We were tipped off by a reader to the sale of an XFX branded Nvidia GTX 480 GPU at SabrePC online retailer. The first things that caught our eye were the fact that this particular card's specifications listed it as a 2GB card.
The only problem with that fact is that the top-end Fermi chip employs a 384-bit bus, while the GTX 470 employs a 320-bit bus, an identical configuration to the G80 GPU and its two launch products, GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTS. As such, neither GTX 470 nor GTX 480 cannot facilitate a 2GB quantity of memory. It has to be either 1920MB or 2304MB in order to jive with this requirement. Either the distributor is dead wrong, or the retailer has not been informed of the correct specifications.
Either way, this is a fishy looking listing. Not to mention the price. SabrePC lists the price of this card at a hefty $699 USD with a "discount" of $20 to $679. What a steal. Currently, we nor anybody else really know the pricing of such a card... given that nVidia hasn't finalized the prices. We know that the prices will be firmed this week, as the production batch of boards with the changed PCB and heatsink will leave Flextronics and head to nVidia AIB's in order for the March 15th sampling deadline and the subsequent launch on Saturday, March 27th with the reviews and availability being released on the 29th.
This whole pre-order story looks like one of the distributors has indicated to their resellers like Sabre PC that they will be sold for $700, then things might not look so bright for those looking to get their paws on a GTX 480 card. If the price of $699 stands, that will confirm that the yields of the parts are in dire straits indeed.
If you're interested in checking out that listing, if it still exists, check out this
link.
We've also provided a screen shot in the likely event that it will get pulled.