What’s happening on 5870/5850 availability?

3 weeks after launch, availability of the Radeon HD 5870s and 5850s is still problematic. Although new cards are coming in, they aren't in sufficient quantities to satisfy demand. Naturally this is pushing prices up a bit on what was announced by AMD.

Unfortunately, according to our information, the situation could last until December. The same also looks likely to be the case for the Radeon HD 5770s and 5750s, so even though the Radeon 4870s and 4890s are coming to the end of the line, we’ll have to make do with current stocks to make the transition to the DX11 range. The situation is hardly better with NVIDIA cards, as there are hardly any GTX 285s available and the GTX 275s and GTX 260s, which are also based on the GT200b, are likely to be coming to the end of their lines at the end of 2009, a good period for sales. The exact causes of the situation remain difficult to pinpoint as it is very strange that while the 4870s/4890s are coming to the end of their commercial lives and being sold at reduced prices, the 5700s/5800s should not be available in sufficient numbers.