Reviewing graphics cards is hard work. Hours and hours are spent running endless benchmarks, often multiple times to double-check that the results are what they should be. This is what Chris had to go through in his review of the MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X. It turned out to be due to a BIOS that MSI did not properly check before releasing the card for testing; MSI apologized and did the right thing by providing a new BIOS to fix the problem.

One never knows how sincere an apology from a large organization can be, and rarely does it explain why something went wrong in the first place. In this particular case, the BIOS on the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X card sent for review was somehow broken, preventing the card from reaching its full performance.

It wasn't a huge drop, mostly less than 5%. However, the 4070 Ti Super was not much faster than the 4070 Ti it replaced, and those few percentages made MSI's card look worse than it really was. And to rub salt in the wound, no other vendor had this problem with their 4070 Ti Super models.

MSI has issued a new BIOS file for the entire 4070 Ti Super series, so if you've already gone ahead and purchased one, we highly recommend updating your BIOS. Simply select the appropriate model from the list displayed here, download and run the BIOS tool. Do not turn off the PC when doing so.

Obviously, this is something that should never have occurred in the first place, and if you spent $799 on a new graphics card, you are right to be a little miffed that you have to do this (unless, for some strange reason, you are happy with a slower card than it should be (unless, for some odd reason, you are happy with a card that is slower than it should be).

MSI's actual apology, however, is a bit more blunt: "We are unwaveringly committed to ensuring optimal graphics card performance with the utmost emphasis on improving the user experience," and "Our team is dedicated to maintaining rigorous standards in product development. dedicated to ensuring optimum graphics card performance," which irritates me somewhat.

I'm not sure I've ever heard MSI say, "Oh, we're sorry. I'm sure some of our team members will be getting lumps of coal in their socks this Christmas. [but MSI's reputation may have been hurt more than a little by this BIOS glitch.