After unveiling Fermi in September Nvidia had scheduled to launch cards based the new GPU architecture as early as November. That obviously didn't happen and considering the present date it's also quite clear that we won't be seeing an answer to AMD's latest Radeon HD series this year. Presumably a launch date was pushed back to coincide with CES in January, but now it seems that the delay might be even longer than feared.

According to DigiTimes, sources from within motherboard manufacturers have been informed by Nvidia that its first 40nm graphics chip will arrive March as the GF100, with the GF104 also set to target the high-end graphics market in the second quarter of 2010. For the mainstream and performance level segments, Nvidia will allow its GTS 200 series and 9800/9500GT cards to continue competing against AMD's DirectX 11 and older products.

If that wasn't enough of a problem, AMD is said to be preparing a few more releases targeted at the all-important mainstream market. Slated for late January or early February, the 40nm Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) and HD 5450 (Cedar) will reportedly slot in alongside the unannounced Radeon HD 5570 and HD 5350 to round out the lower and middle portions of the company's Evergreen refresh.