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The Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs are no stranger to issues. From melting connectors to missing PhysX support, RTX 50 series owners have faced many problems. However, TechPowerUp's report of RTX 5090 with missing ROPs became far more controversial due to the way Nvidia tried to handle the situation.
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Instead of being fully transparent about the issue, Team Green downplayed the situation by not mentioning the RTX 5080. This implied that the card was not affected by the Missing ROPs case, which is not true. It should be noted that Nvidia changed the statement later. This left many fans outraged, leading them to be vocal about it on X.
This article will discuss why the Nvidia RTX 50 series ROPs controversy is bigger than most people realize.
Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the writer's opinions.
Why is the Nvidia RTX 50 Series missing ROPs situation controversial?
It all started when a user posted a CPU-Z screenshot of the Zotac RTX 5090 graphics card, which only had 168 ROPs instead of 176 as stated on the Nvidia website. TechPowerUp picked up on it and tested its own Zotac card, only to find the same results.
After this revelation, Nvidia quickly acknowledged the issue. The company explained that less than 0.5% of total buyers of RTX 5090/5090D and 5070 Ti GPUs are affected. This led to many believe that the RTX 5080 was not affected by this, but it couldn't be more wrong.
Reports of missing ROPs in the Nvidia RTX 5080 resurfaced soon after Nvidia's statement, which may have prompted the company to provide a new statement to The Verge, which included the RTX 5080 graphics card this time. Nvidia also mentioned that the lower ROP count only leads to a 4% performance loss, which is also not technically true. TechPowerUp tested the affected GPUs and found that the FPS loss can be much higher than 4%, depending on the game.
Nvidia's poor handling of the situation and attempts to downplay the issue somewhat fueled the fire, and probably made the missing ROPs situation more controversial.
What are ROPs, and why are they important?
ROPs are short for Raster Operation Pipelines/Render Output Units, which are physical units present inside a GPU silicon. This component processes texel data, controls anti-aliasing, does vector operations, calculates pixel value, and more. Therefore, a lower ROP count can lead to a potential bottleneck and lower performance.
Is Nvidia's claim of only 4% performance loss accurate?
Nvidia's claim of only a 4% performance loss due to missing ROPs is inaccurate and misleading, depending on the games. Not all titles are designed equally. Some games rely on ROPs more than others, and they can show as much as a 5-12% or higher performance drop.
According to TechPowerUp, the FPS drops are reported to be around 5% in Nvidia RTX 5090, while it is about 12% in RTX 5080. The situation could be even worse in lower-tier cards like RTX 5070 Ti.
Nvidia has faced an ROPs controversy earlier as well
A few months after the launch of GTX 900 series GPUs in 2014, reports of strange things about the memory and ROPs surfaced online. The Nvidia RTX 970 was announced with 4GB of memory and 224 GB/s bandwidth.
However, the card was reporting only 3.5GB VRAM in games and applications with reduced bandwidth. The GTX 970 also reported an ROP count of only 56, which is lower than the declared 64. This resulted in a class action lawsuit.
Also read: Nvidia RTX 5000 series vs RTX 4000 series: Which is the better GPU lineup?
What should you do if you own an affected Nvidia RTX 50 series GPU?
Nvidia has mentioned that any user with an affected Nvidia RTX 50 series GPU is eligible for a replacement. Users must contact their graphics card manufacturers, such as MSI, ASUS, GIGABYTE, and more, to get a replacement unit.
Nvidia also mentioned that only the initial batches of GPUs have this issue, and they are probably sold out by now. Therefore, if you buy one now, your graphics card should be safe.
The ROPs issue is unfortunate considering the number of checks and tests that these graphics cards endured before they got packed and shipped. Many owners are likely not even aware that their GPUs have defects and are performing slower than they should.
