Nvidia RTX 5090 playing cards with lacking ROPs are being bought as ‘B-stock’

A couple of individuals who managed the minor miracle of monitoring down a brand new Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics card had been shocked and appalled to seek out that these GPUs had been underperforming because of lacking Render Output Models (ROPs). However because it seems, consumers are so determined for these new playing cards that at the very least one European vendor is making an attempt to promote stated underperforming defects as “B-stock.”

German on-line retailer Alternate.de has a list up for the Zotac RTX 5090 Strong OC, with its “lacking” ROPs spelled out proper on the web page. (The faulty card solely has 168 ROPs when it ought to have 176.) These lacking ROPs can lead to as much as 10 p.c much less efficiency.

The value for this tough diamond? €2,899, or about $3,140 USD. For a card that Nvidia claims has a $2,000 MSRP with out faulty {hardware}.

It’s onerous to inform what the present avenue value is for any of the not too long ago launched Nvidia and AMD playing cards, however one Newegg itemizing reveals the identical Zotac card as $2,370. Out of inventory, in fact. And VideoCardz.com notes that no, you’ll be able to’t simply use the guarantee on the cardboard and get Zotac to interchange it with a 5090 that does have all its ROPs intact. One of the best you’ll be able to hope for could be a return and refund from the retailer.

It’s fairly miserable that somebody is promoting a identified faulty card at effectively above the value of an unsullied GPU. It’s much more miserable that, within the present market, somebody’s most likely going to purchase it—if not an precise PC gamer keen to pay extra for much less, then a reseller hoping to make a fast buck, with or with out disclosing that this specific 5090 isn’t all it’s cracked as much as be.