Defective NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 “GB202” Chip Affects Specific Units; All Variants May Be Impacted

NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs are reportedly facing significant challenges, with a growing concern over the reliability of the “Blackwell”GB202 chip, leading to defective units in the market.

NVIDIA’s RTX Blackwell GPU Deficiencies: Missing ROPs and Performance Concerns

The current situation leaves gamers questioning when they might find stability in the GPU market. Initially, consumers faced inventory shortages with the RTX Blackwell model’s limited availability. Now, reports are surfacing that some units are suffering from serious defects, resulting in marked performance drops. A recent case involving a ZOTAC GeForce RTX 5090 highlighted these issues, catching the attention of analysts including @MEGAsizeGPU, who pinpointed the GB202 chip as the culprit.

The root cause is the chip. A small batch of GB202 is defective, and the bios can not do anything with this issue.

— MEGAsizeGPU (@Zed__Wang) February 21, 2025

Customers are discovering that their NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 cards exhibit a lower count of Raster Operations Pipelines (ROPs), as confirmed by GPU-Z readings. This discrepancy indicates a performance downgrade from what consumers would expect. Initially thought to be a software anomaly with GPU-Z, further analysis has now confirmed that the problem lies with the GB202 chip itself.

To substantiate these findings, an affected RTX 5090 variant underwent testing using HWINFO, which corroborated the ROP deficit observed in GPU-Z. This lends credence to the idea that a more severe issue may be at play. While it appears that only a select range of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) are initially affected, reports suggest the problem may extend beyond a single AIB model; both third-party and Founders Edition models could potentially fall victim to this defect.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 with missing ROPs — @BuildLabEx

As the situation evolves, we’ve reached out to NVIDIA for clarification and guidance. Given that the root issue lies with the GB202 chip, it is anticipated that NVIDIA may initiate a replacement program under Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA).This proactive measure could be critical for NVIDIA, especially as they grapple with production delays affecting their mid-range GPU lineup due to other performance-related problems.

We urge our readers who possess an RTX 5090 to check for discrepancies in ROP counts. Should you find less than the expected 176 ROPs, please share your findings with us. At this point, we still lack information regarding other models, such as the GeForce RTX 5080, as the story continues to unfold.

Source & Images