Word getting around as of late is that the HD 5830 is due to be released February 5th. Originally the NDA date was the week of the 25th of January. What that means is that the NDA was going to come off the card between the 25th of January and the 31st. This seems to have been officially pushed back due to an issue with ASIC.
At the moment we’ve been told that a new one has been resent and the launch has been postponed to a new day. As for that new date we’re not sure yet. At the moment it seems unlikely that an exact day has been given like February 5th which is a Friday. The next day we’ll hear for the launch of the card will be a week of one, be that the 1st of February, the 8th or later.
Once we have the week of date as we draw closer to the launch date we’ll receive an exact day. This isn’t the first time ATI have done this, the same happened with the HD 5670, I received my sample the second week of January, with a launch date of the week of the 11th of January. On the 8th that date was updated to the actual release date being the 14th.
It make sense that ATI will begin to move their launch strategy to this as it takes a lot of pressure off the company. Instead of working to a day they now only have to work towards a week, it also allows the company to get a last minute driver update out in the event reviewers are seeing a major issue.