To say Nvidia’s RTX 50 graphics card launch has gone poorly would be an incredible understatement. There are almost no cards in stock, despite Nvidia shutting down last-generation production at the end of last year to prepare for it, but the cards that are our there are failing in all sorts of ways. From driver and BIOS issues, to melting power cables, and even missing hardware on the GPU die itself.
If you were “lucky” enough to get hold of one of these cards, you really need to make sure you got what you paid for.
There were a lot of problems with Nvidia’s RTX 4090 when it first launched, but Nvidia fixed that with a new power connector. Or so we thought. That’s why when RTX 5090s and some 5080s started having problems with melted or damaged power connectors, and even damaged power supplies and graphics cards, everyone was so surprised.
But power problems are still here and here to stay, it seems. Third-party power cables often appear to be at fault, but we can’t discount user error or poor airflow around these hot and demanding cables.
Even if you haven’t encountered any issues with your GPU’s cabling yet, make sure that you’re using first-party cables only, and that you don’t have any kinks or restricted airflow around your GPU and its power connectors.
Many of the latest RTX 50 graphics cards have been facing strange black screen issues since launch. This can happen at random times and making some of these new cards all but unusable. Fortunately, Nvidia has a fix for it and has released updated drivers and BIOS updates for a range of RTX 50 cards that should fix the problem.
Unfortunately, for some this issue still isn’t fixed. So, while the best general advice we can give if you’re facing black screen issues is to update your card and its drivers to the latest versions, read up what your fellow gamers are saying. If there’s an older driver or BIOS that works better for now, roll back to that instead to get your card working. When Nvidia has ironed out the kinks, then you can download the latest releases for a proper fix.
One of the strangest issues with the RTX 50 generation, is that more than 0.5% of all cards sold have been found to have missing hardware, specifically ROPs. These “Render output units,” accelerate specific functions of the GPU and are vital to its performance. Cards are missing 8 ROPs each, which in some cases can equate to close t0 10% of the total. Some third-parties have found performance can be impacted by between one percent and 11 percent, so the swing can be huge.
You can check if your card is missing ROPs using these steps. Hopefully you won’t be affected, but if you are, you’ll need to get in touch with your graphics card’s manufacturer, be it Nvidia or a board partner, and request either a refund or return and replace.
It’s probably smarter at this stage to request a refund and buy something else at retail — the turnaround time will almost certainly be faster, even if you have to wait for Nvidia’s cards to come back in stock. AMD’s new GPUs are just around the corner, afterall.
If you do request a replacement, though, be sure to test it thoroughly when you receive it to make sure it’s not also negatively effected.
Are you trying to play older games on your RTX 50 and finding the performance terrible? It could be because Nvidia deprecated 32-bit PhysX support with its new-generation. You can get around this by installing a secondary PhysX-supporting GPU, though. It’s not a cheap fix, but if you really want to play those old classics on your new card, doing so with another GPU to help is the best way forward for now.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Two residents of Chicago have filed a lawsuit in the US over claims that robots run by Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics captured their facial and hand measurements without consent, bringing renewed attention to the food delivery robots. The cases raise a troubling question: If a robot delivers food to your door, can it also be gathering sensitive information about you?
According to a report by The Associated Press, the proposed class-action lawsuits were filed in Cook County on Oct. 9 and allege violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The complaints claim that the robots’ cameras and LiDAR sensors captured information on customers’ faces and hands as they approached the machines to pick up their orders. Both have denied the allegations.