Recent Nvidia GPUs Are Slower Due To Production Issues

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2025 has been a challenging beginning for Nvidia compared to expectations, primarily due to an intensified emphasis by competitors like Deepseek on AI advancements. Also contributing are tariffs imposed on Chinese goods and, more recently, the cost and availability disruptions caused by Taiwan’s adjustments in production costs and supply chain for various product ranges, including the RTX 50 series, with the top-tier model, the RTX 5090, still experiencing significant scarcity.

It seems that the challenging beginning for Nvidia and its customers is persisting, as performance problems appear to be a recurring issue with the RTX 5090/5090D and RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards.

Nvidia and consumers are facing ongoing difficulties, as the rocky start continues, with specific performance issues surfacing on the RTX 5090/5090D and RTX 5070 Ti GPUs.

Or simply:
Unfortunately for Nvidia and its customers, the initial troubles seem to be prolonged, as the RTX 5090/5090D and RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards are experiencing performance problems.

A Somewhat Limited Production Issue In Play

Even though Nvidia’s high-end RTX 5090, the China-specific RTX 5090D, and mid-range RTX 5070 Ti are in short supply, production problems, as acknowledged by Nvidia, appear to be causing some difficulties.

The problem at hand arises due to some GPUs experiencing reduced performance levels compared to their expected performance, as suggested by Nvidia in its technical documents. These particular units are reported to experience a performance decline of less than 5% when compared to GPUs without this issue, according to testing conducted by independent parties like TechPowerUp.

Nvidia has already commented on the issue by releasing a statement to The Verge below:

In about half a percent of GeForce RTX 5090, 5090D, and 5070 Ti graphics cards, there’s a unique problem: one fewer ROP than stated in the specifications. This discrepancy causes a 4% reduction in graphical performance on average, but it doesn’t affect AI or compute tasks. If you own an affected product, reach out to the manufacturer for a replacement. We have rectified the manufacturing issue.

If you’ve received a faulty GPU, like an RTX 5090 or RTX 5070 Ti, the ROP (Rendering Output Processor) numbers should be lower than the claimed 176 for the RTX 5090 (which is typically 168 in defective models) and 96 on the RTX 5070 Ti (compared to 88 in affected units). To check the ROP count on your GPU, you can use tools like GPU-Z or HWiNFO.

Nvidia’s statement suggests that the lack of some GPUs having one fewer block of ROPs is the reason for this, which translates to both the top-tier Blackwell GPUs and their mid-range counterparts being short by a total of eight ROPs. This issue, however, does not seem to be widespread, affecting only about 0.5% (1 in 200) of users from an already limited launch, who have experienced performance problems as a result.

Got A Defective RTX 50 Series GPU? Here’s What You Should Do

If the drop in performance as shown earlier isn’t significantly large, some users might not be overly excited, given they waited in lines or spent a lot to acquire a unit. Since the RTX 5090 is Nvidia’s priciest consumer-grade GPU yet, similar in cost to the RTX 3090 Ti upon its launch, it could be beneficial to contact Nvidia (if you own a Founder’s Edition with issues) or an AIB partner for a functional replacement if available.

Finding a substitute could pose a challenge due to the scarcity of available units, especially for the RTX 5090 model. This is because supply restrictions are currently affecting Nvidia’s fastest consumer-level GPU yet, and manufacturers like MSI, Manli, ZOTAC, and Gigabyte have reportedly been impacted by these constraints.

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2025-02-26 03:15