Plenty of 7800GTX-512MB boards to come

ONE OF the highlights in ATI's FUD presentation was limited availability of the 7800GTX 512MB, which was according to some sources, supposed to have only a single shipment of 4000 pieces. If those rumours were true, the 7800GTX 512MB would join the high ranks of 6800 Ultra Extreme, FX5800 Ultra, FX5200 Ultra and several more products that ATI's FUD presentation kicked and screamed about.

However, this is far from the truth, since several AIBs have only now begun to introduce the 7800 GTX 512MB models, and availability is kept at one shipment weekly, around 4000 boards for the whole world. This isn't much, but there are reasons why the supply is so "limited".

Nvidia's problem right now is that demand exceeds supply by a mile. In case you didn't know, the main problem is getting enough 144-pin 1.1ns Samsung GDDR-3 memory chips - those chips aren't exactly in mass production, and the chips had the status of only "sampling" not a long time ago. Samsung massively produces 1.2ns and 1.26ns GDDR3 memory chips, as tens of thousands of 7800GTX and X1800XL/XT can witness, but 1.1ns is in rather short supply, consumed entirely by nVIDIA's 7800GTX 512MB baby.

If you're willing to spend $700 dollars or €uro on a single graphics card rather than a trip to some nice and cosy location - it's minus 4C in Croatia and it's snowing hard - or an Xbox 360 Zero Hour premium kit on eBay - there will be enough boards for Yuletide, but you have to count there will be only around 12-15,000 boards coming for the Yuletide rush.

L'INQ
eBay's Zero Hour madness
7800 GTX 512MB in US

7800 GTX 512MB in UK