Now I understand why nVidia decided to release the GTX970 and 980 cards on 28nm early, instead of waiting for the next process node shrink to 20nm at TSM early next year, like they normally would, and why nVidia is suddenly, mysteriously charging a lot less for their hardware. And it has nothing to do with playing Santa Claus this year. More like they're playing Santa 'Clause.'
Here's my thinking. nVidia heard earlier this year that DX12 will not exist for Windows 7:
http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/devel...ently-directx-12-wont-be-coming-to-windows-7/
Since Mantle allows for most of the features of DX12 (ie. shed-loads of draw-calls without performance hit) without having to buy Windows 10, this means AMD Radeon users could stick with Windows 7 if a game has Mantle functionality, but nVidia users WOULD have to update. This would embarrass the hell out of nVida and invariably annoy nVidia card owners, who might even start pressuring nVidia to <gasp> support AMD's Mantle. Or worse, it might pursuade legions of buyers to go AMD in order to get Mantle support so they can keep Windows 7.
Seeing the potential danger of this situation, nVidia decided to pull out all the stops to boost their numbers of cards sold in the immediate term in order to lock in as many customers as possible for the big news hit (which is now) and hopefully, to get as many game developers to ignore Mantle as possible and not bother with a Mantle version of their upcoming DX12 game. This will also mean that more gamers will have to move to Windows 10 anyhow, so they can run DX12, which will reduce the relevance of Mantle.
If we spread the word about this nefarious scheme, we can head them off at the pass, as it were. Everybody who cares about no getting screwed over and forced to upgrade to Windows 10, just so they can play a game, should go forth unto all the tech websites and expose this insidious ploy before it can fully succeed.