NVIDIA Resizable BAR BIOS update expected by late March

Posted on Friday, February 26 2021 @ 12:20 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
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NVIDIA officially announces support for Resizable BAR. With the launch of the Big Navi GPU architecture, AMD hyped up this feature during its press conference and now the rest of the industry is following. Resizable BAR is basically an optional part of the PCI Express interface, it optimizes data transfer between the CPU and GPU -- which can result in a small performance boost.

The GeForce RTX 3060, which got launched yesterday, is the first NVIDIA card with Resizable BAR support. NVIDIA will need more time to roll out support for other models. The green team says a BIOS update for all Founders Edition GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs will follow by the end of March. NVIDIA's add-in board partners will release BIOS updates for custom-design cards, too.

Required hardware to enable Resizable BAR

On its webpage, NVIDIA stipulates which hardware you need to activate Resizable BAR. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs will support it in combination with AMD Zen 3-based processors and Intel 10th Gen and 11th Gen Core processors. Support is further narrowed down to motherboards with newer chipsets. The table below provides an overview of compatible processors and motherboard chipsets.

NVIDIA Resizeable Bar motherboard and CPU requirements

NVIDIA says it's working with ASUS, ASRock, Colorful, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI to ensure motherboard compatibility. Resizable BAR requires a compatible driver and a BIOS update for both your video card and motherboard.

How much extra performance can you expect from Resizable BAR?

Performance gains seen from Resizable BAR vary widely. NVIDIA's internal testing shows some video games see gains of a couple of percentages, in the most extreme case it was up to 10 percent. Unfortunately, there are also cases where Resizable BAR has a negative impact on performance. NVIDIA's solution is to enable Resizable BAR on a per-game basis. The GPU maker will pre-test video games and use game profiles in the GeForce driver to enable Resizable BAR only in video games where it boosts performance.

The latest GeForce Game Ready driver, which was launched for the GeForce RTX 3060 on February 25, has Resizable BAR profiles for these games:
  • Assassin's Creed Valhalla
  • Battlefield V
  • Borderlands 3
  • Forza Horizon 4
  • Gears 5
  • Metro Exodus
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Watch Dogs: Legion

How to check if Resizable BAR is working

Once you've updated your motherboard BIOS, your video card BIOS, and installed the latest GeForce driver, you can check if everything is working by opening the NVIDIA Control Panel.
On the bottom left of the NVIDIA Control Panel, simply click “System Information”, and in the new window look for “Resizable BAR” on the right. If it says “Yes”, you’re set.
NVIDIA howto check if resizable bar works


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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