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NVIDIA Resizable BAR : What You Need To Know!

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NVIDIA finally released Resizable BAR support, and it is currently limited to RTX 30 series graphics cards only.

Here is what you need to know about Resizable BAR, and how to get your FREE performance boost!

 

NVIDIA Resizable BAR : What Is It?

Resizable BAR is an optional PCI Express feature, that can deliver a small but free boost in performance for the graphics card.

CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address region for the GPU frame buffer. This of it as an “data dump” for stuff like textures, shaders and geometry.

Since this “data dump” is limited to 256 MB, the CPU can only send texture, shader and geometry data as and when the GPU requires them.

This introduces some latency – delay from when the GPU requires the data, and the CPU send them.

Turning on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory greatly expands the size of that data dump, letting the CPU directly access the GPU’s entire frame buffer memory.

Instead of transferring data when requested by the GPU, the CPU processes and stores the data directly in the graphics memory.

Graphics assets can be transferred to graphics memory in full, instead of in pieces. In addition, multiple transfers can occur simultaneously, instead of being queued up.

Do note that Resizable BAR will not increase memory bandwidth.

What it does is let the CPU directly access the entire GPU frame buffer memory, instead of using the usual 256 MB “dump”. That reduces latency because the graphics assets are now accessible by the GPU at all times.

 

NVIDIA Resizable BAR : Delayed From February 2021!

AMD was first out the door with Resizable BAR in November 2020, launching it as Smart Access Memory.

It gave their Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card a free performance boost of up to 16% in some games, but no effect in other games.

You can check out the performance difference in our article, RX 6800 XT Smart Access Memory Performance Comparison!

On 12 January 2021, NVIDIA announced that they will be able to introduce Resizable BAR support in GeForce drivers from Late February 2021 onwards.

They finally released Resizable Bar support on 30 March 2021, through GeForce Game Ready Driver 465.89.

It will be limited to their GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards and laptops, but will work with both Intel and AMD CPUs.

However, it’s not as simple as just installing GeForce Game Ready Driver 465.89.

The newly announced GeForce RTX 3060 will ship with support for Resizable BAR. However, older GeForce RTX 30 series cards will need to have their VBIOS updated from March 2021 onwards.

The motherboard must also be updated with Resizable BAR support. According to Intel, this will be limited to 11th Gen platforms, and select 10th Gen platforms.

So ironically, Resizable BAR will first work on GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards paired with AMD Ryzen 5000 processors and AMD 500-series motherboards!

 

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NVIDIA To Introduce Resizable BAR In February 2021!

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NVIDIA just announced that they will introduce Resizable BAR support at the end of February 2021!

Find out what Resizable BAR is all about, and why it matters!

 

Resizable BAR : What Is It?

Resizable BAR is an optional PCI Express feature, that can deliver a small but free boost in performance for the graphics card.

CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address region for the GPU frame buffer. The CPU can only transfer data like textures, shaders and geometry to the GPU through that small 256 MB “window”.

Turning on Resizable BAR expands that small access window, letting the CPU directly access the GPU’s entire frame buffer memory.

Those graphics assets can thus be sent in full, instead of in pieces. In addition, multiple transfers can occur simultaneously, instead of being queued up.

 

NVIDIA To Introduce Resizable BAR In February 2021!

AMD was first out the door with Resizable BAR in November 2020, launching it as Smart Access Memory.

It gave their Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card a free performance boost of up to 16% in some games, but no effect in other games.

You can check out the performance difference in our article, RX 6800 XT Smart Access Memory Performance Comparison!

On 12 January 2021, NVIDIA announced that they will be able to introduce Resizable BAR support in GeForce drivers from Late February 2021 onwards.

It will be limited to their GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards and laptops, but will work with both Intel and AMD CPUs.

The newly announced GeForce RTX 3060 will ship with support for Resizable BAR. However, older GeForce RTX 30 series cards will need to have their VBIOS updated from March 2021 onwards.

The motherboard must also be updated with Resizable BAR support. According to Intel, this will be limited to 11th Gen platforms, and select 10th Gen platforms.

So ironically, Resizable BAR will first work on GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards paired with AMD Ryzen 5000 processors and AMD 500-series motherboards!

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Computer | Gaming | Home

Support Tech ARP!

If you like this review, please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!