After being merged with AMD, ATI are working on some rather nifty technlology. But, who knows if 2x32 pipelines and 80-65nm core will really make a differance?
My bet is that ATI will push their new top card to be slightly faster than Nvidias, whereupon Nvidia will counter with a 8900, then ATI does a an XXXTXXTX-something.. and on it goes.