55-nm GT200b spotted

NVIDIA's 55-nm derivative of today's GT200 GPUs used in the GeForce GTX 280 and GTX 260 was expected to arrive in late Q3 or Q4 of this year, but so far the chip hasn't surfaced. Shrinking GT200 to 55-nm is hugely important for NVIDIA's bottom line, as price cuts have likely cut into their expected margins significantly: its forgotten now, but GeForce GTX 260 originally launched at $400 and GTX 280 at $650. So where is NVIDIA's new 55-nm chip?

Expreview managed to snag a pic of said GPU, and expects cards based on it to arrive next month in January. Interestingly enough the chip they snagged was dated week 33, tagging it for mid-August production. That would've given NVIDIA plenty of time to introduce cards based on GT200b during Q4 this year.