The RV670 was ATI's first 55nm performance chip that sold well and the successor, RV770 has proven to be highly successful, again based on 55nm.

The next generation chip codenamed RV870 is going directly for 40nm and not 45nm, as many have expected. This might be the first time in history that GPU manufacturing process actually gets smaller than the CPU one. Intel is at 45nm with CPUs, while AMD has yet to get there and 45nm is the smallest they can do through most of 2009.

The new GPU has a lot more transistors and a higher clock, but we are currently not aware of the main architecture of the chip. This new baby comes in 2009, but it might just happen less than a year after the RV770 debut.

It is still too early for a fixed date as the 40nm process could be a tricky one.