Last week it was revealed that some RTX 50-series cards were shipping with missing ROPs, dampening the performance some got from their $2,000 upgrade. Now, even PC builders are making assurances to potential buyers that their prebuilt rigs are unaffected by this new problem.
As spotted by VideoCardz, PC builder, CyberPowerPC had a small disclaimer at the bottom of the GPU section in its gaming PCs saying:
"CyberPowerPC will ensure all systems equipped with GeForce RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070 Ti video cards have the correct number of ROPs before shipping."
While VideoCardz got a screenshot of this note from CyberPowerPC, I looked into the included link and noticed that this disclaimer had now disappeared. We don't have official word on why this disclaimer was added, then subsequently removed, but it could have something to do with reports on its inclusion. We have reached out to CyberPowerPC for comment.
If you're wondering what ROPs even are, they are specialised units in a GPU that read and write pixel information and are used for types of anti-aliasing. The RTX 5090 is supposed to have 176 ROPs but, as spotted by some users and sent to TechPowerUp, some apps showed their GPU had just 168. This results in a performance loss.
With one missing ROP partition, Nvidia claims, "The average graphical performance impact is 4%, with no impact on AI and Compute workloads."
Nvidia also claims this issue hit less than 0.5% of its cards. Maingear, another PC builder, has noted the issue, though its CEO reports no RTX 50 series GPUs with missing ROPs have arrived in its building facilities. This does suggest that Nvidia's claims to a minimal issue affecting a small batch as accurate.
It seems likely that many PC builders will be checking these cards as they come in to avoid a potential customer sending back their entire rig because of a problem with their GPU. Given that manufacturers are replacing GPUs with missing ROPs and the anomaly that caused the problem in the first place has reportedly been fixed, missing ROPs will only become an even more niche problem with time, and perhaps not worth flagging in every sale going forward.
