AMD Smart Access Memory: We explain the technology

With the announcement of the Radeon 6000 graphics cards, AMD promised whole new levels of performance. One of the tools in this is called Smart Access Memory, and we explain what it is.

As needed: with Smart Access Memory, RAM is used flexibly.

Computers have memory in the form of RAM bars, standalone graphics cards are equipped separately with their own VRAM (video RAM). With Smart Access Memory, the capacities are supposed to be flexibly divided.

AMD: Smart Access Memory only for certain combinations

With Smart Access Memory, the system is supposed to be able to fall back on large amounts of VRAM if they are not currently being used by the graphics card.

• This way, the effective system RAM can be flexibly expanded.
• For example, if a PC has 16 GB of RAM and a graphics card with 8 GB of VRAM, it can use parts of the VRAM as needed if no complex graphics calculations take place that completely use the VRAM.
• In modern games, Smart Access Memory is supposed to provide performance gains of up to 11 percent. This value is a result of AMD's own benchmarks.
• However, this feature is only available for certain combinations of components, namely graphics cards from the 6000 series as well as CPUs from the Ryzen 5000 family. Außerdem wird ein Mainboard mit 500-I/O-Hub vorausgesetzt.

Smart Access Memory ist damit vorerst nur für das kommende High-End-Segment eine Option. Da diese Teile mit den Jahren jedoch immer mehr Verbreitung finden werden, ist es für die Zukunft ein interessanter Aspekt auch für die breite Masse.