Resizable BAR with Geforce RTX 3060 for better gaming performance

In conjunction with the launch of the Radeon RX 6800 series graphics card, AMD introduced its new Smart Access Memory (SAM) technology. The technology uses a function in the PCI Express standard called Resizable BAR, which allows the processor to address the entire amount of memory of the graphics card per call instead of the 256 MB that is usually exposed with the function turned off. The point of SAM is to give higher performance in games, which also turned out to be true when we tested the technology last autumn.

However, competitor Nvidia did not want to be inferior and announced that they too could use Resizable BAR to gain performance in games. Earlier this year, the company announced that support for the technology would be added to the Geforce RTX 3000 series via new BIOS versions for the graphics cards, along with an associated driver sometime in March. First out with support was the Geforce RTX 3060, which was launched on February 25 with a driver that enabled Resizable BAR in a selection of game titles.

Games with support for Resizable BAR with Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060

Unlike AMD’s implementation of Resizable BAR, where the technology is activated for all games, Nvidia has chosen a different path. The company activates the support per game title in the driver, which at the time of writing means eight different games. The reason for this is that Nvidia claims to have seen a negative performance scaling in some games with Resizable BAR, and therefore they want to have time to test and see that the games that end up on the list actually gain performance by having the technology activated.

To use Resizable BAR with Nvidia’s Geforce RTX 3060, a motherboard from AMD’s 500 or 400 series is required together with a processor from the Ryzen 5000 family. Support is also available for selected Intel platforms, where the motherboard needs to be part of the 500 or 400 series controllers while the processor family needs to be part of the Core 10000 or 11000 series.

Components of the test system

The aim of this article is to take a closer look at the potential performance gains available by activating Resizable BAR on a Geforce RTX 3060 card. Here we pick the eight compatible game titles and run them through in three resolutions with the technology turned off and then also on. As a reference, a Radeon RX 6800 is used, which may act as a yardstick for AMD’s technology Smart Access Memory against which we will compare Nvidia’s implementation of Resizable BAR.

Game tests in 1,920 × 1,080 pixels

With the figures from the 1080p resolution in hand, we see that Resizable BAR gives a clearly measurable performance boost to the Geforce RTX 3060, but that the pay varies greatly depending on the game title. Among those who win the most, we see Battlefield V and Forza Horizon 4, where these step up by 8 and 7 percent in frame rate, respectively. The average performance win spread across all games lands at 5 percent with Resizable BAR enabled.

If we instead look at the Radeon RX 6800 with Smart Access Memory activated, we see more spectacular performance increases in some games. Among those that stand out the most, we have Forza Horizon 4 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which have an increased frame rate of 18 and 17 percent, respectively. There are also examples of games that do not gain any performance at all with the technology enabled, but overall, the average still lands on a 9% performance increase on average for the titles tested.

Game tests in 2,560 × 1,440 pixels

Further towards the heavier resolution 1440p and we see that the performance gains decrease slightly when Resizable BAR is activated. The titles with the highest returns are Battlefield V and Watch Dogs Legion, where the Geforce RTX 3060 card can step up by 6 percent when the technology is activated. On average, the card here performs 4 percent better when Resizable BAR is used.

For the Radeon RX 6800, there are again some titles that really stand out with impressive performance gains when Smart Access Memory is turned on. Specifically, it is about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Forza Horizon 4, where both games win a full 18 percent higher frame rate when the technology is activated. The result of all the tested games, the Radeon RX 6800 performs about 8 percent better with SAM than without.

Game tests in 3,840 × 2,160 pixels

The last stop is 4K UHD and here it is clear that Resizable BAR gives relatively little performance in terms of Geforce RTX 3060 card. The best results are given to Battlefield V and Forza Horizon 4, where both games win 4 percent performance on the technology. In many games the differences are non-existent and in the end the average for the performance wins over the eight games lands at a rather pale 2 percent.

The Radeon RX 6800 also loses a lot of the impressive numbers we saw with Smart Access Memory in the lower resolutions. The best results can be seen from Forza Horizon 4, which wins a full 13 percent higher frame rate after the technology has been activated. The average performance gain with SAM activated lands at 4 percent.

Summary thoughts on Resizable BAR together with Geforce RTX 3060

With the results in hand, we can state that AMD is no longer alone in the market with a performance-enhancing implementation of the PCI Express function Resizable BAR. Nvidia’s functionality is so far limited to only Geforce RTX 3060 and a handful of games, but higher performance is at least available, especially at 1080p resolution, where the frame rate gain averages about 5 percent when the technology is activated.

Something we did not see, however, were some spectacular performance gains, as the highest achieved profit level for a single game landed at 8 percent with the Geforce RTX 3060. This can be compared to the Radeon RX 6800 and Smart Access Memory, where we saw most games that climbed a full 18 percent in terms of performance when the technology was activated – something that can be seen as very impressive.

With that said, it is still too early to draw any definitive conclusions about Nvidia’s implementation of Resizable BAR. We have only had the opportunity to look at what the technology can do with the entry board in the Geforce RTX 3000 series and made comparisons with the more powerful Radeon RX 6800 card. It remains to be seen what the technology can do with, for example, the Geforce RTX 3080 and whether the performance gains can measure up to AMD’s own implementation of the Radeon RX 6000 series.