Some time ago we met ATI's Chief Technology Officer and he confirmed that two years before you see the chip, there are no any possibilities to change the chip.

The development of a GPU takes three to four years and despite the fact that Nvidia and ATI use so much secrecy, even if ATI learns about Nvidia's 2010 GPU, they won't be able to change their own 2010 chip, at least not without some massive delays.

The only effects that leaks can cause is that the high end market might be reluctant to buy new GPUs since they know that something better is around the corner, but since history repeats itself, its not hard to guess that around Xmas, both companies will have its DirectX 11 generation, if not even earlier than that.