ASUS brings Resizable BAR support to Intel 400-series motherboards - Smart Access Memory on Intel?
AMD's Smart Access Memory is already coming to Intel motherboards
Published: 1st December 2020 | Source: ASUS DE's Chris Wefers |
ASUS brings Resizable BAR support to Intel 400-series motherboards - SAM on Intel?
Smart Access Memory (SAM) technology is one of AMD's latest technological advancements for PC gamers on Windows, optimising their new Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs to deliver increased performance levels across a variety of workloads. This technology utilises optional PCIe features like Resizable Bar to give CPUs more direct access to GPU memory, with AMD offering the hardware and software validation necessary to ensure that this feature enables increased gaming performance.
While Smart Access Memory is marketed as an AMD feature, it can function on Intel platforms, with ASUS adding Resizable BAR support to their Z490, H470 and B460 motherboard platforms with new BETA BIOS releases. As can be seen in the slide below, which comes via ASUS DE's Chris Wefers, the benefits of Smart Access Memory can be seen on Intel-based systems. ASUS lists a 13.37% increase in Forza Horizon 4 performance on a Radeon RX 6800 XT.
In time, Nvidia is expected to enable a similar feature on their Ampere series graphics cards. This will make Smart Access Memory a technology which all PC gamers can take advantage of.
AMD was able to create Smart Access Memory because of their control over Radeon hardware, CPUs, motherboards and all of the software that sits in-between. Radeon drivers needed to utilise this increased memory access to boost performance and to ensure that this new feature didn't create new bugs or result in negative performance consequences. In addition to this, AMD needed to enable support for this feature onto motherboards, developing firmware updates to utilise the feature.
While ASUS has confirmed that Smart Access Memory can work on Intel motherboards, it will take time for this support to exit beta and release across a wider range of non-AMD motherboards. That said, the fact that ASUS has already released BETA BIOS updates for some boards is a good sign that Resizable BAR support can be implemented with ease across a wide range of motherboards.
While Smart Access Memory is marketed as an AMD feature, it can function on Intel platforms, with ASUS adding Resizable BAR support to their Z490, H470 and B460 motherboard platforms with new BETA BIOS releases. As can be seen in the slide below, which comes via ASUS DE's Chris Wefers, the benefits of Smart Access Memory can be seen on Intel-based systems. ASUS lists a 13.37% increase in Forza Horizon 4 performance on a Radeon RX 6800 XT.
In time, Nvidia is expected to enable a similar feature on their Ampere series graphics cards. This will make Smart Access Memory a technology which all PC gamers can take advantage of.
AMD was able to create Smart Access Memory because of their control over Radeon hardware, CPUs, motherboards and all of the software that sits in-between. Radeon drivers needed to utilise this increased memory access to boost performance and to ensure that this new feature didn't create new bugs or result in negative performance consequences. In addition to this, AMD needed to enable support for this feature onto motherboards, developing firmware updates to utilise the feature.
While ASUS has confirmed that Smart Access Memory can work on Intel motherboards, it will take time for this support to exit beta and release across a wider range of non-AMD motherboards. That said, the fact that ASUS has already released BETA BIOS updates for some boards is a good sign that Resizable BAR support can be implemented with ease across a wide range of motherboards.
You can join the discussion on Smart Access Memory coming to ASUS/ROG Intel motherboards on the OC3D Forums.
Most Recent Comments
I'm curious, If this then doesn't require a Ryzen 5000 CPU to work, Like many initially thought, I wonder if it could be implemented to work with older Ryzen CPU's and if Nvidia are working on their own implementation I wonder if it will work with both AMD and Intel or if Nvidia will end up choosing just 1 CPU vendor.Quote
Not sure why people thought it was AMD specific, its a specification in PCI-SIG standards. AMD just have control over their hardware and are able to better implement it. Hopefully to a higher degree.Quote
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Originally Posted by Dicehunter
I'm curious, If this then doesn't require a Ryzen 5000 CPU to work, Like many initially thought, I wonder if it could be implemented to work with older Ryzen CPU's and if Nvidia are working on their own implementation I wonder if it will work with both AMD and Intel or if Nvidia will end up choosing just 1 CPU vendor.
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Nvidia can't control CPUs and motherboard firmware and Intel doesn't have enough of a discrete GPU presence to even try this. Both are following AMD's lead here, but Nvidia will need to do a lot of driver work to make sure things work as they should.
Credit where credit is due, AMD made this happen. That said, I think AMD should have toned things down a little with their marketing. The only thing stopping SAM from coming to 400-series motherboards is firmware and the necessary validations. Not sure about 3000-series CPU though, but that could happen.
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Originally Posted by NeverBackDown
Not sure why people thought it was AMD specific, its a specification in PCI-SIG standards. AMD just have control over their hardware and are able to better implement it. Hopefully to a higher degree.
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While it is an implementation of PCIe standards, AMD needed to make sure their hardware and software supported it at every stage. It's more complex than ticking a box that says "Enable Resizable BAR".
It is very easy to dismiss what AMD has done here, but could Intel or Nvidia have made this work before AMD laid the groundwork?Quote
Not sure why posts were deleted here. Haven't been on in a few days.
I'll say it again.
It my paint a picture but it it's the tech media's job to inform people. Linux has had this support for a while AND amd's own drivers support it as well already on Linux. It's under the PCI specification of RBAR, and this new SAM is the same thing but works a little differently as AMD is benefiting from both of their own CPU and GPU IP. It's basically the same thing they are just rebranding their version for marketing. Never once said it's just ticking a box.
The tech media failed to do their job. Even if you did not know it was on Linux, the mere fact they mentioned breaking the current 256MB PCI limit should have prompted some research as I'm sure you didn't know of a 256MB limit hell nobody did.
Fact of the matter is the link I posted before it was deleted I found without any issue and got the answer within minutes. It's readily available information.
Amd laid no groundwork here. Nvidia need to support it in drivers. Intel needs to do all the work to get their platform to support it. Amd talking about it helps neither one out. It's a specification they all optionally choose to support or not. Now they all are because one of the 3 is. It's marketing and now they all are trying to not be last so they can market how their version is best.Quote
I'll say it again.
It my paint a picture but it it's the tech media's job to inform people. Linux has had this support for a while AND amd's own drivers support it as well already on Linux. It's under the PCI specification of RBAR, and this new SAM is the same thing but works a little differently as AMD is benefiting from both of their own CPU and GPU IP. It's basically the same thing they are just rebranding their version for marketing. Never once said it's just ticking a box.
The tech media failed to do their job. Even if you did not know it was on Linux, the mere fact they mentioned breaking the current 256MB PCI limit should have prompted some research as I'm sure you didn't know of a 256MB limit hell nobody did.
Fact of the matter is the link I posted before it was deleted I found without any issue and got the answer within minutes. It's readily available information.
Amd laid no groundwork here. Nvidia need to support it in drivers. Intel needs to do all the work to get their platform to support it. Amd talking about it helps neither one out. It's a specification they all optionally choose to support or not. Now they all are because one of the 3 is. It's marketing and now they all are trying to not be last so they can market how their version is best.Quote
They probably had to roll back forums due to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAZ6Gk4dsg8
But about RBAR, it has been a thing for a while, but it hasn't been stable, nor has it given a notable performance benefit. Sometimes it can even lead to worse performance. So AMD needed to iron out issues and just disable SAM from software which don't work well with the technology on driver level. And seeing that it's a tech worth ~4% perf on average, it's understandable that other vendors haven't really bothered.Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAZ6Gk4dsg8
But about RBAR, it has been a thing for a while, but it hasn't been stable, nor has it given a notable performance benefit. Sometimes it can even lead to worse performance. So AMD needed to iron out issues and just disable SAM from software which don't work well with the technology on driver level. And seeing that it's a tech worth ~4% perf on average, it's understandable that other vendors haven't really bothered.Quote
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