With the benchmarks and ratings all complete, the damage is already done though.
Reviewing graphics cards is hard work. It consumes hours upon hours of your time, running endless benchmarks, often with multiple runs to double check results are as they should be. This is what our Chris had to go through in his MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X review, especially since the card didn't seem to be meeting performance expectations. It turns out that this was all down to a dodgy BIOS that MSI hadn't checked properly before releasing the card for testing. Well, it's done the right thing by issuing an apology and providing a new BIOS to fix the problem.
One can never really tell just how sincere an apology is from a large organisation and they seldom explain just why something went wrong in the first place. In this particular case, the BIOS in the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X cards sent out to review was borked in some way, preventing the card from reaching its full performance.
It wasn't a huge drop, no more than 5% in most cases. However, the 4070 Ti Super isn't massively faster than the 4070 Ti it replaces and those few percent definitely made the MSI card look worse than it was. And to rub salt into the wound, other vendors didn't have this issue with their own 4070 Ti Super models.
MSI has issued a new BIOS file for its entire 4070 Ti Super range, so if you've already taken the plunge and bought one, then it's strongly recommended that you update the BIOS. Select the right model from the list shown here, download the BIOS tool, and simply run it. Make sure you do not let your PC power down as this is happening.
Obviously, this should never have occurred in the first place and I dare say that if you've just forked out $799 for a new graphics card, you'd be entitled to feel a bit miffed that you need to do this (unless for some odd reason, you're happy with a slower-than-it-should-be card).
Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD.
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest.
But it's MSI's actual apology that irks me somewhat, with statements of 'a paramount focus on enhancing user experience, we are unwaveringly committed to ensuring optimal graphics card performance' and '[o]ur team is devoted to upholding stringent standards in product development.'
I'm not expecting MSI to say 'yeah, soz, we f!ed up' but come on, if you're unwaveringly committed and devoted to upholding stringent standards, that means you check your stuff out properly before shipping it all out. I suspect a few team members will get a lump of coal in their socks this Christmas.
The damage is done and at least it's now been fixed, but MSI's reputation may well have taken a bit of a kicking with this BIOS clanger.
