Nvidia Confirms Manufacturing Defect in RTX 5090 and 5070 Ti GPUs

A small percentage of GPUs are missing key hardware components, causing performance drops and prompting replacement offers.

Nvidia has acknowledged a manufacturing issue affecting less than 0.5% of RTX 5090, 5090D, and 5070 Ti GPUs, leading to missing ROPs (Render Output Units).
The defect results in a performance drop of up to 11% in some benchmarks and games, though AI and compute workloads remain unaffected.
The problem stems from a production anomaly in the GB202 chip, which Nvidia says has been corrected moving forward.
Impacted users are advised to check their GPUs using tools like GPU-Z and contact manufacturers for replacements if necessary.
The issue adds to existing challenges with the RTX 50-series, including launch driver bugs, melting power connectors, and limited availability.