When it comes to PC hardware, a BIOS update is as rare as a total solar eclipse. Most users will only consider updating their firmware when they suspect something is broken, or when a shiny new CPU refuses to POST right out of the box.

In the practice of being treated as a "break glass in case of emergency" fix for hardware problems, a vast majority of users will leave free performance, added security, and system stability on the table. So, if you're reading this and can't quite remember the last time you updated yours, here are some things that you might be missing out on.

Extra performance for your components

An upgrade you don't need to pay for

In recent years, major motherboard manufacturers have shifted from treating BIOS firmware as a "set-and-forget" foundation to more of a dynamic system that benefits from periodic updates. It's not at all unusual to see key players in the arena releasing microcode tweaks via the BIOS to squeeze "free" performance out of existing hardware, but unfortunately for most consumers, firmware update habits remain staunchly stuck in the past.

There really is no better way to drive this point home than to have a look at some of GIGABYTE and MSI's recent BIOS update offerings. The November 2024 update that released the X3D Turbo Mode and X3D Gaming mode offered performance uplifts between 15% and 20% in specific gaming scenarios.

GIGABYTE's update, for example, optimized the core distribution and power balancing so effectively that the standard Ryzen 9000 chips could rival the gaming performance of the more expensive X3D chips. MSI, on the other hand, tweaked the core behavior and Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) handling, which resulted in a 20% uplift in specific titles. For most enthusiasts, a 15–20% performance jump is often the kind of margin that justifies spending hundreds of dollars on a next-generation CPU, yet the value proposition of these updates remains woefully unknown to most, since BIOS updates are seldom talked about outside of troubleshooting discussions.

Extended viability for your hardware

Think of it as health insurance for your components

It's highly common to assume that motherboard factory settings are always optimized for safety, performance and longevity. However, there have been numerous occurrences where motherboards shipped with default configurations caused problems for end users and accelerated hardware deterioration.

Recently, features such as Intel's MultiCore Enhancement or AMD's Precision Boost Overdrive algorithm—both of which regulate 'boost clock' behavior on CPUs—have witnessed significant backlash for their poor optimization by industry experts. On certain ASUS motherboards, this led to the chips being overclocked all the time, severely impacting CPU life. Manufacturers often rely on BIOS updates to patch these problems, and without manually updating the firmware, users cluelessly run suboptimal profiles that eventually start to cause problems much before the root cause is identified.

Protection against vulnerabilities

No system is ever "too secure"

In the standard discourse surrounding PC hardware, an "upgrade" almost always explicitly refers to a jump in performance that you can measure with a benchmarking tool or on your FPS counter. But what's equally important as any other upgrade is your system's security, and there's no benchmark to measure it.

Cybersecurity is dynamic, and as new vulnerabilities are discovered, documented and weaponized by cyber threat actors over time, guarding against them is crucial for system security. For a concerningly large number of users, BIOS firmware remains static for a long period of time. Despite manufacturers releasing BIOS patches and responding to a moving threat landscape, many systems stay frozen and tethered to a vulnerable state. In the last few years, firmware-level threats have become more sophisticated and far more common. Exploits such as Plundervolt demonstrated that hardware features such as voltage control could be leveraged to leak sensitive data by triggering controlled computational faults. Since then, the threat landscape has only evolved. A few years later, LogoFAIL vulnerability showed that something as simple as a motherboard's boot logo could be used to compromise a system before the OS even boots.

As if that weren't enough, a December 2025 coverage from The Hacker News brought fresh attention to a UEFI-related vulnerability affecting select motherboard models from ASRock, ASUSTeK Computer, MSI and GIGABYTE. The issue stemmed from flawed IOMMU (Input-Output Memory Management Unit) initialization during early boot, where the firmware reported DMA (Direct Memory Access) protections as active but failed to properly enforce them. Because firmware-level flaws sit below the OS, your antivirus cannot neutralize them, and your firewalls cannot stop them. If the firmware itself initializes the hardware incorrectly, the only real fix is a BIOS update that corrects this behavior.

When, and how often should you update your BIOS?

Updating your BIOS is a critical part of your system maintenance, but it doesn't warrant nearly as much attention as your OS, nor does it need to be updated as often. A good rule of thumb for a stable, secure and optimally-performing system is to check for critical updates once every six to twelve months. If, however, you're an early adopter on a brand-new platform, it is prudent to check every three or four months, as manufacturers do tend to aggressively patch launch-day bugs and continue to unlock major performance tiers for users.