Let's have a discussion about Smart Access Memory (SAM) and Performance Reviews

[BrotherMichigan]

If independent reviews confirm that Zen 3 CPUs really do provide the best gaming performance and the majority of hardware reviewers then base their GPU review setups on this platform (as they should in this case), do you think that SAM should be enabled by default on all of these platforms, or should it be treated more like DLSS, having its performance explored separately from the general performance of the particular GPUs under test?

 

[Marees]

If independent reviews confirm that Zen 3 CPUs really do provide the best gaming performance and the majority of hardware reviewers then base their GPU review setups on this platform (as they should in this case), do you think that SAM should be enabled by default on all of these platforms, or should it be treated more like DLSS, having its performance explored separately from the general performance of the particular GPUs under test?

Eurogamer says that 1% lows might decrease with SAM enabled

Borderlands 3 is a game where the RX 6800 XT already does well, and it was highlighted in AMD's reviewer's guide as being a title that really benefits from Smart Access Memory - so let's give it a try.

We see very little difference between our Intel and AMD test systems at 4K, but turn on Smart Access Memory and the AMD platform gets out to a four per cent lead - not bad!
This lead lengthens at 1440p to eight per cent,
then again at 1080p to a mighty 12 per cent.

That's a really respectable return, pushing the game at its highest settings from one that can max out a 144Hz monitor to one that can do the same with a 165Hz monitor.

Note however that our lowest one per cent scores actually worsen slightly with SAM engaged, something that persisted after several retests, so that's something to keep an eye on.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2020-amd-radeon-rx-6800-and-6800-xt-review?page=6

So there you have it - some big gains in Borderlands 3 and non-RT Control, but unfortunately we don't see significant improvements in the other titles we tested that could shift the RX 6800 XT into closer contention with the RTX 3080.

And contrary to our expectations, it looks like it's actually the lower resolutions, 1080p and 1440p, where the technology seems to be most effective, although the extra horsepower is needed more at 4K.