Recently there have been some rumors about Nvidia's Fermi GPU yields being in the 20-30 percent range. Looking at the minimal stock of GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards at most retailers it would seem that is indeed the case. However, in an interview with Digitimes, Nvidia's General Manager of MCP Business Henry Drew said that the outfit had everything under control and that TSMC's 40nm yields have "met [their] expectations."
Drew was responding to a question about Nvidia supposedly blocking some graphics cores on current cards due to manufacturing issues. While he couldn't comment on unannounced products, he did mention that a 512 core-equipped chip might emerge in the future. The executive also made a point of mentioning how the GF100-based cards offered improved power consumption over performance compared with the GTX 200 series, even though the actual power draw was a bit higher. According to him, those focused on performance will find it is a worthwhile trade.
Lastly, he assured customers that despite DRAM and other component prices rising, Nvidia currently has no plans to increase prices higher than they already are. Unfortunately, the interview doesn't say anything on how soon consumers can expect availability of the actual GeForce GTX 480 cards to improve.