AMD Fluid Motion Frames for Linux
afmf-linux is an open-source frame generation layer for Linux gaming: the equivalent of AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF) as a Vulkan implicit layer. It generates one interpolated frame between every two frames a game presents, so the frame rate on screen doubles. Any game, Proton or native. No kernel module, no driver patch.
What it does
AMD’s AFMF is not a hardware feature: on Windows it is compute-shader work the Radeon driver inserts at present time, for any game, from the colour buffer alone. afmf-linux does the same on Linux:
- It hooks swapchain creation and asks for a few extra images.
- On every present it runs FidelityFX Optical Flow (AMD’s own shaders, vendored under MIT) between the previous frame and the new one, and synthesises the frame in between.
- A presentation thread of the layer shows the generated frame at once and the real frame half a frame later, so both land evenly spaced. The game’s own thread returns as soon as the work is submitted; the GPU work runs on a compute queue of the layer’s own.
It works with DirectX games under Proton (DXVK, vkd3d-proton) and native Vulkan titles, on RADV / AMD RDNA GPUs and, in principle, any Vulkan 1.1 driver.
Get started
# Fedora
sudo dnf install ./afmf-linux-0.3.0-1.fc44.x86_64.rpm
# Steam launch options for the game
AFMF_ENABLE=1 %command%
DEB, Arch and a plain tarball are on the release page; the install guide covers every route, including building from source.
Tested hardware
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT (RDNA4) and RX 7800 XT (RDNA3), Mesa 26.1.8 RADV, KDE Plasma Wayland, 3440×1440 at 165 Hz, with Monster Hunter Wilds and Cyberpunk 2077 under vkd3d-proton. Other GPUs and drivers: untested, reports welcome.
Measured
On the RX 9070 XT unless stated, Mesa 26.1.8, KDE Plasma Wayland, 3440×1440:
| Game | Base (Linux, no layer) | With afmf-linux |
|---|---|---|
| Monster Hunter Wilds, Native AA, vkd3d-proton | 120 fps | 250 moving / 271 still |
| Cyberpunk 2077, RT Ultra, FSR 4 Quality, vkd3d-proton | ~100-125 fps | ~200-250 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 on an RX 7800 XT (RDNA3), same settings | ~60-110 fps | ~120-220 |
The ceiling is 2× the base the game reaches on Linux without the layer; the layer costs 0.43 ms of GPU time per frame and about 80 µs of the game’s thread. Details, per-stage numbers and how they were measured: performance.
FAQ
Is afmf-linux really AMD Fluid Motion Frames? It is the same idea built the same way, driver-level frame generation from the colour buffer at present time using AMD’s FidelityFX Optical Flow for the motion and an interpolation pass, applied to any game. It is not AMD’s code for the interpolation and it is not affiliated with AMD.
Does it add latency? Not noticeably, as with AFMF on Windows. The pacing holds the real frame back by half a frame time so the generated one lands in between, the same thing AMD’s implementation does. AFMF_PACING=0 removes the hold at the cost of an uneven cadence.
Does it work with Proton and DirectX games? Yes. DXVK and vkd3d-proton present through Vulkan, which is where the layer sits. It has been measured with DirectX 12 titles under Proton.
Does it need an AMD GPU? No. It needs a Vulkan 1.1 driver with compute queues and 32-bit image atomics. Tuned on RDNA4 and verified on RDNA3, both with RADV; RDNA2, Intel and NVIDIA are untested.
Is it a kernel module or a Mesa patch? Neither. It is a Vulkan implicit layer, installed like MangoHud, enabled per game with AFMF_ENABLE=1.
More in the full FAQ.