ATI's first 2009 card is the RV740

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.