Valve Bans Counter-Strike 2 Players Using AMD

After the launch of Counter-Strike 2, Valve has now admitted further problems. The new edition of the online shooter is proving popular, but players with AMD hardware run the risk of being permanently banned from the game.

Valve Bans Counter-Strike 2 players using AMD

This emerges from user complaints that have appeared online in the last few days since the launch of Counter-Strike 2. It turned out that Valve was banning users without them initially having any idea what they were being accused of, i.e. how the ban could come about.

Now Valve has commented on this and provided clarification. It is not the user’s behavior (cheats etc) that leads to the ban, but rather a feature of the AMD Radeon GPUs. The graphics optimize the “flow of the game” using AMD’s anti-lag function, but this triggers the ban at Valve.

Valve therefore writes: “Do not use this feature if you play Counter-Strike 2 on an AMD Radeon GPU”.

Valve explains that AMD implements the anti-lag feature for CS2 by redirecting engine dll functions. However, this is seen as manipulation of the CS code and therefore currently leads to a VAC ban (VAC=Valve Anti-Cheat).

As a rule, the VAC ban is permanent, which means that the account is blocked and receives a corresponding note. In this case, there should now be a simple solution for banned player accounts due to false recognition. Anyone who has already been affected by a ban will be automatically unlocked again by Valve – but the developers are waiting for an update to the AMD driver.

“Once AMD releases an update, we will be able to identify affected users and remove their bans,” Valve said. As soon as the new driver is available, Valve will begin automatically detecting users who have been incorrectly banned.