Yeah, they might take the framecap off crysis for the 9 series to get you to buy them (spot the conspiracy theorist).
I think Nvidia have just decided that they can beat ATi's top cards with budget versions of current technology, and then just SLI some cards together to give keep buyers interested and coughing up money. The fact is that they can afford to release a whole series of cards based on old designs and still, dominate the high end market. So they will. As soon as ATi release their new line, BAM! Nvidia release the G100- derived series.
The fact that ATi are lagging behind in the high performance bracket, means Nvidia have the time to spend on their new series of cards.