NVIDIA «squeezed» cores: some RTX 5090s have chips with fewer ROPs and 5-6% worse performance

A user of the TechPowerUP forums has discovered that his ZOTAC RTX 5090 SOLID graphics card has a partial disconnection of raster operations units (ROPs). Instead of the declared 176, only 168 were active. «The shortage is 4.5% of the total.

TechPowerUP, which is the developer of the GPU-Z utility and has a large database of GPU BIOSes, tested this card and confirmed that their copy has the same problem.

How does the lack of ROP affect productivity?

ROP units are responsible for processing pixel data, performing tasks such as blending and anti-aliasing. This is a key part of the GPU architecture, and NVIDIA often artificially limits the number of ROPs to differentiate between graphics card models. However, within the same model line, the number of raster operation units should be the same.

In TechPowerUP’s initial review, it turned out that the ZOTAC 5090 SOLID had slightly lower performance and lagged behind the RTX 5090 Founders Edition. Initially, the reviewers did not notice that their video card suffered from a lack of ROP, and it was only after a Wuxi Gamer forum member opened up that they confirmed that their device had the same problem.

Fewer ROPs have a noticeable impact on performance. Using the Elden Ring game at 4K UHD (max settings, no DLSS), the Zotac RTX 5090 SOLID outperformed all other RTX 5090s, including the Founders Edition. It showed:

• is 5.6% worse than Founders Edition,
• 8.4% worse than ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 OC, the fastest model in the test.

Since the GPU frequency of the ZOTAC 5090 SOLID was the same as the stated 2407 MHz (as in the Founders Edition), it should not be significantly slower than other models. Interestingly, the performance loss is not noticeable when monitoring clock speeds, as they are as high as expected — there are simply fewer units available to handle the visualization workload.

There are two possible reasons for this situation with the lack of raster operation units.

• An error in the BIOS – in this case, it can be fixed by updating the firmware, although this is not the best scenario for a $1999+ video card.
• A defect in the GPU itself – if this is the case, the problem is serious and cannot be fixed.

ZOTAC hasn’t made an official statement yet, but TechPowerUP is working with ZOTAC and NVIDIA to find out all the details.

Initially, TechPowerUP confirmed that this problem has been found only in the ZOTAC SOLID RTX 5090. Graphics cards from ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit, and NVIDIA itself do not have this defect.

But later it turned out that the problem with the lack of ROPs affected cards from ZOTAC, MSI, MANLI, and Gigabyte. According to MEGAsizeGPU, the problem is not related to the BIOS, but to a defect in the graphics chip. Therefore, it cannot be fixed without replacing the GPU.

The root cause is the chip. A small batch of GB202 is defective, and the bios can not do anything with this issue.

— MEGAsizeGPU (@Zed__Wang) February 21, 2025

Source: videocardz