Defect Found in NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090 “GB202” Chip: All Variants Potentially Impacted

It’s disheartening to hear that NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs are caught up in yet another snafu. This time, it’s the onboard “Blackwell” GB202 chip that’s causing problems for many units.

NVIDIA’s top-tier RTX Blackwell GPU is reportedly exhibiting missing ROPs in tests like GPU-Z, and the issues seem to stem from the GB202 chip. One might wonder when the GPU market will settle down. Initially, the flagship RTX Blackwell faced inventory shortages, and now, defective models are leading to serious performance declines. Just recently, a ZOTAC GeForce RTX 5090 was flagged for such concerns, and sources like @MEGAsizeGPU indicate the core issue is rooted in Blackwell’s GB202 chip.

To quote from @MEGAsizeGPU’s tweet: “The root cause is the chip. A small batch of GB202 is defective, and the bios can not do anything with this issue.”

Many of you might have seen NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090 popping up online with a reduced number of ROPs in GPU-Z, indicating some consumers have unfortunately received underperforming units. Initially, GPU-Z was blamed for these discrepancies in some variants, but it’s now clear that the faulty GB202 chip is to blame, which is bad news indeed.

To reinforce the argument that this is not a mere software glitch with GPU-Z, an affected RTX 5090 was also tested with HWINFO, which confirmed the decrease in ROPs there too—pointing to a much deeper issue. It’s important to note that at this point, only a limited number of SKUs appear affected. Still, it’s not confined to just one AIB model—all variants, including the Founder’s Edition, might be at risk.

What’s the next step? We’ve reached out to NVIDIA for more information, and with the problem centered on the GB202 chip, it’s plausible that NVIDIA will offer replacements through RMA. We only hope the situation stabilizes quickly, especially since rumors suggest their “mid-range” GPUs are already experiencing production delays due to other performance concerns.

We encourage our readers to check their models for any discrepancies in ROP counts; if your count falls below 176, please report it. Right now, we can’t say for sure if this issue is affecting other models like the GeForce RTX 5080, as the situation is still unfolding.