Though Nvidia has labeled it as OEM you can buy it - Infact every manufacturers like Asus, Galaxy, MSI, Zotac, Palit, EVGA has released their own version of GT440
Newegg.com - GT440
Though note that the GT440 available now is different than OEM GT440 :
GT 440 OEM :
CUDA Cores : 144
Gfx/ Proc Clock : 594/1189 MHz
Memory Configuration : 1.5GB/ 3GB 192-bit GDDR3
Memory Speed : 800/900 Mhz
Power Connectors : 6-pin
Length : 5.7 inches
Maximum Graphics Card Power : 56W
GT 440 :
CUDA Cores : 96
Gfx/ Proc Clock : 810/1620 MHz
Memory Configuration : 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
Memory Speed : 800 Mhz
Maximum Graphics Card Power : Minimum 300W PSU
Ya, agreed with Sam. Here even the price of GTS 430 is almost same as the price of HD 5670 512 MB, even if HD 5670 is a far better card (on the par with 9800 GT) whereas GTS 430 is poorer than GT 240.
So HD 5670 is the best choice within that price range.
No it is not the case... what you are talking is actually partially true for ATI Crossfire builds. For multi-GPU setup you need a profile to enable multi gpu scaling on the games. But now a days AMD/ATI normally releases patches for the new game very frequently and there is a software available called Radeonpro which can create multi-gpu profile for any new game.