NVIDIA RTX 5090 and RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell: Missing ROPs Issues Reported

After a notable silence surrounding NVIDIA GPUs reportedly missing Render Output Units (ROPs), fresh concerns have emerged regarding the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell GPU.

User Discovers Only 160 ROPs on NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell GPU – A First for Workstation GPUs

Following the launch of the NVIDIA RTX 50 series, several reports surfaced indicating that a small fraction of these graphics cards had been produced with fewer ROPs than advertised. Initially, this issue primarily affected the GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA’s flagship model; however, GPUs like the GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti were also found to be impacted. As a result, these models exhibited reduced performance. NVIDIA responded swiftly by offering replacements for the affected units.

The concern faded as NVIDIA announced that only 0.5% of their inventory contained this issue, suggesting that subsequent batches were likely unaffected. However, the latest development has revealed that the issue might also extend to the workstation segment, exemplified by an instance reported by Redditor u/xmikjee, who purchased an NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell GPU as a successor to his RTX 4090.

Upon installation, he utilized GPU-Z to analyze his new GPU, which led to an alarming discovery: the software indicated only 160 ROPs, considerably below the expected count. NVIDIA’s official website does not disclose the specific number of ROPs for the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, but sources like Techpowerup confirm that it should indeed feature 176 ROPs.

NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell Graphics Card

Further validation of this anomaly came from additional benchmarking tools like Geeks3D, which corroborated the 160 ROPs reading. Even a third application, likely AIDA64, aligned with these findings, confirming the hardware’s deficiency. The impact of losing 16 ROPs is significant enough to affect performance noticeably, yet the user has the option to initiate a return merchandise authorization (RMA), as NVIDIA has committed to providing replacements. It appears this card stems from an earlier production run that may have slipped through quality control measures unnoticed.

Currently, reports pertaining to ROP discrepancies within the RTX 50 series remain scarce, suggesting a likely resolution to the issue with newer units.

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