I see. I didn't know yields were still that bad.
If Fermi is having a issue with production and that is the primary reason they aren't delivering ATI is suffering the same, but they have built in such a way that defective cores/stream processors can be laser cut and eliminated. Build a stack of a few hundred thousand dies and then make a card off them.
If you get 1000 cores per die, and have a net cost of $5 per core, a clean core rate of 50% that you can sell for $100, 25% that you can sell for $80, 10% that you can sell for $50, and 15% that are unacceptable for current use you don't just throw those away. You stock pile them for use in a future card that is even lower powered.
Now lest say out of the last 15% or 150 cores per die 80% are acceptable for use in a card like this, and you can still sell them at $40. 40*120=$4800 almost enough to pay for the die, making all the rest of it profit. And your waste is only 30 cores per die.
It is called engineered for cost, nothing you buy today is made to the original specs. A card gets made, no expense spared, no small stone unturned. Once it is made and performs within a certain spec, then the next set of engineers get it, and they are only looking for ways to cut the production cost. Lower quality solder, slower memory, competitive quotes, use more aluminum instead of copper, cheaper caps, etc.... they do this untill the life expectancy and failure rate reaches a certain point, and then orders are made. After that it is all just absorbtion costs that each MFG puts on the card itself. Some companies like XFX make their own brand by changing the PCB to a different color, adding a 50 cent piece of plastic, charging $20 more and being ready for the absorbtion costs a better support staff. At the end of the day they still make more than the next guy, but they also sell fewer. Sapphire makes ATI card for them, my X1800XT had a ATI sticker under the sapphire one.
![[I.R.A]_FBi](https://tpucdn.com/forums/data/avatars/l/39/39344.jpg?1384761935){kind=avatar}
I may have to kick out the ol' 4870 for some cheap dx. 11 powah.
