Confused about "above 4g decoding"

[ScuzzyFox]

Setting up my bios for my PC and I came across a setting that says above 4g decoding.

I did some research on what it is and if I should enable it, but I ended up getting more confused by the results;

I have a gtx 1080 8GB, should I enable above 4G decoding?

 

Sorry if it's a stupid question, I'm still a noob!

[Mira Yurizaki]

http://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1004170/

 

If you don't use NVIDIA GRID or Tesla, you don't need it.

 

EDIT: Okay I got confused: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/955701/pc-components/above-4g-decoding/

[bobhumplick]

above 4g decoding doesnt mean you wont be able to use cards with more than 4gb of ram.  its someting else.  its there for compatibility with old 32 bit apps and hardware and you dont need it unless you have a lot of gpus or something int he computer.  and no hardrives\ssd's dont count

[Kalm_Traveler]

On 12/8/2016 at 3:36 PM, ScuzzyFox said:

Setting up my bios for my PC and I came across a setting that says above 4g decoding.

I did some research on what it is and if I should enable it, but I ended up getting more confused by the results;

I have a gtx 1080 8GB, should I enable above 4G decoding?

 

Sorry if it's a stupid question, I'm still a noob!

doesn't seem to make any difference in modern PCs. I have it enabled on a few, not enabled on others but haven't found any functional difference.

[SenKa]

You wont need it. Im pretty sure above 4G decoding is for more than 4 GPU's.

 

I know thats what linus needed to enable for 6 workstations 1 tower. Which has, ya know. 6 GPU's.

[Kalm_Traveler]

3 hours ago, SenpaiKaplan said:

You wont need it. Im pretty sure above 4G decoding is for more than 4 GPU's.

 

I know thats what linus needed to enable for 6 workstations 1 tower. Which has, ya know. 6 GPU's.

I did some googling just now to try and find a more concrete answer...

 

what I'm seeing is that 5+ years ago they said it was only needed if you had a bunch of graphics cards or other PCIE devices with memory.

 

However, given that we have graphics cards these days with 12gb-24gb onboard memory, that would lead me to think it 'should' be enabled for optimal performance.

 

Otherwise... how can you map your 'main' graphics cards memory below the 4gb address space when the card has 6. 8, 11, 12, or 24gb of onboard memory itself?

[SenKa]

10 hours ago, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

I did some googling just now to try and find a more concrete answer...

 

what I'm seeing is that 5+ years ago they said it was only needed if you had a bunch of graphics cards or other PCIE devices with memory.

 

However, given that we have graphics cards these days with 12gb-24gb onboard memory, that would lead me to think it 'should' be enabled for optimal performance.

 

Otherwise... how can you map your 'main' graphics cards memory below the 4gb address space when the card has 6. 8, 11, 12, or 24gb of onboard memory itself?

I mean, it can't hurt. But in all honesty it probably doesn't exist on consumer boards for a reason.

[Kalm_Traveler]

3 hours ago, SenpaiKaplan said:

I mean, it can't hurt. But in all honesty it probably doesn't exist on consumer boards for a reason.

What doesn't exist on consumer boards? I think all my motherboards for the last 10 years have had this BIOS/UEFI option...

[Spencer067]

My z270e strix has the option

[tzudd]

Apparently Above 4G decoding is necessary to unlock "SAM" with AMD's latest NAVI GPU... which allows for upto 11% increase in performance in games.