We have talked to many graphics vendors and one thing is clear. The graphics shortage of most performance cards like GTX 260, 275, 285 and 295 as well as Radeon 4xx0 and 5xx0 generation will last at least until the end of the year.

Retailers and etailers are ordering more than Nvidia / ATI partners can deliver and partners cannot get enough chips from Nvidia. All in all, the only chance for you to get your desired graphics card, if it's not available at press time, is to pre-order and wait.

If you look at HD5870 availability in US, some cards are expected on the 17th of November, or later today, some on 30th and some like Asus are not available at all. Saturation doesn’t get much better with Nvidia cards.

Both graphics players did underestimated the demand in Q4 2009 and ATI certainly didn’t count that Fermi will get delayed for almost a quarter. This, like one big equation that has gone terribly wrong, has resulted in huge shortages of just about any performance card.