Some new details regarding ATIs 7800GTX killer have surfaced that suggest the high-end 520 cards may have limited availability at launch. The R520 based cards that have troubled ATI for quite some time will become available in October but most of us will not find it easy to get our hands on the flagship XT model.
According to the inquirer ATI will have plenty of the mainstream 500 MHz R520 boards but providing a constant and steady supply of the R520XT - which will run at 600/1400 MHz - may be a problem for the Canadians. This may raise some further problems for ATI since the product they will be competing against (7800GTX) is already available in numbers and nVidia will no doubt push that message home. Another issue arises when considering that the R520 will have 16 pipelines compared to rival nVidia's 24, another point which nVidia will pounce on, even though ATIs new baby is expected to compete well against the 7800GTX.
In any case it has taken a while but we are now fast approaching the date when ATI will be back in the race, it seems that partnering with MS may have stretched resources at the firm, unless you are one of the conspiracy theorists claiming that some secret clause of the MS deal called for a delay.
