The maximum a high end graphics card may last is 3 years which must be followed by the operational system which is the most important in this role.

The first Nvidia graphics card to support DX10 was the Geforce 8 series which launched in November 2006, at that time Vista had been released 2 months later January 2007. The Radeon 5800 Series was released in September 2009 and the Windows 7 a month later October 2009, this is the key point for a successful marketing strategy, rely on the future market share of other companies in this example both Nvidia in the end 2006 with Windows Vista and now AMD's evergreen series 5800 with Windows 7. I call it a successful human combo buying habit, not to mention that AMD is doing a better job giving alternative options to its customers. Nvidia with its Geforce 8 series took 6 months to deliver mainstream based products from November 2006(8800GTX) to April 2007(GeForce 8600 GTS). AMD took 1 month releasing the 5700 series, from September 23, 2009 (5800 series) to October 13, 2009 (5700 series). It clearly shows Nvidia's hungry money appetite at that time.

I was expecting Fermi to be launched before the Windows 7 again. It looks like something got wrong somewhere. Nvidia does not have any backup plan, if something delays it delays much more than any other company that has backup plans for occasions like this. It looks like AMD graphics division took the lead and its market share only tends to grow.

I'm certain that Nvidia will launch only high end graphic cards to cash in and then after some months mainstream graphic cards.

I still think AMD is overpriced selling its 5xxx series, the 4xxx is a much wiser buy but then again the Win 7 DX11 syndrome is here and real.