ATI to launch R481 soon
 

ATI learned that yields on R480, X850 PCIe are much better than on the R420 or R423 chips and decided to make one more AGP part based on R480 marchitecture. ATI had to do two tape outs, one for the already shinily shipping R480 and one for the soon to be shipped R481, as they are different chips. Not too much different, but one chip is native PCIe while the other is native AGP. The rest is similar.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20774

next gen cards will be for mid-end by both nvidia en ati?

end of 2005/begin 2006 for nVidia

ATI will most likely keep 6 month cycle

Let's hope that for once they're not lying because here we are, more then half a year after the launch was then the best of the best in videocard land and it's still nearly impossible to get hold of an x800 xt or 6800 GT, even more so in PCIe.