I think AMD's next generation will probably be a power requirement reduction rather then a pure die shrink. And honestly I can't see a die shrink being possible without a couple of years worth of development. But the top end of graphics technology right now is so far ahead of the game development industry that it seems pointless to do much until games start really utilizing top end technology.
It's kind of amusing and a shame that Nvidia is going to be so far behind AMD though, competition always pushes each business to be better, however if AMD winds up with such a substantial lead just purely based on time, Nvidia is going to have to put out a flagship card that absolutely steam rolls AMD's 7970 and 7990 cards.