it´s called economic calculation of risks, which probably in GTX 295 wasn’t managed properly. This card is top-end product, costly and Nvidia, hit by the economic crisis, experienced significant downfall in sales in q3 and q4 2008, absolutely same as ATI. Nvidia partners/manufacturers were cautious and did not start mass production of this card (high price tag) but sales numbers have been much better than expected and in US, CAN and Western Europe is still kind of dropout. Germany was completely out of stock in February and March and now you can mostly get Gainward because there is a factory in south Germany. Situation is much better in UK with 3 producers (…I think). US market is having its GPUs (Nvidia/ATI) imported from China/Taiwan...
Moreover it’s great GPU….I can confirm it because I have one.