Introduction to the Issue

There is a problem with some of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards due to an issue with the components inside the GPU. Nvidia has confirmed a "rare issue" affecting a small number of RTX 5090 and RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards, resulting in lower performance than expected. Fortunately, Nvidia has promised manufacturers that it will replace the affected cards. However, the scarcity of these cards will remain a challenge, and some users have reported that their cards failed to work on startup or even caught fire.

The Cause of the Problem

The issue lies in the number of ROPs (render/raster output units) in some of the graphics cards. The RTX 5090 review units should have 176 ROPs enabled, according to Nvidia’s white paper on the RTX 50-series. However, some AIB (add-in-board) variants may have fewer functioning ROPs due to the Blackwell architecture. Nvidia has confirmed that the issue affects 0.5% of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5070 Ti cards sold so far, resulting in around 4% worse graphics performance.

Identifying the Issue

To determine if a graphics card is underperforming, owners can use tools like GPU-Z, which can display the number of ROPs in the card. TechPowerUp has identified that the Zotac RTX 5090 Solid card is underperforming, with eight ROP units missing, resulting in 4.5% reduced raster capabilities. The RTX 5070 Ti is supposed to have 96 ROPs, but some cards have shipped with 88 ROPs, leading to a 10% drop in performance in some games.

Replacement and Remedies

Nvidia has fixed the manufacturing issue, but users will need to contact the manufacturers to arrange for replacements. The issue may affect Founder Edition cards and AIBs from various companies, including Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. Since the issue is a hardware flaw, it cannot be resolved with software updates alone.

Broader Concerns

The RTX 50-series launch has been marred by multiple issues, including the "Cablegate" incident with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090. There is a growing concern among the Nvidia user community that the latest cards are pushing the limits of what a regular consumer-end PC can handle. Some users have reported catastrophic failures, including a case where an Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 caught fire.

Conclusion

Nvidia needs to reevaluate its stock and quality assurance plans to prevent such issues in the future. While the company has addressed some of the problems with driver updates, users continue to experience issues, and a more comprehensive solution may be required. The situation highlights the importance of rigorous testing and quality control in the development of complex technical products like GPUs.