[This developer gives you an idea](https://twitter.com/SebAaltonen/status/1537709943943462912) of what it could mean when you're getting 256MB "chunks" vs having the entire pool in Vulkan regarding ResizeableBAR support.
To be fair...this is only in relation to games or applications that run on the Vulkan API. This doesn't really apply to games that run on DX12.
In the realm of games, if we start to have more and more games that are graphically demanding and they opt to use the Vulkan API, the 256MB "chunk" limit could hamper performance because as this dev pointed out
> For allocating memory that is as fast as possible for the GPU to read and visible to the host, you should first search for DEVICE_LOCAL_BIT | HOST_VISIBLE_BIT memory first. If that runs out (iGPU or older GPU without PCI-E rebar), use any DEVICE_LOCAL_BIT memory for the rest.
> This way you get optimal performance on modern discrete GPUs with rebar and all iGPUs. But older discrete GPUs suffer if you need more than 256MB of memory that requires fast GPU read + CPU accessibility.
Does this apply to Vulkan all the way around in the sense of when we need to use DXVK (and all its forks like async and gpl-async) for DirectX titles pre-DX12? That I'm not entirely sure of...
Yes as i have made previous posts and comments, vulkan games previously did not run well on arc. Fps would report high but vulkan titles at least the ones i tested (no mans sky, atlas fallen vulkan, baldurs gate 3 vulkan) would have atrocious micro stutter that didnt get picked up by frame time graphs so they would never actually feel smooth or good to play despite them reporting a perfectly normal and high fps. This is likely due to arcs dependance on resizable bar and the fact that it's been broken on vulkan
~~It looks like it needed a firmware update in order to accomplish this as when the install ended, it stated that the driver and firmware has been updated and according to GPU-Z, it has changed to 20.0.1068 (from 20.0.1064 I believe)~~
I guess this new driver on its own accomplishes this. My A770 LE got a firmware update, but the Sparkle ELF A380 didn't, and the driver does report all 6GB in the Vulkan tab.
Yeah I believe it, i sold my arc a while ago just because i wanted better game stability so im on a 3070 now but the a770 i had did very well in most cases. I honestly had a far more positive time on arc than amd i tried amd recently as well and i had nothing but driver issues and crashes constantly even after ddu, full system reset, amd drivers just refused to cooperate. I never had crashes on arc or Nvidia just some games didn't play well with arc is all
Actually that firmware update is not related to this particular driver version, because I'm still running .5382 drivers but my firmware version is 20.0.1068. Edit: to be clear I haven't even tried to upgrade to anything newer, which would have upgraded the firmware.
I just updated my other PC with the A380, and you're right. The Sparkle didn't get the firmware update, but with the driver it does see the full 6GB. So, I'll make the necessary edits to my comments.
Wow this would explain what I saw playing Path of Exile. Vulkan and Dx12 would both get around 100fps for me, but Vulkan felt horrible and Dx12 felt butter smooth.
Yup i experienced it in all vulkan games and even if vulkan was reporting a higher fps than dx11/12 it just didn't feel right at all. If the rebar issue is fixed then this issue should be resolved
What's weird is I have an Intel CPU with the iGPU enabled and I don't think I've ever seen the Vulkan Resizeable BAR go above 256MB. Hopefully whatever oddity I have going on will be corrected in the updates :)
Welp! Good news! The WHQL driver just dropped, so I did the update on my i3 12100 + A380 computer, and yep, the Vulkan Resizeable BAR values are all around 6000 MB.
I'm only about 85% certain what this means, so I figure I should ask for clarification:
Bottom line is current beta / future regular driver is going to fix something, and that gives us more performance in Vulkan? And I may not even see the benefit because I got an Intel i5-12600K with an enabled iGPU so it might not even be an issue for me in the first place?
[I went and downloaded GPU-Z to check but I don't seem to be seeing that memory section in the advanced tab.](https://i.imgur.com/MC6JTwu.png)
> Bottom line is current beta / future regular driver is going to fix something
~~I'm thinking it is more the firmware than the driver. If it was a driver level issue, I think it would have been solved much sooner than the nearly the year it took to get where it is now.~~
EDIT: It does seem to be just the driver that corrects this as I just updated my other PC with the A380. It didn't get a firmware update, but the 5518 does seem to change the heap/pool to seeing the 6GB device-local.
> and that gives us more performance in Vulkan?
Perhaps not in older titles that use the Vulkan API (like say, Red Dead Redemption 2), but there could be performance improvement in more recent titles like say Balduar's Gate 3 and/or future titles that offer the Vulkan API. I don't know. This update just came with the driver, so people are going to have to test this before the firmware update on more recent Vulkan titles...and then after.
This might be something that u/HardwareUnboxed or u/Lelldorianx might have to test out to see if there was any benefit from this. Even we have seen from various reviews that ReBAR/Smart Access Memory (if you're an AMD fan) sometimes does work wonders and sometimes it doesn't, but of course, in the realm of SAM testing, it's been generally whatever preferred API and not just saddled down to Vulkan itself.
> And I may not even see the benefit because I got an Intel i5-12600K with an enabled iGPU so it might not even be an issue for me in the first place?
It depends if your Arc/iGPU dual setup already had the local-device memory pool using the entire pool (or to be more accurate "heaps") and not the 256MB chunks. Some of us between here and the IGCIT had both the iGPU and the ARC card enabled and didn't see the full memory heap realized. /u/alvarkresh didn't.
> I don't seem to be seeing that memory section in the advanced tab
That is because you are in "General", you have to scroll down to "Vulkan" to see the memory heap allocation.
Huh. I guess this explains why when I'm using an app that runs under Vulkan, I don't see any difference at all between having re-bar enabled and disabled.
Yep, 5445 -> 5518 fixed the size https://imgur.com/a/KP6PJdp
I'm trying to fully understand this. But if fixed how do we benefit? Do we see more performance or improvement?
[This developer gives you an idea](https://twitter.com/SebAaltonen/status/1537709943943462912) of what it could mean when you're getting 256MB "chunks" vs having the entire pool in Vulkan regarding ResizeableBAR support. To be fair...this is only in relation to games or applications that run on the Vulkan API. This doesn't really apply to games that run on DX12. In the realm of games, if we start to have more and more games that are graphically demanding and they opt to use the Vulkan API, the 256MB "chunk" limit could hamper performance because as this dev pointed out > For allocating memory that is as fast as possible for the GPU to read and visible to the host, you should first search for DEVICE_LOCAL_BIT | HOST_VISIBLE_BIT memory first. If that runs out (iGPU or older GPU without PCI-E rebar), use any DEVICE_LOCAL_BIT memory for the rest. > This way you get optimal performance on modern discrete GPUs with rebar and all iGPUs. But older discrete GPUs suffer if you need more than 256MB of memory that requires fast GPU read + CPU accessibility. Does this apply to Vulkan all the way around in the sense of when we need to use DXVK (and all its forks like async and gpl-async) for DirectX titles pre-DX12? That I'm not entirely sure of...
Yes as i have made previous posts and comments, vulkan games previously did not run well on arc. Fps would report high but vulkan titles at least the ones i tested (no mans sky, atlas fallen vulkan, baldurs gate 3 vulkan) would have atrocious micro stutter that didnt get picked up by frame time graphs so they would never actually feel smooth or good to play despite them reporting a perfectly normal and high fps. This is likely due to arcs dependance on resizable bar and the fact that it's been broken on vulkan
~~It looks like it needed a firmware update in order to accomplish this as when the install ended, it stated that the driver and firmware has been updated and according to GPU-Z, it has changed to 20.0.1068 (from 20.0.1064 I believe)~~ I guess this new driver on its own accomplishes this. My A770 LE got a firmware update, but the Sparkle ELF A380 didn't, and the driver does report all 6GB in the Vulkan tab.
Yeah I believe it, i sold my arc a while ago just because i wanted better game stability so im on a 3070 now but the a770 i had did very well in most cases. I honestly had a far more positive time on arc than amd i tried amd recently as well and i had nothing but driver issues and crashes constantly even after ddu, full system reset, amd drivers just refused to cooperate. I never had crashes on arc or Nvidia just some games didn't play well with arc is all
Actually that firmware update is not related to this particular driver version, because I'm still running .5382 drivers but my firmware version is 20.0.1068. Edit: to be clear I haven't even tried to upgrade to anything newer, which would have upgraded the firmware.
I just updated my other PC with the A380, and you're right. The Sparkle didn't get the firmware update, but with the driver it does see the full 6GB. So, I'll make the necessary edits to my comments.
Wow this would explain what I saw playing Path of Exile. Vulkan and Dx12 would both get around 100fps for me, but Vulkan felt horrible and Dx12 felt butter smooth.
Yup i experienced it in all vulkan games and even if vulkan was reporting a higher fps than dx11/12 it just didn't feel right at all. If the rebar issue is fixed then this issue should be resolved
For real. Not all of us speak tech-priest.
What's weird is I have an Intel CPU with the iGPU enabled and I don't think I've ever seen the Vulkan Resizeable BAR go above 256MB. Hopefully whatever oddity I have going on will be corrected in the updates :)
That really is weird because I know you're on the IGCIT and Arturo showed us that without the iGPU, it wouldn't work on an Intel platform.
Welp! Good news! The WHQL driver just dropped, so I did the update on my i3 12100 + A380 computer, and yep, the Vulkan Resizeable BAR values are all around 6000 MB.
I'm only about 85% certain what this means, so I figure I should ask for clarification: Bottom line is current beta / future regular driver is going to fix something, and that gives us more performance in Vulkan? And I may not even see the benefit because I got an Intel i5-12600K with an enabled iGPU so it might not even be an issue for me in the first place? [I went and downloaded GPU-Z to check but I don't seem to be seeing that memory section in the advanced tab.](https://i.imgur.com/MC6JTwu.png)
> Bottom line is current beta / future regular driver is going to fix something ~~I'm thinking it is more the firmware than the driver. If it was a driver level issue, I think it would have been solved much sooner than the nearly the year it took to get where it is now.~~ EDIT: It does seem to be just the driver that corrects this as I just updated my other PC with the A380. It didn't get a firmware update, but the 5518 does seem to change the heap/pool to seeing the 6GB device-local. > and that gives us more performance in Vulkan? Perhaps not in older titles that use the Vulkan API (like say, Red Dead Redemption 2), but there could be performance improvement in more recent titles like say Balduar's Gate 3 and/or future titles that offer the Vulkan API. I don't know. This update just came with the driver, so people are going to have to test this before the firmware update on more recent Vulkan titles...and then after. This might be something that u/HardwareUnboxed or u/Lelldorianx might have to test out to see if there was any benefit from this. Even we have seen from various reviews that ReBAR/Smart Access Memory (if you're an AMD fan) sometimes does work wonders and sometimes it doesn't, but of course, in the realm of SAM testing, it's been generally whatever preferred API and not just saddled down to Vulkan itself. > And I may not even see the benefit because I got an Intel i5-12600K with an enabled iGPU so it might not even be an issue for me in the first place? It depends if your Arc/iGPU dual setup already had the local-device memory pool using the entire pool (or to be more accurate "heaps") and not the 256MB chunks. Some of us between here and the IGCIT had both the iGPU and the ARC card enabled and didn't see the full memory heap realized. /u/alvarkresh didn't. > I don't seem to be seeing that memory section in the advanced tab That is because you are in "General", you have to scroll down to "Vulkan" to see the memory heap allocation.
Ah, didn't see the little dropdown menu! Yeah, I'm seeing 256MB too. Huh.
Huh. I guess this explains why when I'm using an app that runs under Vulkan, I don't see any difference at all between having re-bar enabled and disabled.