Hello,
I’m trying to upgrade the VBIOS in my RTX Pro
6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition so that MIG
can be enabled. I purchased the RTX Pro 6000
new from Provantage LLC. Prior to purchase,
I made certain that Provantage was an authorized
reseller and a NVIDIA Partner.
I purchased the RTX Pro 6000 early last summer
but have put my MIG desires on the back burner
waiting for the VBIOS distribution challenges
to get settled. I’ve been watching this forum
and others for about nine months now. Things do
not seem to have improved, so I’m finally jumping
in to sink or swim.
I’ve been instructed by NVIDIA Support to post to
this forum and particular topic category. I have
opened support requests with NVIDIA, both consumer
and enterprise. Consumer told me to go here.
Enterprise told me that they don’t handle the
hardware aspect of Pro GPUs.
My RTX Pro 6000 is NVIDIA branded, rather than
PNY. A representative of NVIDIA Support has
checked the serial number and various other bits
of information and made the determination that
mine is indeed a NVIDIA card rather than PNY or
other. Granted, likely really manufactured by
a contracted 3rd party in NVIDIA’s supply chain,
but NVIDIA branded nonetheless.
My VBIOS version is 98.02.52.00.02. The MIG
documentation says that I need to upgrade to
at least version 98.02.55.00.00. It is installed
on a Intel Z890 motherboard with the latest BIOS.
Running ‘nvidia-smi -q -d MEMORY’ confirms that
BAR1 has successfully negotiated a size of 131072
MiB. The PC dual boots between Linux and Windows
but I am almost exclusively a Linux user. Display
out is currently via the Intel iGPU, so loss of
dGPU out is not an issue.
Could someone please give me a definitive statement
as to which party I am supposed to make a VBIOS
upgrade request? Is it some division of NVIDIA or
am I supposed to contact Provantage.
My hope is to be granted access to a suitably
modern version of the VBIOS. As a retired Computer
Engineer, I am very comfortable performing firmware
and BIOS upgrades. Though, I am also among the
first to admit that even properly performed upgrades
can sometimes go awry. So, if NVIDIA or Provantage
need me to RMA the GPU, that would be okay too.
Thanks
Hi, thanks for your patience, and apologies for the hassle…
A ‘few’ of only the RTX PRO 6000 (non-Max-Q, so 600W) workstation edition GPUs have shipped with the early VBIOS, that didn’t support MIG yet, and hence need update - like you found documented - to at least v98.02.55.00.00.
ALL RTX PRO products are branded Nvidia, but we sell into the channel via multiple partners in the various regions, partners like PNY, TDsynnex, Leadtek (+ the OEMs) and others…
All these partners do get their own SKU, packaging, accessories, and VBIOS customization version. They also release at different times after individual testing and processing steps … Hence a PNY card cannot, SHOULD not be flashed with any other than the PNY VBIOS update, hence that needs to be provided by PNY, not by Nvidia… (not ideal, but we RARELY have VBIOS updates for the field, and this is also the procedure for RTX PRO sold via our OEM partners…).
[years back, this was ‘easy’ since PNY was the exclusive partner for our workstation GPUs outside OEMs, in like EMEA…] today, process is a bit broken, where you as enduser have a hard time to figure out, if YOUR very board is distributed by PNY or not…
But PNY should take your request, confirm via SN if yours is a PNY resold unit, and help with providing the VBIOS update, if a match; the same should actually work with TDsynnex (again EMEA)…
They should provide you with an enduser flash routine, that will check for match in the product, and then flash the correct VBIOS update…
After that, you’ll have to change the GPU into compute mode, using displaymodeselector tool, and THEN you should be able to enable and configure your MIG partitions (using nvidia-smi)…
In case you’d prefer the RMA route, the flow has to be the same, have to find who is the ‘first’ reseller of our GPU, and have them RMA the board with us. (you bought from provantage, who might have bought from another intermediate reseller/distributor,… loop… who then will ultimately have bought from like PNY, who can do the RMA with us…)
I have escalated this for process improvement and better user experience, but for the moment providing you with these details of how to get on is best help I can offer - apologies…
kind regards
-Frank
Hi Frank,
Just a quick update on my end. I have officially engaged Provantage
(the authorized reseller) to activate my support entitlement for the
RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition. I’m currently waiting for
confirmation on whether we can resolve this via a VBIOS update or if
a full RMA will be necessary.
The GPU shipped with the 98.02.52.00.02 VBIOS, which is a version
too early to support MIG. I’m hoping to be granted access to the latest
recommended and stable version that supports both my RTX Pro
Blackwell Workstation Edition and the MIG feature to which I am
entitled, version 98.02.55.00.00 or newer.
As a quick heads-up for context: In the North American market, this is
a true NVIDIA manufactured card. For technical clarity, the hardware
reports a Device ID of 10DE:2BB1 and a Subsystem ID of 10DE:204B.
This confirms it is an official NVIDIA-direct unit rather than an AIB partner
board (like PNY), which is why I am pushing for the official NVIDIA
firmware path. I had already provided this information to NVIDIA Support
and they confirmed that mine is a genuine NVIDIA manufactured
“Founders Edition” as they called it.
If manufactured by PNY, Leadtek or other, I would see instead
Subsystem ID’s starting with vendor codes such as the following,
where 10DE is definitely NVIDIA.
PNY: 196E
Leadtek: 107D
Dell: 1028
I’ve asked the standard support tier to keep my technical ticket open
while we determine if this needs to transition to Enterprise Support for
the firmware side. I’ll post another update here as soon as I hear back.
Best regards,
John