I don't know why I expect anything different from Nvidia's quarterly earnings calls. Every time, I get hopeful for some attention on the gaming division, and every time, I am reminded that Nvidia is an AI company now, not a gaming one.
Still, amidst the talk of "AI factories" and astronomical data center compute numbers, there was a glimmer of gaming goodness in the earnings call discussing Nvidia's Q4 and fiscal 2025 results—just a few sentences, mind.
In a brief interlude that surely must have had the AI-rabid investors' eyes glazing over, Nvidia EVP and CFO Colette Kress explains that gaming revenue dropped a little in Q4 2024 (ending January 26, 2025), but the company is expecting a bounce-back:
"Gaming revenue of $2.5 billion decreased 22% sequentially and 11% year-on-year. Full year revenue of $11.4 billion increased 9% year-on-year, and demand remains strong throughout the holiday.
"However, Q4 shipments were impacted by supply constraints. We expect strong sequential growth in Q1 as supply increases."
In other words, there was less gaming revenue in Q4 2024 than in Q3 2024 and Q4 2023, but revenue from 2024 overall was higher than 2023 revenue.
"Supply constraints" there definitely were, as we saw RTX 40-series GPU stocks drying up towards the end of last year. By the time we got to January the market was somewhat of a wasteland, especially at the high end, where the most powerful RTX 40-series cards were either sold out or overpriced due to low supply.
This was somewhat expected though, because Nvidia had reportedly killed production for almost all RTX 40-series GPUs in Q4 in the lead-up to the RTX 50-series. This makes sense from a sales standpoint because it would increase demand for the new 50-series cards when they launch.
We've certainly seen that demand for the new RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti over the past month, which in combination with low supply resulted in low (or no) stocks and high prices. And this is despite none of these cards offering spectacular improvements in traditional render performance, and despite some black screen issues and missing ROPs.
That's what happens when the stocks are minimal, though: they sell out and demand leaves room for both scalping and extortionate pricing well above MSRP. We've seen just as much of this so far in Q1 2025 as we did in Q4 2024.
The good news is that Nvidia is forecasting increasing supply during the rest of Q1, which is, well, now. So the next couple of months should hopefully have us seeing more RTX 50-series cards in stock. Whether those will be the current 50-series cards on the market, the upcoming RTX 5070, or even a potentially soon-to-launch RTX 5060 Ti, I'm sure we're all looking forward to more GPU-filled virtual shelves.
Not least because more stock should, in theory, mean lower prices. Perhaps we could even see some of the fabled MSRPs gracing the price tags—I won't hold my breath, though.
