There's no denying that Nvidia has been at the top of the PC graphics industry for a long time, and I'm not just talking about market share or enterprise footprint. It has also pushed GPU technology forward with gaming-focused innovations like real-time ray tracing, upscaling, and, more recently, AI frame generation. With Multi Frame Generation (MFG) launching with the RTX 50 series GPUs, Nvidia once again established feature dominance over the competition.

AMD offers AI-powered frame generation in its existing FSR suite, but that's limited to a 2x performance boost. MFG has been conspicuously absent from FSR, even when Intel's XeSS offers up to 4x frame generation. All that might be changing soon, if the latest AMD SDK update is anything to go by. AMD is reportedly working to bring up to 6x frame generation to the next FSR version, finally achieving feature parity with Nvidia and, in this case, Intel. This feature is essential for AMD to stay in the conversation in an era where frame generation and more AI-powered technologies are replacing hardware-based innovation.

We like dunking on MFG, but it's not going anywhere

It's just the way people play games now

When upscaling first arrived with Nvidia's RTX 20 series GPUs, it was panned as a half-baked solution to the performance overhead of real-time ray tracing. Over the years, Nvidia refined it to an extent that it's virtually indistinguishable from native rendering. The same story has been playing out with Multi-Frame Generation. While Nvidia didn't do itself any favors by equating generated frames with rendered ones in its RTX 50 series announcement, MFG has since improved considerably since then — and it's only been a little over a year. Silicon-driven generational gains have been getting harder to achieve of late, so GPU manufacturers are pivoting to AI-driven innovation to keep up with the demands of the latest titles. Nvidia's MFG is simply the latest entrant in a long line of software workarounds to overcome hardware limitations. It may not be perfect, but it certainly paints a picture of where PC graphics are heading.

We also need to be mindful of the larger industry forces, irrespective of what we'd like to happen. Brute-forcing GPU performance by cramming more and more transistors has hit the inevitable wall. Manufacturers are also prioritizing data center hardware over consumer variants to make hay while the sun shines. VRAM prices aren't coming down anytime soon, which means GPUs will stay overpriced for the next few years. Consequently, the vast majority of PC gamers will make purchase decisions not only based on affordability, but also on what they can get out of their investment. If Nvidia and Intel are offering 6x and 4x frame generation, respectively, AMD's 2x frame generation can't really compete. In a time when upscaling and frame generation are just how most people play games, the lack of MFG in AMD's FSR suite becomes a major missed opportunity for the company.

AMD is finally bringing MFG to FSR

Team Red can't afford to stay behind

It might be late, but AMD is set to debut MFG in its next FSR update. AMD's ADLX developer kit has been spotted with a new function called "IADLX3DFidelityFXFrameGenUpgradeRatioOption," which clearly signals an increase in the FSR frame gen multiplier. AMD is most likely testing the option to allow gamers to choose higher frame generation multipliers, going beyond the existing 2x in FSR 4 to 4x and even 6x, matching Intel and Nvidia, respectively. There's no official word from Team Red yet, but the presence of the feature in the new SDK means AMD isn't waiting much longer to offer MFG capabilities to Radeon owners.

FSR Redstone had impressed many fans, but it still lags DLSS 4.5 in key areas like motion stability, sharpness, and maximum frame gen support. Bringing 6x MFG to FSR is sorely needed to keep feature parity with Nvidia at a time when many gamers are finding it hard to choose Radeon GPUs over RTX cards. AMD continues to offer more VRAM per dollar, but Nvidia's superiority in ray tracing performance in several landmark titles and better frame generation support remain major challenges for AMD's GPU sales. Competing with Nvidia in this new AI-powered GPU era will need more than just better performance per dollar.

There's no report of dynamic MFG being part of the new FSR update

Nvidia's automated frame-gen multiplier remains unrivaled for now

With DLSS 4.5, Nvidia didn't just introduce up to 6x frame generation; it also brought Dynamic Multi Frame Generation to the RTX 50 series GPUs. Dynamic MFG, when supported by the game, adjusts the frame gen multiplier on the fly, based on a target framerate determined by the display's capability. Any kind of frame generation has an associated latency penalty, so lowering the frame gen multiplier when native performance is high enough can produce the most optimal results. Similarly, if the scene on-screen is too demanding for the GPU's native performance, dynamic MFG can ramp up the number of generated frames to maintain the target FPS. This dynamic adjustment is arguably better than a fixed frame gen multiplier that gamers need to change manually when needed.

For now, there's no indication that the latest AMD SDK will bring support for dynamic MFG as well. Considering AMD is also working on FSR Diamond for the next-gen Xbox "Project Helix," expected to include dynamic MFG alongside neural rendering, ML-based upscaling, and advanced ray and path tracing, some might have expected dynamic MFG to arrive on Radeon cards sooner than later. While that may still happen, it's hard to comment on that right now.

Multi Frame Generation is no longer optional

AMD chose to stick with 2x frame generation on FSR for a while, but it couldn't hold off any longer on bringing higher multipliers to its software suite. With Nvidia and even Intel leading Team Red in this key metric, AMD obviously couldn't afford to stay behind. The latest AMD SDK indicates that MFG is coming to FSR soon. At a time when AI-powered tricks are commonplace in PC graphics, this update couldn't have come sooner.