14 DAY TRIAL // First quarter, after the January sales are over, is considered the quietest time of the year, and that makes Nvidia's inability to supply components for its new 7900 series almost unbelievable.
It could be that Nvidia introduced an artificial shortage to help retailers get rid of old 7800s as there are plenty of cuts in price on both the 7800GT and GTX available. But, if it is an artificial shortage, that would still draw some serious questions about Nvidia's sales expectations versus the reality.
It would be less worrying if this weren't all linked to Nvidia killing off the 7800 series. ATI's almost amateurish attempts at competition might also be the cause. While ATI has some great graphics chips and a fairly obvious lead in image quality, it has distanced both fans and journalists with its Crossfire. After all, who wants to buy a chipset known to have problems or a pair of very expensive graphics cards only to have a nineties-Voodoo-style cable hanging out of the back of their system?
Nvidia has a far more attractive technology in SLI compared with Crossfire. It's stable and mature; however, here we are in the run up to Easter with Nvidia unable to supply kit for one reason or another.
The only upside for Nvidia is that ATI is too busy to do anything about it. Considering that both firms are supposed to be at the cutting edge of the industry, it is quite embarrassing.