New reports indicate a problem with AMD's driver that results in the disabling of SAM, resulting in lower performance.
AMD is Reportedly Investigating Driver Conflict That Disables AMD SAM on Windows 10
AMD SAM, or Smart Access Memory, is a feature that allows the CPU to access the entire pool of GPU VRAM, eliminating bottlenecks and improving gaming performance in supported titles. However, new community reports indicate that the AMD driver is causing issues with Smart Access Memory on Windows 10 systems.
As per the reports, the new bug has left gamers with performance losses in gaming, even crashes, and inconsistent behavior. This emerged after AMD's driver malfunction that caused Windows 10 to stop detecting Radeon graphics cards correctly. Many users had success in removing the AMD driver using DDU in safe mode, before performing a clean installation offline.
However, this introduced another unexpected issue. Many users discovered that AMD's Smart Access Memory or Resizable Bar got disabled in Adrenalin software despite BIOS settings remaining unchanged. This was despite Resizable Bar and Above 4G Decoding being enabled, which indicated a problem with the AMD driver rather than the system.
Moreover, persistent Windows 10 notifications about hardware changes suggest a conflict between AMD Adrenalin Edition 26.1.1 and Windows 10. Now, since AMD allows a CPU to access all the VRAM instead of a limited portion, many supported games are now suffering from performance impacts and even instability issues. Now, while AMD is investigating and working on a fix, some users have found a workaround for the issue.
Some claimed that verifying the monitor's refresh rate and re-enabling Variable Refresh Rate in Radeon software worked, while others said rebooting the system multiple times also helped. This isn't the first time we are hearing about such a bug in Adrenalin software with Windows 10, as recently AMD also re-released a new preview driver 26.6.3 to fix compatibility issues with Windows 10 for users owning RX 7000 series GPUs.
News Source: Game GPU
About the author: Sarfraz Khan is a hardware reporter with a focus on PC components and the builder community. With years of experience writing about PC hardware and laptops, his work has been featured on several reputable technology publications. Sarfraz's hands-on experience is demonstrated through his first-person accounts of using and comparing different hardware configurations, providing practical and relatable insights for everyday users. His technical analysis is respected by peers in the enthusiast community and has been cited by specialized hardware sites such as Germany's Igor's Lab.
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