New drivers add performance-boosting memory-access feature to older AMD GPUs - Ars Technica

GPU driver releases normally aren't very newsworthy; they usually fix bugs, boost performance in some games, and add support for new GPUs.

This update adds support for AMD's "Smart Access Memory" (SAM) feature for older GPUs.

AMD says the feature can improve game performance by up to 15 percent in some games.

Resizable BAR removes that limit and noticeably improves performance in some games.

Even with the new drivers and supported hardware, users of existing PCs will need to jump through a few hoops to ensure they're taking advantage of Smart Access Memory.

Then enter your BIOS settings and enable the feature; depending on your motherboard, it might be called "Resizable BAR" or "Smart Access Memory." Or your motherboard manufacturer might call it something weird and GPU-agnostic like ASRock's "Clever Access Memory." You may also need to enable a separate but related feature called "Above 4G Decoding.".