Nvidia’sRTX 50 series GPU launch has hardly been trouble-free, thanks to extremely limited supply of its high-endRTX 5080andRTX 5090GPUs, plus user complaints about driver issues thatwere recently fixedwith a new driver update.
However, arguably both of these issues could be dwarfed in the longer term byuser concerns about missing ROPs(a block of eight, to be exact), which is causing performance losses ofapproximately 4%,per Nvidia, in about 0.5% of GPUs in the market currently, though Nvidia has confirmed the production issue has been rectified.
A Small But Significant Issue For Gamers
Nvidia has already released a statement that indicates that not only is a very small segment of users affected, but the performance dropdoes not affect AI or compute workloads, making gamers the primary concerned party here. It has also stated that affected users can contact their AIB partners for replacements with a fully functional unit, essentially resolving the issue for users.
Testing if one’s GPU is affected is easy: users can download third-party applications, like HWiNFO or GPU-Z, and test theirrelevant ROP countsto see if they are affected before contacting customer support if their readings match those on the chart below:
RTX 5090 / RTX 5090 D
176
168
RTX 5080
112
104
96
88
While earlier statements claimed that only RTX 5090, 5090 D, and RTX 5070 Ti owners were affected, the issue has since beenspotted on the RTX 5080 as well. Nvidia has confirmed these issues.
There is, however, light at the end of that tunnel, especially if you are looking for a newerpre-built gaming PCto go with your shiny new RTX 50 series GPU. This is especially true if you go with certain high-end pre-built options on the market.
Avoiding ROP Issues WIth Nvidia’s RTX 50 Series GPUs
At least two major assemblers have already put out statements that indicate that they are proactively monitoring the situation regarding Nvidia’s ROP-centric production hiccup. First, we have a quote from Wallace Santos, the CEO ofMAINGEAR,stating the following (via Linkedin):
We thoroughly test every MAINGEAR PC before it ships — including installing GPU-Z, checking for anomalies like missing ROPs. Out of the hundreds of 5000 series builds, we’ve found 0 GPUs with missing ROPs. Our mission is simple… build it well and support it well so you can game!
This is hardly surprising, given MAINGEAR’s penchant for building performance and enthusiast-grade PCs. It does give one a lot of peace of mind when it comes to picking up a brand-new RTX 50 series prebuilt gaming PC, lending confidence that your PC has already been thoroughly checked.
The second comes via CyberPowerPC, withVideocardz being the firstto report that the systems integrator is also ensuring that “all systems equipped with a GeForce RTX 5090, 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti video cards have the correct number of ROPs before shipping.”
While users building their own PC have no way of checking beyond physically testing the GPU out of the box, pre-built buyers can turn to one of the two systems builders above to ensure their gaming PC works as intended, and their investment in a brand-new RTX 5000 series GPU performs on par with their expectations.
