Zotac RTX 5090s Shipped With Fewer ROPs, Performing 5% Worse Than Intended

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Nerfing RTX 5090 To RTX 4090 Super Levels!

Story Highlight
  • Reports show certain models of the Zotac RTX 5090 Solid ship with 8 fewer ROPs.
  • This can lead to worse performance than other models of Nvidia’s flagship GPU.
  • Zotac has yet to comment on the matter or share an update.

The GeForce RTX 5090, despite its impressive performance, has proven to be a troublesome graphics card for Nvidia. Following controversial connector problems, stock shortages, and absurd pricing, the GPU seems to have run into another problem.

New reports highlight that Zotac-based RTX 5090s can perform worse than Nvidia intended, leaving owners disappointed yet again.

Why it matters: The RTX 5090 already costs significantly more than its predecessor, so buyers will be less than pleased to see such problems showing up in the already-limited stock on the market.

GeForce RTX 5090
The Reference Model Performs Better Than Zotac’s Problematic Variant

The problem was initially reported via TechPowerUp, which noted that the AIB graphics card shipped with 168 ROPs. For context, the RTX 5090 boasts 176 ROPs, making Zotac’s variant perform slightly worse.

Similar reports came from members of the TechPowerUp forum, highlighting that Zotac’s RTX 5090 Solid variant is suffering from this issue across multiple units. Fortunately, other variants seem unimpacted.

Further testing highlighted a small 5% performance gap between this Zotac variant and Nvidia’s reference model. In practice, this should lead to Zotac Solid users seeing around 5-10 fewer frames per second, depending on the scenario.

Although some may be unbothered by this difference, Zotac will likely look into the matter to ensure all its cards meet Nvidia’s advertised specifications.

Zotac GeForce RTX 5090 Solid Missing ROPs
Zotac GeForce RTX 5090 Solid Missing ROPs via TechPowerUp

Interestingly, Computer Base has stated that its Zotac Solid GPU does not exhibit this problem. This may be indicative of faulty units as opposed to a general problem with all the models, but more information is needed before drawing a conclusion.

Since RTX 5090 supply is expected to increase over the coming months, it would be best for Zotac and other board partners to iron out such issues before more consumer spick up Nvidia’s latest flagship offering.

The RTX 5090 already costs a hefty $2000, so these issues are unacceptable, even if they don’t prove to be too big of a problem for most people.

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