The RTX 5080 has become the latest Blackwell GPU to exhibit missing ROP units, raising concerns about quality control and transparency; this issue, impacting a small percentage of cards, can lead to performance dips in gaming, further fueling disappointment with the RTX 5000 series.
Facepalm: It appears the RTX 5080 is now part of a concerning trend affecting Nvidia's Blackwell consumer graphics cards. Following reports of missing Raster Operations Pipeline (ROP) units in RTX 5090 and RTX 5070 Ti cards, a user has reported the same problem with their RTX 5080.
A Redditor, gingeraffe90, posted a [GPU-Z screenshot] revealing that his RTX 5080 has 104 ROP units instead of the expected 112. This marks the first instance of an RTX 5080 exhibiting this hardware deficit and the fifth known case in the RTX 5000 series.
ROP units are crucial for handling final pixel processing, including blending, depth testing, and writing rendered pixels to the framebuffer.
The ROP issue first surfaced when RTX 5090 buyers reported receiving cards with 168 ROP units instead of 178, impacting performance by up to 5% depending on the game. Some games, like Elden Ring, experienced noticeable FPS drops, while others, such as Starfield and Doom Eternal, showed minimal performance impact.
Nvidia later acknowledged the problem, stating that less than 0.5% of RTX 5090, 5090D, and 5070 Ti GPUs were affected, leading to a performance decrease of up to 4% in gaming. They claimed the manufacturing issue was resolved and advised affected customers to contact their board vendors.
However, Nvidia's statement didn't mention the RTX 5080, raising questions about whether the company was aware of the issue and chose not to disclose it, hoping affected users wouldn't notice. Gingeraffe90's RTX 5080 specs have been validated, adding weight to the concern. This raises the question: did Nvidia keep quiet despite knowing?
This ROP issue adds to the RTX 5000 series' woes, which already include:
All of this contributes to the perception that the RTX 5000 series is one of Nvidia's most disappointing GPU generations in recent years.