GeForce Cheaper Than a Game Console Says NVIDIA CEO

Last year, graphics card sales recovered well after a 10-year low during the second-quarter of 2015, even as PC sales continue to decline. NVIDIA’s GeForce cards remain the market leader against rival AMD, but CEO Jen-Hsun Huang is targeting new competition: game consoles. During a recent earnings call, Huang claimed NVIDIA’s GPU wares are akin to game consoles. He also revealed that the average selling price of a GeForce card is around one-third that of a console.

GeForce Cheaper than a Console?

Huang told Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Arya (via Seeking Alpha):

“The average selling price of the NVIDIA GeForce is about a third of a game console. That’s the way to think about it. That’s the simple math. People are willing to spend $200, $300, $400, $500 for a new game console, and the NVIDIA GeForce GPU PC gaming card is on average far less.”

PC Gamers “Absolutely Demand the Best”

Huang suggested that NVIDIA needs to find a compromise between “horsepower” and price to woo console gamers:

“There are people who just absolutely demand the best. And the reason for that is because they’re driving a monitor or they’re driving multiple monitors at a refresh rate well beyond a TV. So if you have a 4K or you want 120 hertz or some people are even driving it to 200 hertz, those kind of displays demand a lot more horsepower to drive than an average television, whether it’s 1080p or 4K at 60 frames a second or 30 frames a second. And so the amount of horsepower they need is great. But that’s just because they just really love their rig, and they’re surrounded in it, and they just want the best.

But the way to think about that is ultimately that’s the opportunity for us. I think GeForce is a game console. And the right way to think about that is at an equivalent ASP of some $200 – $300, that’s probably potentially an opportunity ahead for GeForce.”

The Decline of PC and Game Console Sales

The recent fall in PC sales has been mirrored by a staggering drop in game console sales. Within the last ten years, cumulative sales of consoles have dropped by around 75%. During 2008, over 80 million units – including PS3, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, and DS – were sold. Compare to last year, when approximately 25 million units sold.