A little earlier than expected, the first 55nm based GeForce GTX 260 has been spotted on sale in Japan.

Inno3D must have been super eager to get a 55nm 260 to market before Christmas; this is a full retail offering and comes bundled with copies of Far Cry 2 and Warmonger.

Inno3D sits the card under their new Gold series lineup and the cooler depicts this along with further confirmation it sports a 216SP 55nm core and is overclocked.

One particularly interesting aspect of this PCB is that all memory chips have been moved to the front of the card, doing away with the need for a backplate.

The core and memory is said to come in at 620 / 1050MHz, but the shader clock hasn't yet been confirmed. Leaving the sour bit 'till last, the price tag of roughly $390 USD isn't all that great given current 65nm 260's are in excess of $100 cheaper.

Thanks goes to Japanese website watch.impress for the pics.