GeForce RTX 50 Founders Edition Owners Claim A Driver Bug Is Bricking Cards

hero geforce rtx 5090 pcie connector
It wouldn't be a new GPU launch without some chaos, and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 series is keeping the tradition alive. Just weeks after hitting the market—if you can even call it that, given the ongoing stock shortages—multiple reports have surfaced claiming that the first driver update for the RTX 50 "Blackwell" GPU series is bricking cards outright. For exceedingly rare GPUs that cost at least a grand, with some AIB models pushing past $2,500, this is not the kind of early adopter experience anyone hoped for.

The issue first came to widespread attention when Igor’s Lab reported issues with its GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition. Igor writes that the card simply would not work with risers or adapters without limiting the speed to PCIe 4.0 or below. Meanwhile, overclocker, YouTuber, and Thermal Grizzly CEO der8auer found his brand-new RTX 5080 Founders Edition unresponsive right from the initial install.


Like Igor's Lab, der8auer was able to get the card working by forcing his motherboard to run the PCI Express slot in PCIe 4.0 mode instead of PCIe 5.0. The catch? The card still won’t function properly in PCIe 5.0 mode. The fact that both RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 cards are affected suggests that the problem isn’t limited to one model but rather to the RTX 50 Founders Edition cards in general. der8auer's testing suggests that dropping the PCIe revision to 4.0 x16 has little to no impact on performance, which is great news for affected users but raises some awkward questions about the actual benefits of PCIe 5.0 for gaming.

pcie daughter board
The PCIe x16 golden fingers aren't directly connected to the primary PCB on the Founders Edition cards.

The likely culprit is the unique design of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 Founders Edition boards. Unlike most GPUs, these cards use a separate PCB for the PCIe x16 edge connector, which is connected to the main GPU PCB using a mezzanine-style plug. If something in the driver update interferes with how the card communicates over this interface, it could explain why switching to PCIe 4.0 fixes the issue for some but not all users.

reddit issue
This user on Reddit sent their GPU in to NVIDIA for study.

Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky. Reports from Reddit, Twitter, Baidu, and ChipHell indicate that some users are still stuck with bricked cards, even after dropping to PCIe 4.0. While early speculation suggested the issue was isolated to the China-exclusive RTX 5090D, it’s now clear that both versions of the card are affected. NVIDIA has yet to issue an official response, but given the public outcry, the company should move fast—especially with scalpers already making these GPUs impossibly expensive.

At the very least, this bug isn’t setting anything on fire—unlike the RTX 4090’s infamous melting power connectors. But with 5090s already being near-mythical in terms of availability, a driver update that bricks them is the last thing the Blackwell launch needed. If you’ve got an RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 Founders Edition, let us know if you've run into this issue and whether the PCIe 4.0 workaround saved your card—or if you’re now the proud owner of an expensive paperweight.