The Inq has it on good authority that the red team actually did work very hard to make the launch of the X1900 family a 'hard-launch.' The fact that they shipped so many cards so quickly is pretty impressive in the wake of the R520 release...

"Some stores are selling it as we speak and you should not be too concerned about them running out, as ATI has more than 10 thousand cards out, we learned. We also learned that sixty percent of these are the fastest flagship Radeon 1900XTX cards."