TECH NEWS – Some people immediately suspected that the Nvidia Blackwell architecture graphics card, designed for high-end workstations, had the same flaw as the initial GeForce RTX 5090s.

It had been a while since we’d heard about ROP shortages in Nvidia GPUs, but now here we are, seeing another GPU that allegedly has fewer ROPs. Shortly after the launch of the Blackwell Nvidia GeForce RTX 5000 series, reports emerged that a small percentage of the initial production run had fewer ROPs (render output units). This problem was mainly observed on the flagship card, the GeForce RTX 5090, but slower GPUs (RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti) also struggled with a similar issue. These GPUs performed worse than expected due to the lower ROP count, but Nvidia has started replacing these units.

This issue quickly disappeared from the spotlight when Nvidia confirmed that only 0.5% of the manufactured units were affected and cards produced later were unlikely to have this problem. This is probably the first time we’ve heard of a Pro GPU missing ROPs. A Reddit user revealed that they purchased an Nvidia RTX Pro 5000 Blackwell GPU to replace their RTX 4090. After installing the GPU and opening GPU-Z, they noticed something unusual. The software only mentions 160 ROPs, which is noticeably fewer than the number listed on various third-party websites. Nvidia does not currently show how many ROPs the RTX Pro 5000 Blackwell has on its official website. According to TechPowerUp, however, it should have 176.

It has also been tested with other utilities, such as Geeks3D, which reported the same result: 160 ROPs. A third utility, probably AIDA64, reported the same ROP count. With 16 fewer ROPs, performance will be noticeably slower. However, you may be able to get a replacement, as Nvidia has promised to provide them. This particular unit appears to be from an early production batch when defective units went unnoticed due to poor quality control. Currently, reports of GeForce RTX 5000 series cards with fewer ROPs are rare.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1rmpddq/comment/o958ql6/

However, according to the attached screenshots, the RTX Pro 5000 Blackwell has 10 GPCs. This means that 160 ROPs is the correct configuration. Therefore, users should not rely on TechPowerUp‘s information, as it is incorrect. One Reddit comment explains in detail that 160 ROPs is the correct number, not 176.

Source: WCCFTech