Nvidia Confirms Gaming Graphics Card Revenue Fell A Whopping 44% in Q2 2022!

I think it would be fair to say that there’s more than a little apathy around the PC gaming community at the moment in regards to upgrading graphics cards. Don’t get me wrong there, I know for a fact that there are plenty of us who want to upgrade. With the Nvidia 4000 and AMD Radeon 7000 series literally just a couple of months away, however, it doesn’t really feel entirely wise to spend a significant amount of money now on what will shortly be an outdated (for want of a better word) piece of tech.

How widespread is this overall, if not apathy, then patience? – Well, following the release of their Q2 2022 financial figures, it seems pretty huge! Why? Well, Nvidia has just reported (link here) that gaming graphics card revenue has fallen by a whopping 44% quarter on quarter and 33% year on year!

Nvidia Confirms Huge Drop in Gaming Graphics Card Revenue

Based on projections, Nvidia expected gaming graphics card sales for Q2 2022 to generate something in the region of £8.1BN. The actual figure, however, is quite monumentally lower with just £6.7BN being confirmed instead. So, in other words, it’s a $1.4BN shortfall!

Now, admittedly, the reality of the projections does partially depend on when Nvidia originally made them. It’s not unlikely, for example, that this was done prior to the cryptocurrency crash which is a key reason why they currently have masses of 30XX stock that, based on this information, the gaming consumer is not buying. – Presuming that this isn’t the key focus though, why are gaming sales so woefully below expectations?

Well, in brief:

• Nvidia 30XX stock is good, but prices are not falling anywhere near as quickly as they should be
• The 40XX series is just circa 8 weeks away. Who wants to spend circa $600 on a 3070 today when that might buy a 4070 in just a few months?

Price Cuts on the Way?

In making the announcement, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has strongly suggested that in order to help boost Q3 gaming GPU revenue (which clearly isn’t expected to get any better as Nvidia 40XX won’t be released until Q4) that significant price cuts might finally be on the way:

“Our gaming product sell-through projections declined significantly as the quarter progressed, As we expect the macroeconomic conditions affecting sell-through to continue, we took actions with our Gaming partners to adjust channel prices and inventory.”

What does this mean? Well, ultimately, Nvidia might have to start going for razer thin profits on its AIB custom GPUs, and perhaps even mild losses, in order to not just allow for price cuts, but ultimately, to help their partners shift what is reported to be a notably large amount of 30XX stock that just isn’t moving! (Because we consumers are not buying).

All going well, therefore, and within the next few weeks, we might finally start seeing some truly amazing deals on 30XX graphics cards that might just tempt us into a late end-of-life purchase. I mean, if they can do something like a 3080 for circa £550, they’ll definitely have my attention!

What do you think though? – Let us know in the comments!