Nvidia Corp., a leading developer of graphics processors and chipsets, said it would recall a batch of yet unannounced GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards due to manufacturing flaw. It is yet unclear whether and how significantly the replacement plan affects availability of the new graphics boards that are based on the code-named G80 chip.

“Some GeForce 8800 GTX boards that were built through our contract manufacturer had a simple BOM (bill of materials) error – wrong resistor value. GeForce 8800 GTS boards are not effected by this. These GeForce 8800 GTX boards were shipped to our Add-In-Card partners. We have been working with them to pull these back and change the resistor to the correct value,” said Nvidia’s spokesperson Adam Foat, reports BitTech.net web-site.

It is unclear how many graphics cards are affected and what is exactly wrong with the boards. Citing unofficial sources, VR-Zone web-site reported that the source of the problem “is probably […] a resistor controlling 2D/3D switching and that leads to 3D corruption”. The web-site also said that while only some GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards are affected, “to be safe, all the card makers are recalling their cards”. Nvidia, however, still claims that the GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards will be available right after the formal launch on the 8^th of November, 2006.

“We believe we will still be able to hit our hard launch this week (November 8^th  with the new GeForce 8800 GTX boards,” Mr. Foat said.

It is unknown why Nvidia wants to recall the GeForce 8800 GTX boards and not allow manufacturing partners and large retailers and stores to mend the boards themselves according to provided instructions.

The GeForce 8800 GTX and the GeForce 8800 GTS are the new flagship offerings from Nvidia Corp. that support DirectX 10 application programming interface.