AMD will lay-off the accelerator somewhat when designing the RV870, according to NordicHardware. AMD plans to first improve its 45nm and multi-GPU designs.
The only real specifications that have been going around is the very loose rumor of 2000 shaders, and it doesn't look very likely. AMD is looking to master 45nm with its GPUs first of all and further improve its multi-GPU design, before doing anything radical. The RV870 will be faster than RV770, but don't expect the same jump we saw when moving from RV670 to RV770. We're waiting for confirmation on some numbers before we share more. 
