There's Finally Good News If You Want To Buy A New NVIDIA Graphics Card
In its most recent quarterly earnings report, NVIDIA announced a big drop in revenue. Although the company is still making significant progress, the news could be a sign that its recent rapid growth period is coming to a halt — but this isn't bad news for everyone. In fact, if you're a gamer, this could be the best news you hear all year.
NVIDIA said it had made $6.70 billion in the second quarter of 2022 and paid $3.44 billion to its shareholders. Although that sounds impressive and the chip company's profits are still up from last year, its revenues have actually tanked almost 20% in the last quarter. The revenue loss has correlated with a major fall in demand for GPUs, which are one of the company's main outputs. In a statement following the earnings report, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said, "We are navigating our supply chain transitions in a challenging macro environment and we will get through this." He then talked about computing, AI, and the automotive industry. However, the statement on NVIDIA's website ignores the elephant in the room.
Although things may be slowing down for NVIDIA's shareholders, this is great news for gamers who might be able to snag a bargain on a top-of-the-line GPU for the first time in years. Those holding a stake in NVIDIA shouldn't be too worried, though. The company has hinted that it may have something special up its sleeve, and could soon be profiting from a "new segment" of the market.
This is more good news for gamers
After a frankly miserable few years — which have seen GPUs hit the market for several times their MSRP and still sell out in seconds — many PC gamers will feel that it's about time they got some good news. Over the last few months, they've had plenty to cheer about... provided they weren't also heavily invested in cryptocurrency. While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies haven't collapsed completely, the massive dip they took earlier in the year means it's no longer worth mining the digital currencies. Crypto mining had been profitable for several years, even with the inflated GPU prices. As a result, and despite a semiconductor shortage, manufacturers like AMD and NVIDIA had ramped up production in an attempt to meet the incredible demand.
The crash of bitcoin has led to a couple of situations. Firstly, due to the increase in production and demand suddenly evaporating, manufacturers like NVIDIA and the outlets they supply are now overstocked on GPUs. As a result, prices are set to tumble dramatically in an attempt to move the huge stockpiles onto consumers. If you're building or upgrading a PC, this is probably your best option.
The cards sold by trusted outlets are guaranteed to be authentic and brand new. However, if you're on an extreme budget or comfortable taking a risk, there is another option. Bitcoin miners are trying to recoup as much money as possible by selling the graphics cards from their mining rigs. There are no guarantees of quality when it comes to these cards, and you don't know what kind of product you're getting. It could be an absolute bargain, or it could be a dud that has been jerry-rigged to run at three-quarter capacity. Play at your own risk.
NVIDIA has something new on the horizon
According to The Verge, NVIDIA's CFO Collette Kress has alluded to "a new segment of the market that we plan to reach with our gaming technology." What that segment is remains a mystery, but there are a few things we can use to make an educated guess on the matter. Kress' statement more than likely doesn't directly refer to the next generation of NVIDIA GPUs. Although we don't have an exact release date, the Ada Lovelace 4000 series of graphics cards have already been announced, and will more than likely cater to a segment of the market NVIDIA already has a huge share of — PC and laptop gamers.
However, NVIDIA is already playing a large part in Mark Zuckerberg's proposed metaverse, so it wouldn't be a huge shock to see a major portion of the company's interests focused there. The GPU manufacturer recently announced an expansion of its NVIDIA Omniverse platform, which allows designers, artists, and reviewers to easily collaborate in the digital world.
Zuckerberg is framing the metaverse as the next evolutionary phase of the internet. His vision of the concept itself comes across as a network you can walk around, hang out in with friends, and attend events within. Virtual reality plays a huge part in this vision, as do things like NFTs, which will likely form the framework virtual assets are built around. All of this will require a tremendous amount of processing power, and chip manufacturers like NVIDIA and companies like it are in a prime position to capitalize on it all. You could even argue the concept has no chance without them.