Nvidia's latest graphics cards have had a troubled launch, with RTX 5090 GPUs reportedly underperforming and the newly released RTX 5070 Ti being near-impossible to grab. Now, another problem has popped up — and it's affecting the full lineup.
Nvidia has confirmed a "rare issue" in RTX 5090 and RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards causing graphical performance drops of around 4%, but it's also reportedly affecting RTX 5080 GPUs. The problem stems from a lack of ROPs (Render Output Unit or Raster Operations Pipeline), a hardware component that deals with rendering graphics in PC games, meaning it's a manufacturing problem that can't be fixed with an update.
In a comment to The Verge, Nvidia states that the hardware issue affects "less than 0.5% 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," Nvidia says. "Affected consumers can contact the board manufacturer for a replacement. The production anomaly has been corrected."
While RTX 5090, 5090D (GPU models sold in China) and 5070 Ti are mentioned, Reddit user gingeraffe90 also reports RTX 5080 GPUs are affected, citing a GPU-Z spec check.
As reported by VideoCardz, a Zotac RTX 5090 graphics card test from TechPowerUp spotted missing ROPs, which saw a 5% drop in performance compared to Nvidia's RTX 5090 Founders Edition card, which should not have been the case.
As Nvidia mentions, this manufacturing issue has now been fixed, so further RTX 50-series GPUs shouldn't have this problem. With this in mind, those with an RTX 5090, 5080 or 5070 Ti should check if there is a loss of ROPs, as they will be up for a replacement. And it's easy to do.
Check if your RTX 50-series GPU is affected
To check if you have the right ROPs count, you can download GPU-Z. This tool provides a full rundown of your GPU, including the ROPs count in Nvidia's graphics cards. Once downloaded, you can analyze your card's specs in the Graphics Card tab (as seen in the image above).
Nvidia states that there is "one fewer" ROPs in affected graphics cards, and this refers to one block. This means that the ROP count will be reduced by eight in cards that have the issue.
The usual count for an RTX 5090 is 176, so a graphics card with the issue will have 168 ROPs. Here's a look at the number your RTX GPU should have versus the number on ones that are affected.
GPU | ROPs (correct) | ROPs (loss) |
RTX 5090 | 176 | 168 |
RTX 5080 | 112 | 104 |
RTX 5070 Ti | 96 | 88 |
If you see that your GPU models has a loss of ROPs, you should contact your board manufacturer and get a replacement — as Nvidia states. (To note, if these numbers are even less than the expected ROPs, then it's still up for replacement).
While it reportedly only affects less than 1% of GPUs, it's still worth checking so you're not caught with an underperforming RTX 50-series graphics card (as we all know, they don't come cheap!).
Getting a replacement is worth it, but this may put some users in a bit of a pickle, as there is limited stock on the latest RTX lineup. Luckily, rumor has it that RTX 5090 will have "stupidly high" stock coming next month, so it hopefully won't be long until replacements arrive for affected users.
Further, RTX 5090, 5080 and 5070 GPUs shouldn't be affected by a loss of ROPs, and here's hoping there are no further hardware issues down the line, as it's hard enough getting hands-on one of these graphics cards as it is. If you do manage to swipe an (unaffected) graphics card, check out how to build an RTX 5090 gaming PC.
More from Tom's Guide
- I review gaming PCs for a living, and I'd never buy the RTX 5090 — here's why
- Help improve Tom's Guide — your chance to win a $250 Amazon gift card
- RTX 50-series gaming laptops — here's why I think they'll be worth the upgrade
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