Just get around to deciding to order this card and... It's back-ordered everywhere until at least late November.

Any of you industry-insiders know why? And didn't AMD pull something exactly like this last year or the year before?

Can't be good for their Christmas sales or what cards the OEM manufacturers go with!

d.

OK, 11/25/09 is what I'm hearing. Anybody else?

Didn't quite follow my threads, did you... this has been the reason my system was delayed 5 weeks until I opted for a 4890.

Talk of them not being available in the UK until next year... Think I am going to get a 4890 too.

The pain is that you can't go Nvidia either. A GTX285 sometimes might be the better choice (not for Arma2, though) but those are out of stock too. The only card readily available with any speed is in fact the HD4890.

TSMC is having trouble supplying ATI and Nvidia with GPU chips. And, ATI expected competition from Nvidia in this time frame which would mean less sales -- so did not order enough GPU chips from TSMC last Summer. Because TSMC is having "yield" issues with their manufacturing process, ATI and Nvidia are getting even fewer chips than they ordered.

My interpretation of the most credible rumors indicate Nvidia Fermi (G300) will be available in limited quantity around February and in quantity around April.

ATI HD5870 will be available in spurts (check daily and when you see one grab it) until early December (4 weeks ???). Then better quantities.

But, that's all rumor and conjecture.

What about this, Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X 2048MB. Would there a need for 2048MB or should I go 1042MB and save some money?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-212-SP

Test reports indicate 500MB is enough for screen resolutions up to 1650x1050 (what I run at with my 500MB HD4870 -- and, I run nearly all the popular games smoothly with max settings no AA -- I just got ARMA2, not installed yet). 1GB is useful at 1920 and above with AA enabled -- and seems to do everything needed.

I guess it depends on if someone wants to "see" a difference versus "measuring" one but not "seeing" it in game play. 2GB might give an "invisible but measurable" difference.

Mace, the Vapor X is a nice design, I couldn't get one but researched it and found it doing well on the noise front especially. Still hope my "plain" HD4890 will not be a hair dryer.

Great (if disappointing) info guys!

Allen, you know your stuff!

Actually, the card I ordered is part of a Cyberpower rig, so I'm unable to order it directly. That's what I get for not building my own system (as I did for the last four or five).

I wonder if buying from a boutique system vendor increases or decreases your chances of getting a card any time soon.

Still, amazing that they got this wrong again--- even with the solid rationales Allen offered. It leaves money on the table for dear AMD/ATI.

Thanks again guys.

Andrew

Yet another article detailing the TSMC issue for ATI (and Nvidia). They are indicating full production by the end of December. In the mean time, limited production.

TSMC Yields Hamper ATI

Thanks Allen!

This article says Nvidia confirms no Nvidia Fermi (G300) until Q! 2010. They point out that Q1 starts the end of January and ends at the end of April. They speculate no Fermi until May 2010.

They comment that AMD/ATI will have problems "taking advantage" because of TSMC.

Nvidia Contirms Q1 2010 for Fermi

TSMC went out and declared that they don't have any issues with the wields, but the thing is that they made a research agreement with intel, a few months back, which of course sounds iffy at best, since intel wouldn't mind hampering both ATI and NVIDIA, especialy now that we're close to a year to Larrabees release (accodrding to intel of course).

Also, for the Sapphire 4890 Vapor-X, while Sapphire has some of the best cards around and the vapor-x series is probably their own best, 2gb of card memory won't help you much, if at all.

OK, I know I'm obsessed but...

Most of the resellers are now listing November 15th as their expected stock date. No idea why.

Hope I'm that lucky. Cyberpower has me down for 11/25/09!

(Delayed gratification: not my strongsuit!)

d.

Late November squares with the general rumor that cards will be available in November -- but not lots of them. They say December for quantities; however, January seems more likely.

Anyhow, if you are on a preorder (or similar) waiting list, that seems very promising

Me too on delayed gratification. I'm waiting until next fall for my next upgrade. But, I must fight the demons every week or two

O 5800, 5800, Wherefor Art Thou 5800?
http://hardocp.com/article/2009/11/10/o_5800_wherefor_art_thou

I'm feeling really smart with the choice of moving to a 4890 after reading that article. Thanks Guod.

Seriously, I would have paid 340EUR for the 5870. Yet the 4890 only cost me 160EUR which means 180EUR saved.

If by next year in May the competition is in full force, I expect the 5870 to come down at 260EUR or such. Meaning with the money I saved right now it will only be 80EUR extra, and if I can ebay the 4890 for only 50 bucks (certainly reasonable in six months), it costs me a total of 30EUR extra to upgrade in time when stocks are high and prices low.

That's the position I would recommend to most people right now, especially if you don't want to wait another two months for an outstanding upgrade. Benefit is that pushing the 5870 into May also means you get to check Nvidia's offering.

Thanks for the article link. It confirms the rumors publicly -- from an official ATI source.

And, TSMC is having 32nm problems also. That presages delays for products supposedly coming out 12 to 18 months from now. So, I guess I won't base any buying decisions on the future availability of either AMD/ATI or Nvidia 32nm parts (i.e. I won't wait for them -- that delayed gratification could be delayed too long). I imagine Intel will get their 32nm process running well -- assuming there is not an inherent, show-stopper issue with 32nm.

Ditto that. Great article Guod.

Allen, I'm taking strength from the fact that you're waiting so much longer for your next upgrade.

Wait a minute, I'm turning this thread into my own 12-step group for problems with delayed gratification. Whoops.


Anyway, great insider stuff from y'all--- as usual!

d.