Strike 2

(Image credit: Valve Software)

As reported a few days ago, Counter-Strike 2 players using Radeon Anti-Lag+ technology in the latest GPU drivers were finding that it didn't help matters at all. In fact, it resulted in accounts being banned as Valve's anti-cheat system didn't like the latency reduction system. AMD's response to the whole problem? Yank the drivers off the download page.

Before you think I'm having a go at AMD here, this is absolutely the correct thing to do. Not weeks of radio silence, promising a fix is coming soon, or blaming somebody else for the issue. By stopping anyone from downloading the problematic drivers, AMD is properly taking responsibility for it all.

So why has this happened? AMD's Anti-Lag+ system works on a per-game basis and basically injects itself into a specified game's code. It streamlines the synchronisation of frames between the CPU and GPU, resulting in a lowering of the overall latency. In turn, this makes the game feel a tad more responsive, so for competitive shooters like Counter-Strike 2 the benefits are obvious.

However, it would seem that VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) doesn't like another piece of software poking about with the insides of the game and automatically determines this is an attempt to cheat. Hence the account bans.

A fix will come eventually, of course, after Valve and AMD have worked together to prevent VAC from getting all antsy with Anti-Lag+ but what about those players who have already been banned? According to the Counter-Strike Twitter account, '[o]nce AMD ships an update we can do the work of identifying affected users and reversing their ban.'

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So all is not lost for the CS2 fans sporting a Radeon graphics card who've been hit with the ban hammer, just for activating a simple feature.

One thing is puzzling me, though. Did AMD actually work with Valve in the first place to develop Anti-Lag+ for Counter-Strike 2? I would have assumed they did because it seems like it's an ideal marketing promotion for the technology. After all, Nvidia did the same for its Reflex system, which also does a spot of code injection, but as far as I can tell using that hasn't resulted in any account bans.

It's easy to point fingers, blame developers, and bark at the moon for problems with GPU drivers, but I can't help but feel that maybe, just maybe, AMD should have taken a little more care with the overall implementation of Anti-Lag+.

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Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in the early 1980s. After leaving university, he became a physics and IT teacher and started writing about tech in the late 1990s. That resulted in him working with MadOnion to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its PC gaming section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com covering everything and anything to do with tech and PCs. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open-world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?