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
Back in 2004, i upgraded the vbios of my GTX 6800 Ultra for play Doom 3.
is UNHEARD OF
It doesn't happen this is literally the reason we have drivers and apis
what isn't unheard of is binary/diff patching also the 4090 isn't bios its efi eXtensible, firmware Interface
I recently purchased a 4090, after the melting issue was ironed out by Nvidia (Since they announced that it was user errors not seating the connector correctly, we aren't seeing new melting issues appear on Reddit or Facebook, hopefully it stays that way)
First thing I did, upgrade my motherboard bios because they all have issues with RTX 4000 otherwise
...and upgrade my gainward 4090 to the October 20th vbios to resolve black screen booting issues I had, it was really frustrating otherwise.
So if you have a 4090 with weird black screen on booting (like you don't see the motherboard screen with F2/DEL to boot in bios etc.), this update will help a lot. Fixed all my issues.
I mean, they even still deliver driver updates ON TOP of all this! And they even have time to rename almost half their product stack alongside all of that... I totally understand they charge >1K tbh.
I mean, that's stellar engineering in my book. But then again, what do I know?
surely the /s has to land sometime :)
also did you buy this generic racing game just to test if big N screwed up?
Of course, that reality doesn't stop equally stupid forumgoers from constantly bringing this topic up in a pathetic attempt to blame NVIDIA for end user failures. Said forumgoers also choose to ignore that "evil" NVIDIA could easily have left those idiot users to deal with the consequences of their inability to perform basic PC assembly, but didn't.
Also, I wonder why no 3090/3080/6900/etc. users ever had had such issues? Did the guys who had problems with 4090 were installing a GPU for the first time in their lives? If so, why weren't there instructions on proper connector mating procedures?
Or maybe their older GPU didn't have such issues to begin with?
I think we can tune down the nVidia hate a little bit as well as dial down on the omgtehscandalous "unheard of" part ;) .
Gt is not a sim but a sham
they have turned every single installment into a burnout clone because they are about as original as stink on shit