14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA pushed back the launch of its Fermi-based GTX 480 and GTX 470 cards on so many occasions that consumers will most likely not be surprised to hear of yet another delay. Fortunately, this time around, it isn't the launch date that is getting pushed back, but the actual mass availability. Apparently, NVIDIA estimates that its cards, as well as those from its partners, won't reach e-tailers and retailers before April 12th.
Card availability was already pushed back once, to April 6th. Back then, the possible reasons were incomplete drivers or putting off sample shipments in order to prevent product-specification leaks. Now, Fudzilla is the one reporting that it will take a while longer for end-users to get a chance to buy either one of the GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480. Fortunately, the formal introduction of the products, at least, is still set to occur at PAX 2010, on the 26th of March.
It is unclear whether this delay applies to all or just some markets, such as Europe. In fact, April 12th is just NVIDIA's estimate on when its partners' products will actually become available, according to the report. This estimate is based on when the Santa Clara GPU maker itself plans to ship the products to these partners. The reasons for the delay are vague, but the list of possible factors includes recent changes to the BIOS and the cooling mechanism.
Considering that Advanced Micro Devices has had free reign over the DirectX 11 market for months now, there is no question that even the slightest delay is less than favorable for NVIDIA. The latter stated, repeatedly, that the GF100 was the strongest GPU, but this doesn't matter as long as the chip isn't there to put up a fight.
Hopefully, NVIDIA will be able to officially disclose an exact time frame on Friday.