14 DAY TRIAL // The autumn of 2011 will mark the introduction of quite a few popular gaming titles such as Battlefield 3, CoD: Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim, but graphics chip makers AMD and Nvidia don't seem to be prepared for this upcoming upgrade season as the availability of some of their GPUs is severely limited.
The hardest to come by graphics cards are based on the Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 as well as the GeForce GTX 590 design, according to the SweClockers Website.
Both of these AMD solutions are based on the Cayman core, which can include up to 1536 stream processors paired together with 2GB of video buffer and was released in mid-December 2010.
Contrary to the rumors that abound on the Web, the shortage of HD 6970 and HD 6950 solutions is not caused by AMD's plans to replace the two, but rather by the low GPU stocks that affect graphics card makers.
AMD didn't expect such high demand for its GPUs this autumn and decided to lower its production.
However, despite the low demand faced by graphics cards in early September, the wave of new titles that are expected to launch this fall have raised gamers interest in upgrading their systems.
When it comes to the GTX 590, the situation is quite different. Even though there is no shortage of GF110 graphics chips in the market, Nvidia seems to have stepped down on deliveries, most probably because the GTX 590 is not considered profitable enough.
Combined with the low demand for dual-GPU graphics cards and all the problems that Nvidia has faced with the GTX 590, it's understandable why the Santa Clara graphics chip maker doesn't want to invest too many resources in the GTX 590.
Right now it isn't known when supplies of Radeon HD 6950, HD 6970 and GeForce GTX 590 will return to normal. Taiwanese graphics card manufacturers however state that the shortages will last until the end of October.