Saturday, December 3rd 2022
RTX 4090 has Issues with Need for Speed Unbound that can Only be Fixed with a VBIOS Update
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.
Sources:
NVIDIA Firmware Updater, Need for Speed Known Issues
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).
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.
108 Comments on RTX 4090 has Issues with Need for Speed Unbound that can Only be Fixed with a VBIOS Update
What's odd is that the VBIOS is related to the issue at all...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.
If you want the ironed version wait 6 month and pay double :roll:
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.
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!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.
If it is indeed invalidating the signature and then resigning the binary somehow, it is very interesting indeed.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.
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.
Nice title :laugh:
Or was it off this movie :cool: