When you think about firmware updates on your PC, you probably think about your motherboard's BIOS. It's the one component where firmware updates are a routine part of ownership, and motherboard manufacturers push new versions regularly to support new CPUs, patch security holes, and improve memory compatibility. Most people know BIOS updates can be important, but your motherboard isn't always the only component in your PC that can have end-user-updatable firmware.

For example, your GPU has a VBIOS that controls its initialization, power delivery, fan curves, and clock limits. Your SSD has a firmware controller that manages wear leveling, error correction, and how the drive communicates with your operating system. Even some DDR5 memory kits can expose updatable module firmware through vendor software, thanks to the extra on-DIMM logic introduced with DDR5.

All of these are technically updatable, and yet most people will never even know that they can update any of them. There are good reasons for that, but there are also times when not updating can come back to bite you.

These components all run their own firmware

But you might not even know it

Every GPU ships with what's known as a VBIOS, a piece of firmware stored on a chip on the graphics card itself. It dictates how the GPU behaves before your operating system even loads, handling things like display output during POST, power limits, and fan speed configuration. Nvidia and AMD rarely ask you to update it, though, because the vast majority of fixes and optimizations are handled at the driver level instead. Drivers are easy to push and easy to roll back, and they don't carry the risk of bricking your hardware if something goes wrong mid-install.

That said, GPU firmware updates do happen in some instances. Nvidia released a firmware update tool for Maxwell and Pascal GPUs to fix blank screens on boot when connected to DisplayPort 1.3 and 1.4 monitors. More recently, the RTX 5060 series needed a UEFI firmware patch because certain cards were showing blank screens on some motherboards. Nvidia also noted at the time that users having issues in Legacy/CSM mode may need a legacy VBIOS from their card vendor. These are inherently risky, so companies like Nvidia and AMD try to minimize instances where users could be put into a position where they have to flash a VBIOS to their GPU.

Enthusiasts have known for years that GPU firmware is modifiable, though. VBIOS swapping has been a thing in the overclocking community for a long time, where users flash the VBIOS from one card to another in order to unlock higher power limits or different fan curves. It can work, but it's entirely at your own risk. It voids your warranty, and a bad flash can brick your card outright, and that's exactly why manufacturers don't treat GPU firmware the way they treat drivers.

SSDs are a similar story. Every NVMe and SATA drive has a firmware controller that handles everything from how data is written across NAND cells to how the drive reports its health back to your operating system. Samsung is probably the best-known example of why SSD firmware matters. The 990 Pro had a well-documented bug where the drive's reported health was plummeting far faster than it should have been, with some users seeing their drive health drop by 1% per week regardless of actual usage. Samsung eventually released a firmware update through Samsung Magician that stopped the degradation, but it couldn't reverse the damage already done. If your drive had already dropped to something like 72% health, the update would stop it from getting worse, but it wouldn't reset the counter.

The 980 Pro had its own firmware-related failure issues too, prompting Samsung to issue updates for affected drives.

Then there's RAM, which is the newest member of the updatable firmware club. DDR5 modules introduced on-DIMM components that older memory generations didn't have, including SPD-related logic and a PMIC. For example, Renesas describes its DDR5 SPD hubs as dedicated module components with non-volatile memory and hub functionality, which helps explain why some DDR5 kits can expose more module-level control than older memory generations.

Corsair, for example, pushes DDR5 firmware updates through iCUE. Corsair references these DDR5-specific capabilities in its RAM FAQ, stating that you can "use iCUE to regulate the memory module's voltage for more stable overclocking, as well as customize and save your own Intel XMP 3.0 profiles to get the best performance by app or task."

Manufacturers treat firmware updates as a last resort

You don't want a paperweight in exchange for an update you didn't need

Updating component firmware is riskier than updating a driver or even a motherboard BIOS. If a GPU driver update causes problems, you can roll it back in five minutes. If a VBIOS flash goes wrong, your graphics card is a paperweight. The same applies to SSDs, where a failed firmware update could leave your drive unrecognizable, taking all your data with it. The stakes are higher, and neither the manufacturers nor the users want to deal with that.

There's also the infrastructure problem. Motherboard BIOS updates have a clear delivery pipeline: you download a file from the manufacturer's website, put it on a USB stick, and flash it from the BIOS itself. Even a bad BIOS flash on a motherboard, nowadays, can often be rolled back depending on the features available to your motherboard. However, GPUs, SSDs, and RAM don't have anything that standardized.

Nvidia's firmware update tools are standalone executables that only appear when there's a specific problem to fix. Samsung uses Magician, but plenty of other SSD manufacturers don't even have a dedicated utility, and good luck finding firmware release notes for a budget NVMe drive. RAM firmware updates through software like iCUE are limited to modules from that specific manufacturer, and the process is opaque enough that most users wouldn't know where to begin.

On top of that, drivers can compensate for a lot. GPU drivers handle far more than just rendering. They manage power states, thermal behavior, display output quirks, and compatibility with thousands of different system configurations. If an issue can be fixed through a driver update rather than a firmware update, that's usually the path a vendor will prefer. Driver deployment is easier, faster to develop, and carries significantly lower risk of bricking hardware. It's the smarter choice that keeps components working normally, even if it means the underlying firmware issue technically persists.

When firmware updates matter, they tend to be critical

But how do you even find out about them?

When component firmware updates are necessary, they're rarely minor. The Samsung 990 Pro situation had drives reporting they were dying months into their lifespan, and the Nvidia DisplayPort firmware fix addressed GPUs that couldn't display anything at all until the OS loaded. These aren't simple issues that you can ignore, but there's also no centralized system that tells you about them.

If you own a Samsung SSD, installing Samsung Magician and checking for firmware updates every few months is worth your time. If you have Corsair DDR5, keeping iCUE updated will at least surface any available firmware patches. For GPUs, your best bet is to keep an eye on tech news, because Nvidia and AMD don't exactly advertise firmware tools on their driver download pages. It's all reactive rather than proactive, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.

Your PC has more updatable firmware than you probably realized, and the reason most of it never gets touched is that the tooling and delivery mechanisms just aren't there yet to protect users in the case of a bad update. Until that changes, these updates will keep flying under the radar, only surfacing when something has already gone wrong.