Don’t expect PC graphics card pricing to come down in the near term. Nvidia is warning that supplies remain “very tight” amid the ongoing memory shortage.
On Wednesday, the company reported earnings for fiscal Q4, which ended on Jan. 25 and covered the holiday sales period. On the bright side, Nvidia’s revenue for its gaming business increased by 47% year-over-year. However, gaming sales decreased 13% quarter over quarter.
In her report, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress added: “We expect supply constraints to be a headwind to gaming in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 and beyond.”
In a subsequent earnings call, an investor asked if Nvidia’s gaming business can “still grow year-over-year,” despite the memory shortage.
“As much as we would love to have…more supply, we do believe for a couple quarters, it is going to be very tight,” Kress said. “If things improve by the end of the year, there is an opportunity to think about what this is from a year-over-year growth, but it’s still too early for us to know at this time.”
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That doesn’t bode well for PC builders. But it isn’t a surprise since both analysts and memory suppliers have been warning for weeks now that the AI-driven memory shortage is expected to persist into next year. The shortage is so bad that The Information reports that Nvidia might delay the next-generation RTX 6000 series into 2028, meaning consumers wouldn’t see a new GPU generation over a relatively long three-year stretch.
In the meantime, the shortage has inflated pricing for Nvidia’s higher-tier graphics cards, including the RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti, which can now cost $200 to $500 more than their original MSRPs. Despite the situation, Nvidia’s earnings continue to set new records, as the company prioritizes chip sales to feed the AI data center rush. In fiscal Q4, the company’s data center revenue reached a whopping $62.3 billion, while gaming revenue was $3.7 billion.
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Michael Kan
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this year, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how President Trump’s tariffs will affect the industry. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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