ASUS offers AMD SAM support for Intel Z490 motherboards

AMD's Smart Access Memory (SAM) technology is no longer a platform exclusive. Motherboard maker ASUS has released a new of beta BIOS updates that add Resizable BAR support on motherboard based on the Intel Z490 chipset. This can result in a small performance boost in combination with a video card that supports it.

Tom's Hardware offers some background details over here. At the moment, Resizable BAR works exclusively in tandem with AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs but NVIDIA has already confirmed it's coming to its Ampere-based GPUs in the future. NVIDIA did not provide an exact timeframe though.

We're not surprised that motherboard vendors are already rolling out Resizable BAR on Intel platforms since the technology is part of the PCIe specification after all. Shocking as it may sound, AMD's engineers are working with both Intel and Nvidia to get the feature working on the latter two's products. It's touching to see companies putting their rivalries and pride aside for the benefit of consumers.

AMD Smart Accesss Memory Support jetzt auch auf ASUS/ROG-Mainboards mit Intel Z490/H470/B460-Chipsatz. Ab Beta-BIOS 1002 bzw. 1601 pic.twitter.com/dOVf3C41rh

— Chris Wefers (@chris_wefers) December 1, 2020