I have been planning on upgrading my gtx 560 ti sli configuration to a single gtx 970. However, I have recently been reading about AMD's Mantle technology that may work better with an older CPU like the i7 960. I understand that the gtx 970 is roughly %15 better/faster than the r9 290, but would that be the case with an older i7 960? I don't know a whole lot about the Mantle technology other than the few articles I have read... It seems pretty legit but I really have no solid insight to back that up. The idea of saving money on a GPU by going with the r9 290 sounds good but if the gtx 970 would still be considerably better with my current CPU I would go with that.