AMD acquires HiAlgo which works on dynamic resoution scaling, and more

When AMD flew out the technology press to Macau for its huge unveiling of the Radeon RX family, including the Radeon RX 480 which we reviewed yesterday, one of the more exciting things was something I couldn't talk about... until now.

AMD teased that it had acquired HiAlgo, and while HiAlgo sounds like some random little company of no significance - it is of the utmost significance when you begin putting the pieces of the puzzle together. First off, what does HiAlgo do? HiAlgo, as it explains on their website; "developers apps for 3D games that improve [the] gaming experience". There are three different products HiAlgo has created; BOOST, CHILL, and SWITCH.

BOOST is a utility that HiAlgo says will make your "gameplay smoother, with smaller lag" during those intense moments. BOOST will lower the rendering resolution which in turn, improves the performance of the game. CHILL is a smart framerate limiter that prevents both the CPU and GPU from hitting its maximum temperature, while at the same time it saves power and provides a few additional minutes of battery life to your gaming notebook. SWITCH on the other hand is very interesting, as it allows you to change the game resolution from 100% to just 50% with a single push of the button, providing an instant performance boost.

Now if we get some AMD money behind it, the acquisition of HiAlgo begins to make sense - especially when you consider that AMD has its semi-custom chips inside of Microsoft and Sony's current-gen consoles, and their next-gen Xbox Scorpio and PS4 Neo consoles. The Xbox One and PS4 have both got games on them that have been developed with dynamic resolutions, where the game will change its resolution on-the-fly to keep the framerate steady - especially if you want a consistent 60FPS.

You might think that HiAlgo is pulling your leg here with their claims, but they do have a "statement of legitimacy" on their website, which says that HiAlgo apps are "plugins that help hardware perform better. In 3D games, they re-allocate computer resources by dynamically changing frame rate and picture resolution". The company continues: "HiAlgo apps are NOT a cheating software. They are doing nothing of what is described in this comprehensive list - either in letter or in spirit. Installing HiAlgo app is equivalent to buying a more powerful GPU".

Not only that, but HiAlgo apps use "code-injection technology to get attached to the game, therefore they may be confused for cheats by anti-cheat software. We call on all game providers - developers, publishers and distributors - to recognize legitimacy of HiAlgo apps, white-list them and not ban gamers who are using them. This would benefit not only end users but game providers as well".