NVIDIA Announces Only 0.5% of RTX 5090 & 5070 Ti GPUs Have Missing ROP Units; Replacement and Production Adjustments Made

NVIDIA has officially clarified that a production anomaly affecting a limited number of RTX 5090 and 5070 Ti GPUs, specifically related to missing ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines), has been addressed. This issue impacts an estimated 0.5% of these graphics cards, and compensation measures for affected users have been outlined.

NVIDIA Addresses Missing ROP Units in a Select Group of GeForce GPUs

Recent findings reported by TechpowerUP revealed that a GeForce RTX 5090 sample from ZOTAC exhibited incomplete functionality with only 168 ROPs instead of the expected 176. This performance drop raised early alarm bells, as it appeared that the anomaly might affect multiple manufacturers, with nearly all AIBs reporting similar discrepancies.

The absence of a single ROP unit resulted in a noteworthy 4-5% reduction in gaming performance, with indications that the RTX 5090D models suffered similarly. The exact cause of the issue—whether it stemmed from a manufacturing flaw or BIOS settings—remains unclear; however, NVIDIA confirmed it was, in fact, a production error. The following statement reflects their findings:

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. Affected consumers can contact the board manufacturer for a replacement. The production anomaly has been corrected.

In addition to the RTX 5090 and 5090D, the RTX 5070 Ti has also been implicated in this issue, though no specific incidents of missing ROPs in that model have surfaced yet since it is newly launched. As confirmed by NVIDIA, only a fraction—0.5%—of produced analogs are involved, falling short by a single ROP unit, amounting to a total reduction of 8 ROPs.

NVIDIA emphasizes that users should expect full functionality; thus, if a torch was to reveal low ROP counts, replacements should be sought immediately. Users can verify their GPU status by utilizing GPU-Z, which shows detailed specifications including the ROP count.

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However, affected users now face another challenge: the current scarcity of RTX 50 series GPUs may lead to lengthy wait times for replacements. Since the shipment numbers for the RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070 Ti models have been limited, assessing the precise count of impacted GPUs is difficult. Users can easily identify if their GPUs are from a problematic batch should they find a ROP count below the designated specifications: 176 for the RTX 5090 models and 96 for the RTX 5070 Ti.

While NVIDIA has rectified the production anomaly, the underlying reasons for its occurrence raise questions, notably about the rushed pace of the Blackwell RTX 50 series launch amidst ongoing production challenges.

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