RTX 3060 is the first Nvidia graphics card to get a resizable BAR

Those who were able to buy one of the new RTX 3060 graphics cards yesterday now have access to the company lexpected Resizable BAR support, Which one is the feature that PC users can enable at the BIOS level to allow the CPU and GPU to talk to each other directly. This is a big deal, because instantly helps increase game frame rates.

Support for this feature was rolled out with the latest driver update from Nvidia yesterday, but only affects the RTX 3060 at the moment. Nvidia said Resizable BAR mount for the rest of the Series 30 crew will follow in late March.

However, as AMD Intelligent Access Memory (SAM), who is just another way to say Resizable BAR, compatibility is limited to specific processors and motherboards. Not everyone with a RTX 3060 will be be able to activate the feature at the moment.

At this time, Nvidia’s resizable bar is only compatible with AMD 500 series chipsets and AMD 400 series chipsets on motherboards that support AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series processors. Additionally, you will need a processor AMD Ryzen 5000 series to use Resizable BAR with an Nvidia graphics card. It is not compatible with older AMD processors at this time.

On the Intel side, compatibility includes 400 series chipsets, as well as all 11th generation chipsets available from February 25.. However, because Nvidia worked closely with Intel to obtain this is operational, it seems likely that Resizable BAR will be ready to go whenever Intel releases its 11th generation desktop processors and the next generation of chipsets; Nvidia lists the 11th gen Core i9, i7, and i5 as compatible, along with the 10th gen Core i9, i7, i5, and i3 processors.

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The resizable BAR will also be compatible with motherboards from all major manufacturerss, including Asus, ASRock, Colorful, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI. Nvidia didn’t say which ones in particular, but each manufacturer would have more information on their websites. Since 400 series chipsets are compatible, all 400 series motherboards should be compatible too (Z490, H470, B460 and H410), but each manufacturer could decide to only enable it on certain models. It is always better to check!

I won’t hold your breath for Resizable BAR coming soon to Intel 300-series chipsets soon, either. This chipset, which supports 8th and 9th generation processors, will reach end of life by January 2022, so it is likely that Intel will not focus on compatibility for this generation.

RTX 30 series gaming laptops also support the resizable bar with Intel and AMD processors. Again, you will need to check with the laptop manufacturer if it is supported on a certain model. The MSI GP66 Leopard, for example, supports it.

But even if your PC ticks all of these boxes, you won’t see an increase in frame rate in every game like you do with AMD’s SAM. At present, only a handful of games support Resizable BAR with an Nvidia GPU, which includes Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Borderlands 3, Metro Exodus, and several others.

As always, don’t forget to update your drivers, BIOS, and VBIOS so that this new feature actually works on your supported PC.