1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:06,000
are you in the market for a new graphics card if so you've probably seen plenty

2
00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:12,160
of performance reviews that primarily focus on the GPU itself but the video

3
00:00:09,599 --> 00:00:16,880
memory of a graphics card can often be a bottleneck and i'm not just talking

4
00:00:14,559 --> 00:00:21,600
about how much vram you have or how fast it is but the way that the rest of your

5
00:00:19,279 --> 00:00:26,000
system talks to it this is an issue that AMD has tried to resolve with a new

6
00:00:23,439 --> 00:00:30,320
feature called smart access memory and to find out more about it we spoke with

7
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:35,760
nish nilogen i'm so sorry the product manager for

8
00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:37,200
AMD's new Radeon rx6000 series gpus and

9
00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:42,399
we'd like to thank him for taking the time out of his busy schedule to assist us with this video so the particular

10
00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:47,200
bottleneck AMD was hoping to address was the data link between the graphics

11
00:00:44,079 --> 00:00:49,520
card's video memory and the system's CPU

12
00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:53,440
the CPU needs to communicate regularly with the vram in order to ensure that

13
00:00:51,280 --> 00:01:00,160
the vram has the correct data for the GPU to act upon historically the CPU

14
00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:02,399
could only access 256 megabytes of vram

15
00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:07,200
at once this limit was actually set a long time ago back when cards with one

16
00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:12,400
Gigabyte or less of vram were far more common but these days the 256 meg limit

17
00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:17,040
which has been kept in place in order to ensure compatibility with older 32-bit

18
00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:21,040
cpus is a real bottleneck that can result in tangible performance loss

19
00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:25,840
because of the space constraint created by this limit data can get shunted over

20
00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:30,000
to your main system memory instead which slows things down smart access memory

21
00:01:28,159 --> 00:01:35,280
addresses this by taking advantage of a new feature that's actually in the PCIe

22
00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:38,960
or pci express standard called resizable bar

23
00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:44,079
this allows your CPU to access much more vram at once multiple gigabytes in fact

24
00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:48,320
depending on how much vram you have on your card AMD has built on the resizable

25
00:01:46,479 --> 00:01:52,960
bar feature with compatibility testing and driver optimizations that attempt to

26
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:58,320
place resources the CPU needs to access frequently such as render commands onto

27
00:01:55,360 --> 00:02:02,399
the vram instead of system memory unsurprisingly however the exact

28
00:02:00,399 --> 00:02:07,040
performance benefits will depend a lot on your workload and which game you're

29
00:02:04,719 --> 00:02:11,360
playing although AMD has tried to make their driver optimizations effective

30
00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:14,400
across a range of titles developers also need to make use of the resizable bar

31
00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:20,080
feature AMD is claiming that smart access memory boosts

32
00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:24,560
performance by an average of six percent in terms of frame rate but what do you

33
00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:29,440
need to take advantage of it and get that six percent well at the time we

34
00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:38,080
shot this video the feature only works if you have a ryzen 5000 CPU a Radeon rx

35
00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:40,720
6000 GPU and a 500 series AMD chipset

36
00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:45,280
the holy trinity but hold on a second it's based on resizable bar which is

37
00:02:42,640 --> 00:02:50,959
part of an open standard why do you need such a specific hardware combo well

38
00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:55,599
there is not some kind of inherent technical limitation that you can only

39
00:02:53,280 --> 00:03:00,160
get around if you have those specific parts AMD's approach is partly to

40
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:04,400
promote their newest products but they also want to do more validation and

41
00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:08,959
testing before smart access memory is enabled on older equipment which AMD

42
00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:13,840
does plan on doing in a phased rollout team red is also working with believe it

43
00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:18,560
or not Intel and NVIDIA to enable similar technologies on those platforms

44
00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:22,879
ultimately AMD's vision is to have smart access memory be similar to freesync

45
00:03:20,879 --> 00:03:27,200
AMD's specific implementation would still be called smart access memory but

46
00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:31,680
the underlying tech could be used by other companies this is especially good

47
00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:36,080
news if you want a CPU or a GPU that isn't from AMD and NVIDIA has already

48
00:03:34,319 --> 00:03:40,799
confirmed a similar feature for their own gpus is in the works but if and when

49
00:03:38,959 --> 00:03:45,760
you do get a system that supports smart access memory be sure to confirm that

50
00:03:42,879 --> 00:03:50,239
resizable bar support is turned on in your BIOS for now it's actually off by

51
00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:54,400
default to try to prevent errors with hardware or software that doesn't

52
00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:59,280
support it fully so it seems like AMD's philosophy for now is better safe than

53
00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:02,159
sorry which anyone who's ever fried a CPU

54
00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:07,040
can certainly appreciate just like we appreciate our sponsor

55
00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:10,000
seasonic and their prime ultra titanium

56
00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:14,159
pc power supply the creme de la creme of power supplies it's ultra high

57
00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:18,160
efficiency with an 80 plus titanium rating has fluid dynamic fan bearings

58
00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:22,880
with hybrid fan control to cut down on noise and even includes a power supply

59
00:04:20,799 --> 00:04:26,479
tester which is really useful if you're trying to install a custom liquid

60
00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:30,320
cooling loop and of course it's modular so you won't have to deal with excess

61
00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:35,520
wiring with a 50 000 hour life expectancy backed by a 12 year warranty

62
00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:38,560
what do you have to lose just buy it today at the link below so thanks for

63
00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:42,080
watching guys if you like this video like it subscribe it

64
00:04:40,479 --> 00:04:47,520
and be sure to hit us up in the comments section with your suggestions for topics

65
00:04:43,759 --> 00:04:47,520
that we should cover in the future