Several Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs have been missing ROPs, suggesting that some GB202 and GB203 chips used in those cards are defective. This has led to many graphics cards from different manufacturers, including Zotac, MSI, Gigabyte, and even Nvidia’s Founders Edition GPUs, having eight fewer ROPs than specified. The company has stated Tom’s Hardware, saying this only affected a few of its GPUs.
“We have identified a rare issue affecting less than 0.5% (half a percent) of GeForce RTX 5090 / 5090D and 5070 Ti GPUs, which have one fewer ROP than specified. The average graphical performance impact is 4%, with no impact on AI and Compute workloads,” an Nvidia representative told Tom's Hardware. “Affected consumers can contact the board manufacturer for a replacement. The production anomaly has been corrected.”
So, the problem is indeed caused by an issue in production and quality control, which allowed a few defective GB202 and GB203 chips to pass inspection and be installed on GPUs. It’s a good thing that the issue was caught early, though, as Nvidia said that even its RTX 5070 Ti GPUs, which were released a couple of days ago, were also affected. Consumers who bought any affected cards would not get the expected performance.
Team Green said those affected by the missing ROPs should contact their board manufacturer to RMA their less performant GPUs. Hopefully, they won’t have to wait long to get a proper replacement despite the ongoing RTX 50-series shortage. A few retailers expect supply to stabilize in four months.
This has been one of the many issues plaguing the RTX 50 series since its highly anticipated launch. A major concern returning from the RTX 4090 is the melting power cable problem, which the company has previously claimed was already fixed. Several RTX 50-series GPUs are also experiencing crashes and instability, resulting in BSODs and black screens. Nvidia said it’s already investigating the issue but hasn’t yet released a timeline for a fix.
Many gamers and enthusiasts are predictably disappointed with this launch. Many say that the performance improvements do not match the price increases. With all these issues cropping up less than a month after their release, Nvidia has its hands full, trying to fix them.
