As if the launch of Nvidia’s RTX 50-series wasn’t bumpy enough, it now turns out that some of these GPUs are missing out on a bit of performance, and it’s unclear how many cards are affected. Although they still are the best graphics cards right now, some RTX 5090s may not have their full specs, and it’s affecting their performance.
This was discovered by TechPowerUp, and the affected GPU is a Zotac GeForce RTX 5090 solid, but apparently, cards from other manufacturers might also be affected. Let’s dig into what exactly is going on.
During the testing process, TechPowerUp noticed that their Zotac RTX 5090 was underperforming when compared to other models of the card. The publication also tested Nvidia’s Founders Edition, so it had a certain expectation that the Zotac model was failing to meet. Nvidia’s FE is usually treated as a baseline, and partner cards should not offer less performance — most will squeeze out a little bit more, especially if overclocked.
The lower performance wasn’t a major difference; it amounted to about five percent. Still, that’s a lot when you’re comparing two RTX 5090s to each other. Although TechPowerUp tried to trace what caused this, the truth only came out when one of its readers posted a forum thread reporting that their Zotac RTX 5090 Solid had fewer ROPs (raster operations pipeline units) than advertised. According to the official specs, the RTX 5090 should come with 176 ROPs, but this model only had 168 ROPs enabled, as per the GPU-Z test.
The affected user tried all the fixes you could think of, including a fresh driver install and even a different BIOS. Unfortunately, that didn’t bring those missing ROPs back.
Digging deeper, TechPowerUp discovered that their Zotac GPU also had fewer ROPs than it was supposed to. Eight were missing. The publication then re-tested the card and found that the Zotac RTX 5090 was underperforming when compared to every other model of the card; the GPU was 5.6% slower than Nvidia’s Founders Edition, and a whopping 8.4% slower than the overclocked version of the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090.
MSI 5090D😅 https://t.co/Ij48LQ98hD pic.twitter.com/EfHgPcMi2k
— HXL (@9550pro) February 21, 2025
This could’ve been a Zotac-specific problem, but Zotac itself couldn’t have configured the number of ROPs on the silicon. However, this should’ve been caught during the quality assurance stage at either Nvidia or Zotac. The company is yet to comment on the issue, but it turns out that it might not be alone in this. According to a screenshot posted by HXL on X (Twitter), one MSI RTX 5090D (which is a China-specific model of the GPU) also shows up with fewer ROPs than it should.
It’s hard to know what caused this problem or what possible fixes there might be, but it’s sad to see the RTX 50-series being plagued with issues from the get-go, including low availability and inflated pricing.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.