NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Cards Spotted with Missing ROPs, NVIDIA Confirms the Issue, Multiple Vendors Affected

[JustBenching]

I’m talking about how some users applaud the exemplary Nvidia’s response, which is a correct one - but in their position perhaps the only one possible. And I have written a possible other way out without admitting their fault - as we have seen other companies try before.

A cynical take on how tech companies deal with such issues.

Wanna hear another such story? Largest SSD maker, Samsung, had a drive that was failing unless you updated it’s firmware. No ”if’s” or “why’s”, just “when”. But rather than making a pubic statement that users should do that, they issued their solution quietly in tech help, which nobody sought until it was too late - how many users lost their valuable personal data so that Samsung maintained their perfect public image?

The samsung driver in question (980 pro) had no hardware issues actually, it was just the software misreporting. I have one btw, haven't updated the software, it's misreporting as 80% health but it's just a software reading error, the driver is fine (have it since 2021) As I've said - stop reading headlines and youtube clickbaits.

 

[Bwaze]

The samsung driver in question (980 pro) had no hardware issues actually, it was just the software misreporting. I have one btw, haven't updated the software, it's misreporting as 80% health but it's just a software reading error, the driver is fine (have it since 2021) As I've said - stop reading headlines and youtube clickbaits.

Yes, that’s the firmware fix. But if you let the misreporting reach a certain level, drive was inoperable and unfixable, for some it was working in read-only mode, for others it was bricked and unreadable. But clearly you have done your research, and in all samples you tested it was a 100% statistical non issue!

 

[modmax]

for their very high price they present several problems first the 5.0 bus and black screen, then the connectors that melt, in some cases, now even the ROP, it doesn't seem to me that they are worth what they cost

 

[Crackong]

Blackwell (x)
Blackworst (o)

 

[Vayra86]

Youve been doing nothing BUT bashing nvidia. Every single damn of your posts. Ever. Still I haven't seen you mention the RX480 ruining your mobo and causing fires, the 5700xt black screen drivers issue, the 7900xtx cooler issue. But here you are, in an nvidia thread to crap about nvidia, and then complain that people are bashing AMD.

And here you are, again, flame baiting the same people into the same old discussion we've seen a half dozen times the last month. Makes you wonder whether you're getting paid for it at this point.

Get a life

 

[10tothemin9volts]

Update 17:36 UTC:
Just to clarify, because it has been asked a couple of times. When no driver is installed, GPU-Z will use an internal database as fallback, to show a hardcoded ROP count of 176, instead of "Unknown."

In this case GPU-Z and other tools who rely on an internal database if the NV driver is not installed, should fix this by e.g. not displaying the actual ROP count until the NV driver is installed and display it on the GUI in the field, so the user knows, but if they chose to still display the ROP count, it should be clearly noticeable to the user by e.g. a different field color and/or a mouse over should say that to see the actual ROP count, the NV driver must be installed.

 

[R0H1T]

There's probably no way to do that & why should GPU-z not do its work if NVidia messed up their hardware

 

[Bomby569]

Good on nvidia for this response, we can only hope 99% of the problems had this fix
holly shit they simply don't check anything, it was such an easy thing to detect
Zotac had nothing to do with this

 

[john_]

NVIDIA

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.

Yeah, sure 0.5%. 0.5% connectors melting, 0.5% cases where ROPs are missing and as I said above, the option of a quick RMA. Of course who would RMA their card when the replacement unit could be 2-6 weeks away? If there is one available. Imagine people getting their money back and then having to pay the new much higher prices compared to MSRP. I mean who ever got that card will convince themselves in less than a minute to say "Fk it" and keep that card.

Well played Nvidia, well played.
And the same people are those who see a chart where Intel or Nvidia wins by 1% and rush to post "HAHAHA AMD slowwwwww!!!!!".

 

[Contra]

In this case GPU-Z and other tools who rely on an internal database if the NV driver is not installed, should fix this by e.g. not displaying the actual ROP count until the NV driver is installed and display it on the GUI in the field, so the user knows, but if they chose to still display the ROP count, it should be clearly noticeable to the user by e.g. a different field color and/or a mouse over should say that to see the actual ROP count, the NV driver must be installed.

I would suggest specifying the value Undefined without a driver, and for this label to work as a link to the TPU database so that the user can see the reference values.

 

[R0H1T]

this label to work as a link to the TPU database

Bad idea, I know I wouldn't want to open a link in a browser just for this.

The only difference I'd have is to make it clear that these are "expected" values & the actual number can be determined only after installing the drivers.

 

[Prima.Vera]

This is absolutely unacceptable for the cards of those price level.
nVidia should offer a discount of at least 30% for future products to those affected.

 

[Jeager]

Look like some customers were lucky here and got their hands on the real 5080 A quick bios update will solve this !

As for the money dif, no refund is needing since they were able to spend that much in the first place (and they are nGreedia best friend/supporter after all)

 

[notoperable]

I’m talking about how some users applaud the exemplary Nvidia’s response, which is a correct one - but in their position perhaps the only one possible. And I have written a possible other way out without admitting their fault - as we have seen other companies try before.

A cynical take on how tech companies deal with such issues.

Wanna hear another such story? Largest SSD maker, Samsung, had a drive that was failing unless you updated it’s firmware. No ”if’s” or “why’s”, just “when”. But rather than making a pubic statement that users should do that, they issued their solution quietly in tech help, which nobody sought until it was too late - how many users lost their valuable personal data so that Samsung maintained their perfect public image?

Wtf? Correct one? Its their f*****g responsibility, not a privilege - its called warranty and you say as if I need to bend over and be thankful that the all mighty blessed me with divine intervention

 

[Quicks]

Trillion Dollars company, but can't get the basic quality control right. But seems like a norm these days, all around the world. They just push out products and see what's a hit or a miss.

 

[notoperable]

Trillion Dollars company, but can't get the basic quality control right. But seems like a norm these all around the world. They just push out products and see what's a hit or a miss.

Who gives a shit about Q/A if you have enterprise wait list that's a year into the future

 

[efikkan]

So an issue they haven’t noticed before and which requires some knowledge from the user to even identify it (and has to actively look for it) already got an assessment on how many products it affects, and it’s of course extremely low number?

The fact that right now there is a very small number of these cards around, but affected cards were found from several AIBs and models shows you that 0.5% number is pulled from the arse.

Let one thing be clear; they knew. It's 100% a conscious decision. It's not a QA issue.
It's not like they assemble graphics cards and then discover how many ROPs are usable. This means these GPUs are a lower bin, and that's how they know exactly how many are made (usually multiple bins go into a single SKU).

Perhaps they thought it would go unnoticed, or that the performance difference would be insignificant.

 

[LittleBro]

1. Since QA failed badly in case of dies for $2k GPU, their 0.5% of affected units is just rough estimation. Anyway, it seems user must be lucky enough to get a card that runs up to the specification these days. Shitshow.

2. Nvidia sold out of spec dies to AIBs. Maybe whole scarcity of RTX 5000 lineup in retail is connected to this problem. RTX 5070 amd 5060 are delayed because of performance bug. There might be a correlation.

3. So missing 8 rops kills 5% of raster perf. With all that physical space that AI units occupy in die, how about they used that space for another ROPs instead to see another meaningful increase of perf. in native without AI workarounds?

 

[Vya Domus]

"Anomaly" lol, like it's something supernatural.

"Sorry guys we shipped out chips with portions of them disabled and strangely enough they had the correct firmware on them so the thing doesn't crash, weird right, don't know how that happened."

 

[azrael]

NVIDIA's statement downplaying the issue reminds me a bit of a game I play, Elder Scrolls Online. Every so often the servers have issues and then you see a banner saying "Some people are experiencing issues..." when in fact ALL people are. Some companies have turned downplaying problems into an art form. It seems it's better to mislead than taking the actual blame.

 

[LittleBro]

Let one thing be clear; they knew. It's 100% a conscious decision. It's not a QA issue.
It's not like they assemble graphics cards and then discover how many ROPs are usable. This means these GPUs are a lower bin, and that's how they know exactly how many are made (usually multiple bins go into a single SKU).

Perhaps they thought it would go unnoticed, or that the performance difference would be insignificant.

They knew and they will tell users to don't mind, just turn on DLSS.

 

[efikkan]

They knew and they will tell users to don't mind, just turn on DLSS.

It would be interesting to know whether these cards even have separate device IDs too. Having multiple iterations branded as the same product is completely normal for Nvidia, and most of the time the performance should be the same or even slightly better.

Spoiler

This is what's listed in ListDevices.txt provided with the 572.47 driver:

DEV_2B85 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090"
DEV_2B87 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D"
DEV_2B85&SUBSYS_53051028 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090"
DEV_2B85&SUBSYS_A7611025 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090"
DEV_2B85&SUBSYS_530717AA "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090"
DEV_2B87&SUBSYS_530817AA "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D"
DEV_2B85&SUBSYS_53001462 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090"
DEV_2B85&SUBSYS_53011462 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090"
DEV_2B85&SUBSYS_53021462 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090"
DEV_2B85&SUBSYS_53031462 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090"
DEV_2B85&SUBSYS_53061462 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090"
DEV_2B87&SUBSYS_53001462 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D"
DEV_2B87&SUBSYS_53011462 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D"
DEV_2B87&SUBSYS_53021462 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D"
DEV_2B87&SUBSYS_53031462 "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D"

 

[Hecate91]

Nvidia calling this issue an "anomaly" is downplaying the issue, of course they knew of it the whole time as Nvidia are the ones selling dies to the AIB's.
But they've already gotten away with it by calling it some weird mistake, when it isn't possible for out of specs dies to go out on accident, and they know 5090 users won't send their cards back because the supply has been artificially limited.

 

[Super XP]

This is a perfect opportunity for AMD to screw up a perfect opportunity.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, lets see if the RX 9070XT and non XT are priced accordingly. To take advantage of Nvidia's screw-ups.

Nvidia calling this issue an "anomaly" is downplaying the issue, of course they knew of it the whole time as Nvidia are the ones selling dies to the AIB's.
But they've already gotten away with it by calling it some weird mistake, when it isn't possible for out of specs dies to go out on accident, and they know 5090 users won't send their cards back because the supply has been artificially limited.

I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia was actually doing this. lol

 

[JustBenching]

I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia was actually doing this. lol

To what end? There is nothing competing with the 5090 anyways. Scratch that, there is nothing competing with the 4090 anyways. Nevermind, scratch that, there is nothing competing with the 5080. Actually, keep scratching until we go through the 4080S, the 4080 and the 5070ti. The last one, nvidia might have some competition.