When are the next generation cards coming?

With the introduction of the 68XX cards and upcoming 69XX cards from ATI and the upcoming 580 (and presumably more 5XX cards to follow) from nVidia, we're getting next gen name schemes now. But these cards are really just re-architected current gen cards (mostly just to trade general compute capability for gaming power); these new cards are a pseudo next generation.

Looking back at the past 3 or 4 generations it seems like graphics card generations are typically one to one and a half years apart. The current generation cards have been around 1 year for ATI and 6 months for nVidia. So it doesn't seem like its quite time for a new generation.

Are ATI and nVidia trying to stretch the time between generations with this pseudo name change bunch of cards in between? I know I've heard both companies had trouble with 32nm manufacturing process, so stretching time between generations while trying to skip to 28nm does make sense.

I was hoping to see a new generation from ATI and at least preview announcements/reviews from nVidia by the time Sandy Bridge is hitting the market in the begging of 2011. That would be a great time for a new build.

What do you guys think, with the introduction of this pseudo generation, how long will it be before we see the next true generation?

DaveHCYJ said:

I know I've heard both companies had trouble with 32nm manufacturing process, so stretching time between generations while trying to skip to 28nm does make sense.

I was hoping to see a new generation from ATI and at least preview announcements/reviews from nVidia by the time Sandy Bridge is hitting the market in the begging of 2011. That would be a great time for a new build.

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Because of the 32nm issues, I don't think we'll see anything revolutionary for a while. They've pretty much reached the max performance for the thermal/power limits. No way you'll see anything aside from 6900 and 580 in Q1 and I doubt there will be anything of great interest until 2nd half of 2011.

I'm sure there are road maps floating around that'll give you a better time frame, but I haven't seen them in a while (haven't bothered looking).

Im sure the higher end 6000 cards are going to put up some nice numbers. Just picked up 2 6870's today for friends and they run and look great. More numbers are coming out and at this point your a fool for buying a 5850 and at the price a 5870. I cant wait to see the higher end 6000's! Looking how the 6850 and 6870 are built they use less power and perform outstanding. They always pack more into a card. I think it will be sweet to see not like the 2900's lol