NVIDIA managed to hide some stuff in front of our eyes, under a veil, curtain or purda. If the GeForce 8900 series turns out to be using the G80 chip, that will mean that the chip had more shaders all along. Our sources confirm that the GeForce 8900 GTX has more shaders. We know that this will speed up some of the games and definitely in the scientific GPGPU calculations. We heard that the card still has the same G80 core, so a 90 nanometre core but NVIDIA might be veiling some info. So, the G80 chip might be even more interesting then we could have figured in the beginning. But then again it remains to be seen how that will stack up with the competition. - The Inquirer

NVIDIA GeForce 8900 GTX, the G80 has More Shaders

Somehow the main limitation will be the 90 nanometre process, which is not in the best interest of NVIDIA compared to the upcoming R600 from ATI. We know you cannot clock the G80 more than 630MHz unless you goto water cooling. With that you are still topped at +680MHz. So really the best way to compete would be to reduced the die size and with that the heat produced. But maybe NVIDIA is keeping one more variable behind to play with. We heard that the card will be announced just in time to spoil the ATI's fun with their R600 launch. Quel surprise, n'est ce pas?