32 PCWorld FEBRUARY 2021NEWS NVIDIA WOOS MAINSTREAM GAMERS
NVIDIA REFLEX LATENCY
ANALYZER
Nvidia’s recently introduced Reflex Latency
Analyzer G-Sync displays (see page 75)
debuted in blazing-fast 360Hz 1080p panels
alone, with an eye on esports pros. Nvidia
announced five new models at CES, and they
include new 1440p and ultrawide offerings.
It’s a really cool premium feature, and I’m glad
to see it spreading its wings.RESIZEABLE BAR
Nvidia’s last announcement offers a
performance upgrade for all PC gamers on
modern hardware. Nvidia said its new
GeForce RTX 30-series laptop GPUs will
support the PCIe Resizable BAR feature (go.
pcworld.com/barf) that AMD introduced first
as Smart Access Memory. The desktop
GeForce RTX 3060 and all future products willsupport it out of the gate as well, while
existing RTX 30-series GPUs can grab it via an
incoming VBIOS update.
Resizable BAR lets your computer’s
processor access the full memory capacity of
your graphics cards, rather than limiting it to
the usual 256MB chunks. As we saw when we
tested Smart Access Memory with AMD’s
Radeon RX 6900 XT (go.pcworld.com/smac),
the performance gains from Resizable BAR vary
greatly from game to game, from GPU to GPU,
and even depending on the resolution you’re
playing at. Sometimes there’s no uplift: In many
scenarios, you may get roughly four or five
percent more frames. In certain edge cases
(like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla) you may see a
double-digit performance improvement.
You need a compatible CPU to activate
Resizable BAR. Intel said its new Tiger Lake H35
processors (go.pcworld.com/tlh3) will support