RTX 4090 has Issues with Need for Speed Unbound that can Only be Fixed with a VBIOS Update

[btarunr]

Need for Speed Unbound (NFS Unbound), the latest entry to the popular genre-defining race sim by EA that launched today, unearthed a problem with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 "Ada" graphics card that cannot be fixed by simply updating the drivers or the game. This is a world-first—never before has a game required a VBIOS update to work around problems.

According to EA, the title exhibits a display flashing/blinking issue on machines powered by the RTX 4090, which requires a firmware update (i.e. video BIOS update). Luckily, this doesn't involve putting your RTX 4090 through a nerve-racking NVFlash manual BIOS update process (not that there's any risk with most RTX 4090 cards shipping with dual-BIOS). NVIDIA has released a fully-automated Firmware Update Tool that can be run from within Windows, which easily updates the video BIOS of the RTX 4090. We confirmed that it is in fact the video BIOS that is being updated (by comparing the VBIOS dumps before and after using the tool).



Update Dec 3rd: EA Support has just updated their support recommendation from graphics card VBIOS update to a motherboard BIOS update. "After testing, we've found a solution is to upgrade the motherboard BIOS. Please refer to your motherboard manufacturer's support page to obtain the latest system BIOS," the updated recommendation reads.

What's interesting is that the tool does not break the factory-overclock or custom power-limits set by NVIDIA's add-in card (AIC) partners for custom-design cards, which we confirmed by running the tool on a Palit RTX 4090 GameRock OC and the NVIDIA Founders Edition card. It seems the tool is designed to work universally on all RTX 4090 cards, not only specific boards. The tool is somehow able to update a specific area of the video BIOS without changing the BIOS version, its build date, or custom settings by AICs, and while the BIOS checksum is definitely changing, it is somehow not affecting its digital signature. This means NVIDIA seems to have a way of updating specific sections of the video BIOS conveniently from within Windows, without affecting its all-important digital signature that helps preventing the machine from running with tampered firmware.



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[Ferrum Master]

I imagine W1zs eyes on fire and already disassembling the tool.

 

[Bomby569]

wasn't this detecting and coming with a fix including tool, too fast?

 

[R-T-B]

wasn't this detecting and coming with a fix including tool, too fast?

Not sure what you are getting at. They can make a fix as fast as they want, they have the VBIOS source code.

What's odd is that the VBIOS is related to the issue at all...

I imagine W1zs eyes on fire and already disassembling the tool.

No way they are dumb enough to do anything more than an internal nvflash instance, which we already have. Sadly I doubt much will be gleaned from this.

 

[Al Chafai]

Kinda weird tbh.

 

[nguyen]

Just did the firmware update, took 5s.

 

[freeagent]

Paying full price to be a beta tester in 2022. We have come full circle

 

[Shou Miko]

Paying full price to be a beta tester in 2022. We have come full circle

This is the price we always pay for anything new.

If you want the ironed version wait 6 month and pay double

 

[freeagent]

This is the price we always pay for anything new

Nah, it wasn’t always like this.. or maybe it was and I didn’t notice

 

[Assimilator]

No way they are dumb enough to do anything more than an internal nvflash instance, which we already have. Sadly I doubt much will be gleaned from this.

Froggy, did you read the article?

The tool is somehow able to update a specific area of the video BIOS without changing the BIOS version, its build date, or custom settings by AICs, and while the BIOS checksum is definitely changing, it is somehow not affecting its digital signature.

It's not a mere BIOS flash, it's quite literally modifying the existing BIOS in-place. Unless the digital signature only applies to a portion of the BIOS (which doesn't appear to be the case from what we know), then this tool appears to be accomplishing the holy grail of BIOS modding that NVIDIA users have been searching for since Pascal.

Would NVIDIA be dumb enough to release something like this? Who knows, they've done stupid shit in the past, and maybe with the current negativity towards the RTX 4000 series (prices + 4090 melting adapter saga) they decided that pissing off AIBs and customers by requiring a BIOS update so early in the product cycle, would be more of a problem than dropping a quick-and-easy updater.

Let's see what the reverse engineers are able to glean from this.

Paying full price to be a beta tester in 2022. We have come full circle

A game that literally did not exist at the time that the RTX 4090 was released, and triggers a firmware bug in the 4090, means that the 4090 is beta quality.

Or to put it more simply, because NVIDIA lacks the possibility to travel forward in time to test games that don't yet exist against their new hardware, they make beta-quality products.

I just... wow. The logic is just astounding. In the worst way possible.

 

[Bomby569]

Not sure what you are getting at. They can make a fix as fast as they want, they have the VBIOS source code.

What's odd is that the VBIOS is related to the issue at all...

the game came up 2 days ago and the first reports even later. Too fast to detect what the problem was, too fast to come up with a solution, too fast to come up with a tool, especially for a never before seen issue. You may disagree but how are you not getting to what i am saying?

 

[freeagent]

I just... wow. The logic is just astounding. In the worst way possible.

Cool story bro. How many cards were made before a game came that were just fine?

 

[natr0n]

Something more to this. The game probably overloads/glitches something on the gpus as if they dont have enough issues.

 

[Chomiq]

4090's, what about 4080's?

 

[Assimilator]

the game came up 2 days ago and the first reports even later. Too fast to detect what the problem was, too fast to come up with a solution, too fast to come up with a tool, especially for a never before seen issue. You may disagree but how are you not getting to what i am saying?

I guess NVIDIA providing game-ready drivers on the day of said game's release is also "too fast", huh? HOW FAR DOWN DOES THIS CONSPIRACY GO???

Or... or... imagine if game developers were to provide their games to GPU manufacturers ahead of release, for the exact purpose of allowing said manufacturers to (a) determine if there are any compatibility issues with that game ahead of time (b) build optimisations for said game into their next driver release.

WHICH OPTION IS MORE PLAUSIBLE??? Braindead conspiracy theory or simple obvious logic? MUST BE THE FORMER!

Cool story bro. How many cards were made before a game came that were just fine?

You had a choice: admit you were wrong, or double down. You chose the latter. I'm going to predict that, like most who double down when proven wrong, that won't end well for you.

But go on, keep digging! I do so love free entertainment.

 

[R-T-B]

Too fast to detect what the problem was

I don't agree with this at all. Sometimes the problem and even fix is dead obvious.

Froggy, did you read the article?

Caught me here. I have sleepy eyes and just skimmed it.

If it is indeed invalidating the signature and then resigning the binary somehow, it is very interesting indeed.

I just... wow. The logic is just astounding. In the worst way possible.

I understand it in a sense. It would be nice if all chips were eratta free and perfect firmware wise. But as chips grow more complex, this is less and less likely to be the case. We already have felt this CPU side. It's the whole reason loadable microcode exists there. Those aren't beta products, they just are nature of the beast.

 

[thewan]

without affecting its all-important digital signature that helps preventing the machine from running with tampered firmware

If china can do it with their gazillion fake GPUs, nvidia sure can do it too.

 

[Vayra86]

Cool story bro. How many cards were made before a game came that were just fine?

Other cards run this game fine though. This isnt a driver or a game ready update!

 

[Kyan]

Need for Speed Unbound (NFS Unbound), the latest entry to the popular genre-defining race sim by EA that launched today

Calling NFS a race sim game is an insult to other race sim games. Not really the topic of the article but, yeah.

 

[Chomiq]

Need for Speed Unbound (NFS Unbound), the latest entry to the popular genre-defining ricing sim by EA that launched today

There, fixed it.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Is this not the second bios related issue fixed by flashing, by Nvidia in the last few weeks.
The GOP on some cards needed a flash update to support some monitors recently.
Might have been the last generation affected not this but surprising non the less.
As is this but not as surprising as the Nvidia defence forces tenacity.

 

[the54thvoid]

I'm far more curious about the firmware issue and why it affected NFS this way. I mean, what sort of problem was in the BIOS that was triggered by the game code?

 

[Cybrnook2002]

Updated without issue, thanks for the heads up.

 

[ShurikN]

4090's, what about 4080's?

Someone would need to buy a 4080 for starters in order to test.

 

[chr0nos]

Froggy, did you read the article?



It's not a mere BIOS flash, it's quite literally modifying the existing BIOS in-place. Unless the digital signature only applies to a portion of the BIOS (which doesn't appear to be the case from what we know), then this tool appears to be accomplishing the holy grail of BIOS modding that NVIDIA users have been searching for since Pascal.

Would NVIDIA be dumb enough to release something like this? Who knows, they've done stupid shit in the past, and maybe with the current negativity towards the RTX 4000 series (prices + 4090 melting adapter saga) they decided that pissing off AIBs and customers by requiring a BIOS update so early in the product cycle, would be more of a problem than dropping a quick-and-easy updater.

Let's see what the reverse engineers are able to glean from this.


A game that literally did not exist at the time that the RTX 4090 was released, and triggers a firmware bug in the 4090, means that the 4090 is beta quality.

Or to put it more simply, because NVIDIA lacks the possibility to travel forward in time to test games that don't yet exist against their new hardware, they make beta-quality products.

I just... wow. The logic is just astounding. In the worst way possible.

Most likely its just updating the UEFI Gop module and not the BIOS itself