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
They should just call it what it is... a game
I really like this site, but cmon... Nonsense - clickbait articles like this one are really sad.
Btw. Nvidia rep. responded to this, if you even care: link
The DisplayID/GOP region is only interacted with at the UEFI boot stage, it isn't used at all once the system is in windows and the driver has assumed control.
The EA help article has also now been corrected to point out that a Mainboard bios update is actually required.
Guess it took this article to get a nvidia rep to comment on the issue on reddit though didn't it so not really click bait :laugh:
The game uses a many year old engine and if they screwed up that heavily, they should sell the company right away to Tencent, but Tencent did not want them ;)
Oh....wait......
Also stop pulling numbers out of your arse to make such a ridiculous point as if there is weight to it.
This argument you're making here is of the same quality as 'muh last 500mb are slower, but that's fine, it has 4GB right?!'. Bottom barrel logic for some odd purpose that certainly isn't 'in our best interests' as consumers. What happened there exactly to resolve it? Oh yeah. Exactly. Now, put 2 and 2 together, why was Nvidia quick to compensate those users with a molten 4090? Because they are wrong?
when I stopped reading
At this point I think we all see the title was incorrect.
You can get a lot of reactions by publishing sensational claims, even if you know they are incorrect.
It sounds so unlikely that it's hard to believe it was taken seriously and repeated here without question.
When you know that you repeated something incorrect, you should put in a greater effort to the correction than what you put in to the mistake.
What was EA's "testing procedure" that lead them to think the VBIOS update was the fix?
1. Update your drivers - that didn't work!
2. Check for firmware update - hey! there a new VBIOS available and even though it says to only apply iy to fix black screen at boot let's try it anyway!
3. Post first "fix" - by coincidence it "seemed" to work so report success!
4. Check for firmware again - hey! there a new motherboard BIOS available and even though it doesn't apply to me at all let's try it anyway!
5. Post next "fix" - by coincidence it "seemed" to work so report success!
6, 7, 8, 9.....
∞. Inspect code
Maybe they even came to this forum for help, and determined that VBIOS updates make everything better.
Now they point to motherboard firmware with no specifics.
Forgive me for not trusting them.
If this is the only game affected, then what is really the problem?
Considering how EA rushed to point at 4090 VBIOS, and how they haven't said anything specific about exactly what the requirements are for this game that only certain BIOS enable, I am going to consider the game itself to be garbage.
Should I even comment about epeens and missed holes? I'll pass.
Honestly, I'm having trouble that a game commands vbios or motherboard bios update
Does anyone else actually believe it?
its clear none of these idiots are reading it and are jumping on the fuck "insert vendor name here" bandwagon
seriously all of you go home you are being stupid
It's not just the excessive price that stops me buying this card.
All I would like to know is, what was the problem for a start? AMD or Intel MB bioses? Which chipset? Which CPUs? Why?
Nothing is answered....
As for issues, the 4090 kinda sucks. Sort of was forced to upgrade from X570 because of low power clock crashes with the 4090 (for reference, my previous 3090 worked a treat).
Could this be related to DP/HDMI/audio standards? Thats the sort of thing a universal updater has worked easily for in the past
I can totally see some console default settings being used in the game related to HDMI 2.1, that don't work right on PC
(And Nvidia has had HDMI 2.1 issues regarding dolby atmos in their drivers for some time now)So uh, it's kinda clear that TPU reported what they originally said.
And then they edited their end. Look at the bottom line.
edit: I found this via the forums not the homepage, but this update was already on the front page.