As we close in on the launch of NVIDIA's GTX 400 series graphics cards, sources within AIBs have let loose a bit of sour news regarding the initial batch of cards to hit the retail market.

It's been said that these cards will have fewer cores than what was originally expected (512) due to low 40nm yield (less than 50%) at TSMC. NVIDIA combats this by blocking some of the problematic cores on the card.

The sources went on to say this will result in only 480 cores on the GTX 480 and 448 on the GTX 470. Also mentioned was that these new cards won't be shipped in volume until April 6. The GTX 480 is confirmed to be priced at $499 U.S. while the GTX 470 will sell at $349 U.S.