NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 “GB202” Chip Faces Defect Issues in Certain Market Units; All Variants Could Be Impacted

NVIDIA’s latest challenge with their GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs is making waves, with reports suggesting that the "Blackwell" GB202 chip inside these powerhouses is faulty in several units.

NVIDIA’s Top-Tier RTX Blackwell GPU Faces ROP Shortages in Tests; The Culprit Appears to Be the GB202 Chip

When will the turmoil in the GPU markets settle down for gamers? First, there were stock shortages with NVIDIA’s high-end RTX Blackwell series, seeing only a trickle of availability. Now, it seems the technology has thrown another curveball with reports of defects in some of these units, leading to a significant dip in performance. Just recently, a ZOTAC GeForce RTX 5090 exhibited this very issue. As per the latest from @MEGAsizeGPU, the root cause lies in the Blackwell GB202 chip—let’s explore this further.

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

The GeForce RTX 5090 cards are popping up online with fewer Render Output Units (ROPs) as indicated by GPU-Z, a telltale sign that those impacted have hardware that doesn’t perform up to the benchmark of its peers. Initially, some thought it was a quirk with GPU-Z itself. But it’s now apparent that the defect is within the GB202 chip—a quite worrying development.

To substantiate the theory that GPU-Z isn’t to blame, experts ran tests on an affected RTX 5090 using HWINFO and noticed the same ROP decrease, pointing to a more significant underlying issue. Given that this could still be the start of the predicament, relatively few models are facing this defect. However, whispers are that it might not be restricted to one AIB model alone; even the Founder’s Edition could be in the crosshairs.

So, what’s the game plan now? We’ve reached out to NVIDIA for some clarity. As the defect seems entrenched in the GB202 chip, there’s a good chance that NVIDIA will begin replacing the affected units through RMA. Let’s just hope this issue doesn’t grow bigger, given that NVIDIA’s "mid-range" GPUs are also facing delays due to other performance snags.

For now, we urge you to check your model’s ROP count. If it reads fewer than 176, drop us a line. At this point, we can’t confirm if other models, like the GeForce RTX 5080, are running into similar hurdles since this situation is still unfolding.