Dell addresses missing CUDA cores for the Alienware m15 R5 with new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 vBIOS update

Dell claims to have fixed the missing CUDA core issue affecting Alienware m15 R5 machines with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPUs. While not exclusive to the Alienware m15 R5, Dell did admit that it had disabled approximately 10% of the GPU's CUDA cores following 'careful testing and design choices'.

Initially, Dell hoped to resolve this issue 'as early as mid-June'. However, it has exceeded the expectations it set itself. According to Dell's software database, the company published the fix as of June 11. Dell also issued the following statement on the matter:

Last week, we discovered our new Alienware m15 gaming system was limiting CUDA Cores on 3070 configurations. We have released a firmware update to help resolve the incorrect setting. Please check out the support page here for the updated vBios.

For reference, installing the vBIOS will change the vBIOS vendor version displayed in NVIDIA Control Panel to 94.04.42.40.16. It is worth noting that Microsoft Edge Chromium blocked us from downloading the 30.08 MB executable because it thought that it may harm our device. Similarly, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen warned us against opening the file. Additionally, the vBIOS will immediately start flashing in Command Prompt once opened; there are no GUI or warnings beforehand.

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