Enabling Resizable BAR with Nvidia Profile Inspector Boosts 3DMark Performance by 10%

NVIDIA GPU owners might be missing out on better performance due to a simple setting that is disabled by default. However, enabling Resizable Bar (ReBAR) using the NVIDIA Profile Inspector can significantly boost performance, as demonstrated by the popular YouTuber JayzTwoCents. JayzTwoCents recently discovered that manually enabling ReBAR in certain unapproved games and applications could lead to a substantial performance increase. In a video, he showcased a 10% improvement in scores on the 3DMark Port Royal benchmark after turning on ReBAR. The discovery came while JayzTwoCents was troubleshooting performance issues with his extreme overclocking rig, equipped with an Intel Core i9-14900KS and an RTX 5090. His system was initially falling short of expectations in 3DMark Port Royal by several thousand points compared to a test rig powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. During his investigation, JayzTwoCents consulted with Splave, another renowned extreme overclocker, who informed him that many (if not all) Intel-based extreme overclockers were already manually enabling ReBAR with NVIDIA Profile Inspector for 3DMark. Following this advice, JayzTwoCents activated ReBAR on his system, resulting in a 3,304-point boost. The score improved from 37,105 to 40,409 points. Resizable Bar, often referred to in the AMD ecosystem as Smart Access Memory (SAM), gained widespread attention in 2020. This technology, which dates back to the introduction of PCI Express 2.0 in 2006, optimizes data transfer between the GPU and CPU. Normally, the amount of data that can be transferred in one go is limited to a 256MB "aperture." ReBAR removes this restriction, allowing for more efficient and larger data transfers. However, the effectiveness of ReBAR varies depending on the game. Some games see a noticeable performance gain, while others remain unaffected or even experience a performance drop. Due to these inconsistencies, NVIDIA and other GPU manufacturers have been cautious, enabling ReBAR by default only for games that show a clear benefit after rigorous testing. This approach has left many other titles and applications off the approved list, even though they might also benefit from the feature. Enthusiasts have thus taken matters into their own hands, using NVIDIA Profile Inspector to test and enable ReBAR for games and applications that aren’t officially supported. This tool provides extensive control over NVIDIA drivers, allowing users to access and adjust settings that are not available in the standard NVIDIA Control Panel. With Profile Inspector, users can force ReBAR on either globally or on a per-application basis, potentially unlocking additional performance gains. It’s worth noting that while ReBAR can offer significant improvements, it requires manual intervention and testing to determine whether it will benefit specific games or applications. For those looking to maximize their system’s potential, exploring this setting through NVIDIA Profile Inspector could prove to be a valuable step. For the latest updates and comprehensive coverage of tech news, analysis, and reviews, follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News and make sure to click the "Follow" button.