I actually have an idea that will probably be dismissed as a baseless conspiracy theory, but I though I'd say it anyways. My impression is that the 512gtx was never even intended to be released in the form that it was, but something went wrong with Nv's original plans and it was forced into action, along with the 6800gs. The 512gtx is basically the same core as the high end quadro workstation card that sells for $2000-3000, to a much smalled market than the general public. For the general public Nv had different plans. They learned that Ati was having problems with the r520 late spring/early summer 2005, and decided to go ahead with the 256mb gtx, clocked with comfortable yield margins, allowing for good supply and profit margins. I'm betting that they figured the 256gtx was enough to compete with the r520, and even went as far as saying that there will not be an ultra model.
What I find unusual is that after the release of the 7800 series last summer, there have been no further 7 series models in 2005 - no 7600, no 7200, nothing else. They could not count on the older 6800's to filled in the gap, because the price of the 6800's has not dropped to that level - the 6800gt was and still is selling for $280+ . My theory is that Nv had plans to move to the 90nm process before the end of 2005, and to already have 90nm 7600 and 7200 card released by the end of 2005, but the transition did not go as smoothly as expected. Therefore, the 6800gs was quickly released as a band aid solution to have some new product at the $200 price point. The 7800gs was also scrapped, most likely to prevent stealing sales from either the 7800gt or the 6800gs.
Nobody outside of Ati could have predicted the r520 would get delayed as much as it did, but because it was delayed so long, it allowed the 7800 series to acquire a fair share of the market, and the r520 would not have made much of a ripple in the market due to the delay, with or without a faster Nv card to compete with. In addition, I'm betting that the rumored g71 was originally planned to launch around this time (as in right now), the same time as the r580, and would have allowed the r520 to possibly keep the crown for a whole 2 months, which is hardly worth worrying about. But, somehow, things did not go as smothly as planned, and the g71 was not ready for an early 2006 launch. Knowing fully well that Ati will try to recover from the r520 delay fiasco, and that it did not appear to have a total domination over the 256gtx, Nv could have predicted themselves that the r580 would likely follow soon. Having no card to compete, they scrambled to release the fastest card they could at the time - the $2500 quadro relabeled as a $650 gtx512. This would have allowed Nv not only to overshadow the r520 launch, but also to gain yet more market share, and in a way steal some of the potential buyers from the upcoming r580. What Nv did not count on is hordes of rabid enthusiasts that would want the card, and the resulting price hikes and supply shortages that followed.
So, based on this theory, you should not see the 512gtx in ample supply ever, simply because those cores were never produced for this market in the first place, and the demand has by far outpaced the supply. Moreover, the prices of these cores would not come down, because such a move would only create even more demand (yes, even after the launch of the x1900), which is the last thing Nv wants.
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