PSA: If you bought an Nvidia RTX 50, check it for problems

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.

Make sure you’re using the right cables

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.

Install the latest BIOS and drivers… that work

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.

Check for missing ROPs

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.

Install and older secondary GPU for older game support

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.