Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU comes with bonus tech that’ll make some games run faster
Resizable BAR is RTX 3060 and mobile GPUs only for now, with other Ampere desktop GPUs to follow
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Nvidiahas introduced support for resizable BAR, which delivers a nice frame rate boost in some games, with its just-launchedGeForce RTX 3060 graphics card. Other desktop GPUs will get the feature late in March, Nvidia notes, although RTX 30 series laptop graphics cards will benefit from it off the bat.
If this feature rings a bell, it’s because PCIe’s resizable BAR capability first came to light whenAMDintroduced it with the launch ofBig Navi graphics cards, in the form ofSmart Access Memory(SAM).
Inteland Nvidia were then quick to jump on the bandwagon and point out that they would be bringing in support for this feature too, withNvidia making it clear that faster frame rateswould be coming to RTX 3000 series graphics cards back in November 2020.
So, that support is now live forRTX 3060owners, providing they’re running an AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU (with 500 series or 400 series motherboard), or on the Intel front, a 10th-gen Comet Lake CPU (or one of the incoming Rocket Lake processors, when they’re out).
In the case of laptops, the requirements are an RTX 30 series GPU and 11th-gen Tiger Lake mobile chip or Ryzen 5000 CPU. For the full list of compatible chips and motherboards, seeNvidia’s blog post.
Naturally, as well as compatible hardware, you’ll need the relevant motherboard and graphics card BIOS updates – although in the latter case, the RTX 3060 ships with the correct BIOS – as well as Nvidia’s latest Game Ready driver.
BAR benefits – or not
In simple terms, resizable BAR works by lifting memory constraints on CPU to GPU data access, which gives a decent performance uplift, although Nvidia is somewhat cautious on exactly what it will achieve.
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As the GPU maker explains, the performance increase you can expect varies quite widely depending on the exact game. Nvidia notes: “In our testing, we’ve found some titles benefit from a few percent, up to 10% [frame rate increases]. However, there are also titles that see a decrease in performance.”
That being the case, Nvidia is running tests on games and will only enable resizable BAR if it makes sense, or in other words, if any given game gets a frame rate boost from the feature. There’s no use running it with a game if it’s proving a hindrance, of course.
These are the titles which are initially supported by the feature as of now:
Nvidia says that more games will be opened up for support when it provides the driver update late in March which will bring resizable BAR to the rest of the RTX 3000 range of desktop GPUs.
Finally, for those hunting for an RTX 3060 in order to get those BAR benefits, we’ve got a guide onwhere to buy the new graphics cardthat keeps a close eye on availability and stock levels.
ViaTom’s Hardware
Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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