COMPUTEX 2009: In the last few weeks, a number of reports have surfaced which suggest that AMD is having serious problems with yields on its mid-range RV740 GPU and, after a bit of digging, we have managed to confirm that there is indeed a problem.

Speaking to a few sources close to AMD, we learned that the company shipped approximately 40,000 RV740 GPUs worldwide in readiness for the Radeon HD 4770’s hard launch last month. Sadly though, very few, if any, RV740 chips have shipped since that initial supply said one source.

Another source said that RV740 is “in very limited supply” and it’s meant that no partner has really been able to move away from the cut-down board design employed by most add-in-card partners. It’s also meant that most of the cards left in the channel still use the cheap, and rather noisy blower that looks nothing like the reference card AMD sent to us ahead of the launch.

This has created a problem for the channel, because since the Radeon HD 4770’s release, the Radeon HD 4830 and 4850 are no longer attractive options for the consumer. They were simply priced too high against the Radeon HD 4770 when it launched and because of that, sales for both the 4830 and 4850 have apparently dropped off a cliff.

Looking around a number of the UK’s top retailers tells a fairly sorry story – the Radeon HD 4770 is particularly difficult to get hold of at the moment with only one card in stock at the five retailers we checked. Moreover, our sources suggested that it’s unlikely to get better any time soon – Radeon HD 4770’s will continue to dribble onto etailer’s shelves in low quantities.

Obviously, AMD is trying to make up for the shortfall by lowering the 4830 and 4850's prices but, based on the conversations we've had, the sales don't appear to have picked up to the same levels that they were at before the 4770 turned up.

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