Man, that sucks kind of. I probably wasn't going to be buying one until July sometime anyway though.

At least the 4870 will launch with it. I just want to see some real numbers on them.

Yeah im getting tired of these delay's too. If they have thousand's of these board's ready to go what is the thing we are missing? To me it almost sound's like something is wrong...

My system upgrade and my true interest in graphics (for purchase reasons) is postponed until GTA4 comes to PCs, but still I'm eager to participate as a spectator to the "wars" and the sooner they start, the better. At least there seems to be some competition in the graphics arena currently, unlike in cpu-s...

At least the 4870 and 4850 will be launching at the same time. Well hopefully anyway.

Also, xX12amanXx, words ending in "s" do NOT need apostrophes... *facepalm*

I just hope they will keep releasing XP drivers for a long time

Well they are not in hurry, and they get more time for drivers optimization. I think that this time there should be enough cards, so no paper release this time... i hope...

The only reason I can see for the delay is that AMD suspects they will be the new GPU crown holders after the 18th. Right now all eyes are on the next nVidia launch because they have currently been in the lead for some time now. Even if they launch now every enthusiast not wearing a green shirt will be waiting for the nVidia flagship card to be sure they are buying the fastest product. It is only a few weeks. I think this is a smart move.

Time to refine drivers to better compete with nVidia flagship.
Compete head to head with nVidia. If they are indeed the fastest they may take back some market share from nVidia and convert some people.
They will also have more cards to sell so they will guarantee that supply is ample if people do want to buy it.
They can also see pricing and possibly undercut nVidia with a faster product and guarantee they can compete with price/performance ratio.

All in all...a good move. Let's hope they take back the crown to keep tech up and prices down!!!

^ lol @ kylewaller and xX12amanXx... apostrophes after ever s lol

thats great I wonder what school he went to

anyway's what's up guy's? how's life for you all at tom'shardware.com
thi's site is awsome

@thogrom,

Ironically, the apostrophe in tom'shardware is correct (should be Tom's Hardware).

As for this news, I just want to see some reviews of the 4000 series cards.

Great article.

For the 3 people who still buy ATI.

NVidia4Lyfe!!!!!111one

At least ATI uses more advanced technology than Nvidia does. Nvidia is so lazy they can't even add the latest official standards.

LOL@kansur0

please..ATI doesn't want it's ass beat the same week is all...they wanna lose to nvidia the NEXT week.

I'm not betting without numbers.

Uh oh here we go again.

Wait a second. So is Tom's implying that ATI's 4800 series and Nvidia's GT200 are not going to be competing? So Tom' crowns Nvidia before the cards launch? I thought the two were in direct competition. From what I've read all the ATI fans were waiting for this card to launch as it was supposed to rock.

Hmmm 4870 should not have any change against 280, because 4870 is middle range card and 280 is pupposed to be ultra highend GPU.
Guite another thing is that 4870X2 can be close to 280 and if predictions are right, it should be less expensive.

So Tom is right, the 280 should be the king, but the prize tag is high allso. If this is not the case, the Nvidia is in big trouble because it's so expensive to produce GT200 series GPU's compared to 4800 series.