First Nvidia RTX 5080 card with missing ROPs found

The plot thickens regarding the GeForce RTX 50 series ROP issue. While Nvidia initially confirmed that a limited number of RTX 5090 and RTX 5070 Ti GPUs were affected by a production defect resulting in fewer active ROPs (Render Output Units), new evidence suggests the problem might be more widespread.

A Reddit user named gingeraffe90 has reported that their RTX 5080 Founders Edition card also exhibits this issue, showing only 104 ROPs instead of the expected 112, according to GPU-Z, the same diagnostic tool that initially brought the problem to light. This raises concerns about the extent of the defect and the number of cards potentially affected.

To confirm the validity of the Reddit user's findings, VideoCardz contacted the poster for GPU-Z validation. The validation confirms that the reported ROP count is accurate, even after the user has reinstalled drivers. This leaves little doubt that the RTX 5080 is indeed affected by the same ROP defect. The issue now appears to extend beyond the initially reported RTX 5090 and 5070 Ti models, raising questions about the scope of the problem.

In related news, another Reddit user (Der_Zeitgeist) posted a GPU-Z screenshot of its newly acquired MSI RTX 5070Ti Gaming Trio OC card. Instead of the advertised 96 ROPs, this particular card had only 88. The user ran several benchmarks to assess the performance impact, comparing their results to reference values. According to the data shared on the ComputerBase forum, the affected 5070 Ti showed a performance deficit of 12% in 3DMark Time Spy, 3% in Steel Nomad, and 9% in Speed Way compared to a card with the correct number of ROPs. While these are synthetic benchmarks, and real-world gaming performance may vary, they demonstrate the impact of the missing ROPs.

So far, Nvidia's response has been less than ideal for those impacted. Nvidia has asked affected customers to seek replacements from the board partner that produced their graphics card. However, supply of these graphics cards aren't exactly in abundance, which can lead to difficulties in getting a replacement in a timely manner. With that in mind, a more proactive approach from Nvidia, like a recall of the impacted GPUs, might be more appropriate.

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KitGuru says: Your chance of finding one of these GPUs in stock is already low, but now a portion of the few that managed to get one are finding that their GPUs are defective, leading to a messy situation we rarely see around GPU launches nowadays. 

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