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AMD brings Smart Access Memory to Ryzen 3000 Series CPUs

by Tarinder Sandhu on 3 March 2021, 16:06

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD)

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AMD took the technology initiative by launching what it dubs as Smart Access Memory (SAM) alongside the release of Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs last November.

SAM enables the CPU to access the entire gamut of video card memory over the PCI Express highway, which removes certain bandwidth bottlenecks that inhibit overall performance. The idea is that being able to map more memory promotes higher data transfer and consequently increases framerate. The exact gain is dependent entirely on game engine and resolution, but can be up to 16 per cent in a best-case scenario.

AMD initially limited SAM usage to RX 6000 Series cards and Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs running on 500 Series chipsets. Made sense, too, as the trio was all cutting-edge at the time. Since last November, however, Nvidia has been working on the same underlying Resizable BAR technology for its RTX 30-series cards. Just last week, the company introduced the feature for the RTX 3060 on eight popular titles across select AMD and Intel CPUs with the relevant motherboard BIOS support.

Not to be upstaged, AMD today announced that its specific SAM technology is extended to Ryzen 3000 Series processors. That's a big deal considering the number of chips already in the wild. Promising the same up to 16 per cent performance uplift in a best-case scenario, users will still need a 500 Series motherboard equipped with the latest BIOS with the relevant AGESA update, and a Radeon RX 6000 Series GPU to take advantage of the framerate boost SAM confers.

If results from our Ryzen 5000 Series testing are anything to go by, there's extra performance for free, albeit the gain being hugely dependant upon resolution and title.

All Ryzen 3000 Series chips are covered other than Ryzen 5 3400G and Ryzen 3 3200G - those are based on older Zen+ technology rather than Zen 2.



HEXUS Forums :: 15 Comments

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Is this a rare example of…competition actually working in the consumer's favour????

AMD announce resizeable BAR, which immediately triggers Intel & Nvidia to add support for their CPUs/cards, but supporting older CPUs also…so then AMD have to also open up support for the 3000 series.

I mean, this is just good news for all consumers regardless of your vendor of choice. win win for a change!
Why do you need a 500 series motherboard,when the Nvidia equivalent works fine on Intel CPUs,which use PCI-E 3.0?? Its even worse when the A520 is essentially a rebadged B450 - so more artifiicial product segmentation by AMD. So there is no need for PCI-E 4.0 I suspect.

Edit!!

The Nvidia equivalent works fine on AMD 400 series motherboards,but currently is only validated with Zen3 CPUs. If Nvidia gets this validated with Zen2 eventually,it would be hilarious.
so if I have 3900x x570 with RTX3070?
ik9000
so if I have 3900x x570 with RTX3070?

You don't get it with Nvidia yet,but its quite clear the support shouldn't be too hard to enable.

Firsly it does not require PCI-E 4.0,if Intel and Zen3 on 400 series motherboards work for Nvidia,and the A520 lacks PCI-E 4.0 anyway(a rebadged B450) so works fine for AMD too. So for both AMD and Nvidia,there is no requirement for PCI-E 4.0 supporting platforms.

It's also quite clear Zen2 must work,if AMD can support it on 500 series motherboards. It seems more chipset weirdness again.
CAT-THE-FIFTH
ik9000
so if I have 3900x x570 with RTX3070?

You don't get it with Nvidia yet,but its quite clear the support shouldn't be too hard to enable.

Firsly it does not require PCI-E 4.0,if Intel and Zen3 on 400 series motherboards work for Nvidia,and the A520 lacks PCI-E 4.0 anyway(a rebadged B450) so works fine for AMD too. So for both AMD and Nvidia,there is no requirement for PCI-E 4.0 supporting platforms.

It's also quite clear Zen2 must work,if AMD can support it on 500 series motherboards. It seems more chipset weirdness again.

It might just be something as simple as not enough throughput on the chipset and cpus to make it worthwhile