Nvidia to miss out on holiday sales

@ 2007/11/13
Culver City (CA) - On October 29th Nvidia introduced its GeForce 8800GT targeting the mid-range enthusiast segment. Demand has been high and within days the shelves of retailers were emptied of the cards. Two weeks later we are still in the same situation. Although a new shipment hit the stores last night, this supply appears to be limited. After our initial probe into the premium on the new product we unearthed more information regarding supplies.

In conversations with industry sources, 40,000 units of the GeForce 8800GT have shipped worldwide. To put these volume numbers into perspective, other sources have stated that AMD has already fulfilled orders for 250,000 of its Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 models for its launch later this week. It was stated that an additional 150,000 will ship before year end. Prices for 3800 series cards should ship between $180-220.

Sources told TG Daily that performance difference between AMD and Nvidia’s newest cards are within 10% in some cases and on par in other metrics. If AMD can deliver a high performance part for 2/3 the cost in volume, it could mean the graphics pendulum is about to swing the other direction. With holiday shopping ramping up, a lack of supply and new competition, Nvidia might be getting a lump of coal in its stocking this year.

Comment from Kougar @ 2007/11/13
That would just be stupid... they would either have hobbled the card or not released it in the first place... NVIDIA isn't stupid, although they should have waited on launching until they had at least more than a couple truckloads of cards.

If they had chosen to release, then hold back shipments then they would be hurting themselves the most since the majority of potential buyers aren't going to buy a 8800 GTS/GTX at this point regardless of 8800GT supply issues, can't buy a 8800GT at all or at grossly inflated premiums, and generally hurt their own stock valuation along with making their customers pretty unhappy. NVIDIA knew well in advance just how good the chip performed, it would be absurd to think they didn't.
Comment from Rutar @ 2007/11/13
I have a feeling they deliberatly held back 8800GTs because they couldn't sell any cards of the 8600 and 8800 series anymore. Now it bites them in the ***.
Comment from Kougar @ 2007/11/13
Will bring more backorders... those stories claiming Nvidia still won't have stock of 8800GT cards until next year are looking more true than ever. Plenty of people looking just to try and find one that isn't >$300.

If ATI pulls a good hard launch, Nvidia stocks are probably going to fall a bit more...
Comment from Sidney @ 2007/11/13
Nvda dropped 9.98% today ..... WoW.
Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Before anyone says anything, Nvda appreciated 30+% YTD despite the fall.