Don’t panic, gaming laptop buyers – Nvidia assures us that mobile RTX 5000 graphics cards won’t have the chip-level fault that hit desktop GPUs

Nvidia has clarified that Blackwell laptop GPUs are not affected by the hardware-level glitch in rendering pipelinesNvidia was very clear that this is the case when pressed on the matterThe fault is only applicable to desktop GPUs (not including the RTX 5070)

Nvidia has made it clear that its Blackwell GPUs for laptops aren’t affected by the same hardware-level fault that was discovered in its desktop models (save for the most recent RTX 5070 which is also free of this glitch).

Alarming reports emerged yesterday, from two German tech sites – Hardwareluxx and Heise Online – claiming that Nvidia was asking notebook makers to check their laptops with RTX 5000 GPUs, and part of that was to see if the mentioned glitch – where a hardware spec known as ROPs (I’ll come back to what that is exactly) is deficient – is present.

The Verge spoke to Nvidia’s Ben Berraondo, global PR director, who informed the site that there’s no issue with these laptops, and that: “All partners continue to run checks as part of our standard testing procedure.”

The Verge pressed and asked specifically whether we just went “from ‘no other GPUs are affected’ to ‘some laptop GPUs’ are also affected” and Berraondo said no, that wasn’t the case.

The tech site then asked to ‘triple-check’ if this means that no Blackwell laptop GPUs have the flaw with ROPs, and the PR director said: “Correct, no further issues.”

So, that’s a cast-iron statement that Nvidia’s RTX 5000 GPUs in laptops won’t be affected.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Analysis: A necessary clarification

While reports like those which emerged yesterday should always be treated with caution, you can easily understand why there might be some doubt here. If you recall, Nvidia said initially that only the RTX 5090 and 5070 Ti desktop graphics cards were hit by this fault in the GPU, and then later conceded that the RTX 5080 was also a potential victim.

To clarify the nature of the fault – and how common, or rather uncommon, it is – to put it simply, ROPs are rendering pipelines for 3D graphics, and 8 of them (one block) are missing in the defective GPUs. That means they’ll run some PC games a bit slower (the effect is quite variable, as some games use these rendering pipelines more than others – some titles won’t be noticeably slowed down at all).

Still, this is clearly a major issue at times when gaming (other tasks aren’t affected) for those with a Blackwell GPU that is suffering from a lack of ROPs. According to Nvidia, only 0.5% of the desktop graphics cards it had produced in the mentioned desktop models (all but the RTX 5070) are hit by this issue (an assertion partially backed up by Corsair’s experience with its prebuilt PCs).

At any rate, it’s pretty clear that no one buying a gaming laptop with an Nvidia RTX 5000 graphics card will suffer this hardware-level nastiness. Either because the problem does not apply to any mobile hardware at all, or because the (“standard”) checks in place with notebook manufacturers are definitely going to catch any faulty chips before those portables are shipped.

Rumor also has it that there’ll likely be a delay with these Blackwell-toting notebooks, that went on pre-order late in February, and were expected to start shipping in March. Now it looks like we might be waiting until April, or even May, according to Hardwareluxx.

If other chatter from the grapevine is right, Nvidia actually wanted to get these laptops out in January 2025 originally. Between that and the disastrously thin stock levels of Blackwell desktop GPUs, the RTX 5000 series has got off to a very shaky start in terms of sliding timeframes and availability.

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