Remember when an Nvidia rep called ATI's current lead in DirectX11-supported graphics chips "insignificant"? Well, that exec may have to eat his words. According to the sometimes unreliable site DigiTimes, Nvidia's next-gen graphics card, code named Fermi, won't be ready for a release until March 2010.

If true that means AMD's current ATI-branded DirectX11 graphics products could have as much as a five month lead before Nvidia launches their first chip that supports DirectX11 features. Indeed, the same article claims AMD will launch more new mainstream ATI cards in late January or February. Any way you slice it, it's looking more likely that Nvidia has a lot of catching up to do.