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- CPU-Z now includes a detailed GPU diagnostics verification system
- You can check the ROPs of the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti
- Nvidia has claimed it affects less than 1% of the RTX 50 series
A new update to CPU-Z Validator now checks RTX 50 series graphics cards for missing ROPs, which can mean reduced performance, directly through the diagnostics program.
CPU-Z is one of the most trusted diagnostics programs available online, which was previously able to give a basic overview of your graphics card's performance. Booting it up since the new update, it will now say a message such as "This GPU is supposed to have [X] ROPS", with support for the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti, so you can know right away if something is wrong with your GPU.
X user @d0cTB demonstrated how the new CPU-Z update can inform you of this rare issue. Under the Graphic Cards (GPU) heading, it will display the GPU Type, GPU Brand, GPU Specs, GPU Units, GPU VRAM, and GPU APIs. It's the GPU Units specifically that check for the total amount of Shader Units, Texture Units, and Render Units (ROPs) for any discrepancies.
A small handful of RTX 50 series partner cards have reportedly shipped without the full intended hardware as standard on the boards. It's said that less than 1% of RTX 5090 and RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards (or one in 200) have a loss of ROPs, meaning slowed down performance compared to what they should be able to achieve.
When the problem was first flagged late last month, Nvidia's global PR director, Ben Berraondo, said: "The average graphical performance impact is 4%, with no impact on AI and Compute workloads. Affected consumers can contact the board manufacturer for a replacement. The production anomaly has been corrected" (via The Verge).
Render Units (ROPs) perform functions such as pixel data processing, blending, texture rendering, antialiasing, and other essential processes. They are one of the last data pipelines acting as a buffer in local memory, interacting with the graphics card's onboard memory pool, writing and reading values.
CPU-Z is now able to detect differences in the total available ROPs for the RTX 5090/5090D, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti. It's said that the affected units have a reduced number by 4%, which means the impacted RTX 5090s have 168 ROPs instead of 176, the RTX 5080 has 104 ROPs instead of 112, and the RTX 5070 Ti has 88 ROPs instead of 96. Something to keep in mind if you've experienced less-than-stellar performance so far.
A quick way to diagnose your RTX 50 series GPU
Considering how rare RTX 50 series stock has been to get your hands on since the first GPUs were released, having an AIB model come affected is incredibly disappointing. Through CPU-Z's new verification update, you'll be able to quickly outline where you've got a problem graphics card that needs to be RMA'd depending on the warranty you have available.
Hopefully, should the sub-1% of the affected RTX 50 series be still out in the wild, this quick check will save you a lot of problems further down the line. You're unlikely to have a problematic RTX 5090, RTX 5080, or RTX 5070 Ti, but there's nothing worse than spending anywhere from $800 to $2,000+ on something sub-optimal.