I just got an email in from Newegg.com announcing the availability of X1800 XL cards and X850 CrossFire cards as well. You can see them on Newegg.com by visiting this page directly.
It’s interesting to see an announcement like this; its definitely in response to the recent turmoil ATI has been getting for their lack of availiability as I have never gotten an announcement like this before today.
Currently the X1800 XL is priced at $479, $20 more than the MSRP that ATI gave us. And in a laughable gesture, the X850 CrossFire edition card is $449; $100 over the price that ATI quoted us! Finally, Newegg has the DFI CrossFire edition motherboard on sale for $239! (Turns out the link shows there are no DFI boards available…?)
While it is good to see product available now, the fact is that since ATI was backing their shipments to Newegg so directly, they have to be responsible for prices we are seeing here. Thus a $100 price increase on the CrossFire cards is simply not acceptable to us. The only upside I see right now is that apparently if you buy an X1800 XL now, you get $100 off of a future CrossFire purchase down the road. (Another edit: this $100 off deal is only good on X8xx series of cards; not the new X1Ks.)