#news

AMD has confirmed that it is working with Intel and Nvidia to spread the Smart Access Memory feature: buyers of the new Radeons will therefore also be able to enable it on Intel platforms and owners of GeForce cards do the same on AMD 500 series motherboards with Ryzen 5000 CPUs.


Smart Access Memory (SAM), the feature that allows Ryzen 5000 CPUs on 500 series motherboards to access the entire VRAM of the Radeon RX 6800 series cards and offer better gaming performance, will soon also spread to Intel and Nvidia platforms.

In an interview with PCWorld, AMD stated that the Radeon division is working with Intel to ensure that buyers of an RX 6800 / 6800XT can enable Smart Access Memory even on the latest "Core" platforms. The same thing is happening with Nvidia, with the men of the Ryzen team helping the GeForce division take advantage of the feature.

Resizable BAR implementation

AMD initially talked about SAM in broad terms, suggesting a practically exclusive solution, but Nvidia a few days later said that it was a feature inherent in the PCI Express specification (called Resizable BAR) and that it would support it with GeForce GPUs. According to AMD, this feature requires optimization and development, it is not a simple switch to flip in the BIOS, so it will be necessary to see what performance can be achieved with competing solutions.

How to enable

To enable SAM, you need a 500 series chipset motherboard with the latest UEFI firmware provided by the motherboard vendor, a Ryzen 5000 processor and a Radeon RX 6800 series graphics card. Simply enable the "Resizable BAR Support" switch in the UEFI installer "Advanced" PCIe settings. For these switches to be available, the CSM must be disabled. This also means that if you booted from an MBR partition, using CSM, you will need to reinstall Windows to a GPT partition.

AMD statement

"As the only company to offer high performance gaming CPUs and GPUs, AMD is uniquely positioned to deliver incredible PC gaming experiences. With AMD Smart Access Memory we have designed, optimized and tested the synergy of our hardware technologies and software in all combinations of Ryzen 5000 Series processors, Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards, AMD 500 Series motherboards and the latest drivers and BIOS at launch. We believe these pairings deliver the maximum platform performance. Smart Access Memory is built. on the features of PCIe and firmware standards (Resizable BAR), and has been developed through extensive testing and platform optimization phases. We welcome the opportunity to support other hardware vendors in their endeavors as part of our ongoing commitment to using common and open standards to improve gaming experiences", AMD replied to HWUpgrade.it after a request commentary.

Next moves from the competitors

Now we just have to wait for the moves of Intel and Nvidia, with MSI that has already started to distribute new BIOS with SAM support for the 500 series motherboards.