The master of fud seems to know that ATI's first new part in 2009 will be the RV740, this will be the firm's first 40nm GPU. It's a mainstream card that will be introduced in Q2 2009. A 40nm successor for the Radeon HD 4800 (RV770) series isn't expected until mid-2009 or later.
The difference is not that big, but for Nvidia it is very important to be the faster in majority of benchmark. Everyone now expects a quick launch of new RV770, 40nm successor but we learned that such card comes after RV740 a mainstream 40nm card that is set to launch in Q2 2009.

RV770 successor is a card that comes as a performance card and it is also a 40nm card but this one will launch at a later date, probably in mid 2009 or later. Until this time, ATI won't really have a contender to fight Nvidia but we are sure that red boys will ignite the price wars, which will at least be good for end users.