We've managed to gather some information regarding the upcoming GPU line-up from NVIDIA. And no, these are not rumors.
Let's look back at GDC 2003. Just to clear things up, Jen-Hsun Huang did state during the press conference that the new demo (with four Dawns) was running on the next generation enthusiast GPU that they will tell us about "very shortly". You can see it
here.
So what products will NVIDIA bring in to the market? We don't know specifically, but it will be a refresh of NV30 architecture. The upcoming series of products will be in fact based on NV35 chip.
We all tend to point fingers at companies that don't deliver their products on time. NVIDIA's product cycle did NOT change since the GeForce FX initial launch. By looking back at previous product releases as a guide, NVIDIA will indeed have a spring refresh of their enthusiast products. The cycles are always six to nine months. NV30 broke that cycle due to its new architecture and the move to .13 micron design process. Note that this does not put NVIDIA behind other companies (ATi).
To sum things up...Although NV30 was late that does not mean that the NV3X parts scheduled to follow have been pushed back, I confirmed this with Brian Burke of NVIDIA. The NV31/NV34 line of products came out as scheduled. NVIDIA is right on target to refresh their enthusiast line-up in the spring, as they usually do. So the 9800 Pro's fight may not be with the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, but with the yet to be announced NV35.
