AMD released a new Smart Access Memory feature with the new Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards. The company said SAM requires a Ryze 5000 series processor, a 500 series motherboard, and an RX 6000 series graphics card to run, but the truth is not quite so straightforward.

Smart Access Memory is AMD’s term for Resizable BAR support under the PCI Express standard. Normally, the processor sees 256 MB of video card memory, but with Resizable BAR support, that window can be resized to the desired size, even if it covers the entire video card memory. This is an advantage in some tasks where the processor can send more data directly to the video card’s memory.

Resizable BAR has been included in the optional features of PCI Express since PCIe 2.1, but operating system support has dragged on badly. Support for Linux was once implemented by AMD and for Windows by Microsoft through Windows 10. Support for motherboards also appears to remain variable, although many motherboards support the necessary functionality, at least for iron

. AMD’s claim about feature requirements was true when it was made; That combination of AMD’s iron was the only platform on which the company had validated its operations. NVIDIA announced shortly after AMD’s announcement that it would also support it, at least with Ampere-based graphics cards, with a later update

. AMD has since said that support for the feature will not remain in this respect either. In an interview with PCWorld, Scott Herkelman confirmed that the company’s Radeon team is working with Intel and the Ryzen team should be working with NVIDIA to extend support to as many platforms as possible. Support is also promised for AMD’s older platforms, as Cracky, a member of Rawiiol, which produces live streams, among others, noticed that ZR 3 BIOS, previously released by ASRock for B 450 motherboards, would also activate Ryze

on Smart Access Memory. series processor. MSI has also released the first beta BIOSs with SAM support for its 400 series motherboards, so it is expected that support will be officially introduced for the 400 series motherboards in the new Zen 3: a with supported BIOS versions. However, it is not yet known whether the support will be extended to older processors.

Source: ComputerBase