Until recently, Fusion was just the codename used by AMD to describe a future next-generation chip, product of their merger with ATI, which would integrate the CPU and GPU into a single unit. Now, however, it looks like the company wants to make the term part of a wider marketing campaign, whereby they emphasize that Fusion means “bringing all the pieces together to improve the overall PC experience.”

Branding confusions aside, AMD has released its Fusion for Gaming utility, which is a tool to allow even novices to optimize their PC for gaming by turning non-vital processes and background tasks on and off with a single click. It has three levels – basic, advanced and expert – to optimize gaming according your preference or expertise, offering various recipes for closing down background apps and overclocking your hardware.

But can disabling certain tasks really impact performance significantly? Well, according to AMD’s tests, users can expect a two to five percent performance bump in basic mode and up to ten percent when using expert mode – not exactly groundbreaking but I guess every bit counts when it comes to gaming. You can download the Fusion for Gaming utility here. Don’t expect it to run on your Core 2 Quad rig, though, you’ll need a PC with AMD CPUs and graphics.