NVIDIA has started to feel the aftermath of the ongoing DRAM shortages with its gaming business, as it witnesses a double-digit percentage QoQ decline, with supply remaining tight in the coming quarters.
NVIDIA's Consumer GPU Business Is Suffering As Memory Allocation Becomes a Lot More Difficult
The consumer GPU industry is indeed in rough times, and with the start of this year, we have seen significant changes in the segment, including availability and launch plans. Memory shortages have intensified to the point that it has become difficult for companies to acquire supplies for their consumer products, and it appears that NVIDIA is facing similar troubles. In their Q4 2026 earnings, NVIDIA witnessed a 13% drop in quarterly revenue, and while the company attributes this to "inventory moderation", the market suggests something else.
Fourth-quarter Gaming revenue was $3.7 billion, up 47% from a year ago, driven by strong Blackwell demand, and down 13% from the previous quarter as channel inventory naturally moderated following a season of strong holiday demand.
- NVIDIA
Interestingly, during the earnings call, NVIDIA was asked about what they expect from their gaming business moving forward, to which CFO Colette Kress disclosed that securing sufficient memory supply is currently off the books and that the upcoming quarters will be "very tight". This implies that GPU shortages will become more aggressive moving forward, and given how the memory markets are moving, it won't be wrong to say that securing a GPU could become much more difficult this year.
As much as we would love to have additional more supply, we do believe for a couple of quarters, it is going to be very tight. If things improve by the end of the year, there is an opportunity to think about what that is from a year-over-year growth.
- NVIDIA's CFO
NVIDIA's growth timeline for gaming revenues is now stretched to YoY, which implies the firm isn't specific whether the situation will improve for gamers in the upcoming months. We are already seeing the aftershocks of memory shortages in the GPU industry, with both NVIDIA/AMD pushing their next-gen GPU launches several months out. Similarly, retail GPU prices have risen significantly over the past few weeks, with mainstream models in limited supply.
Right now, a massive chunk of global DRAM output is allocated to infrastructure buildout, and given that, with each generation, the percentage of memory products is increasing signifcantly, the supply cannot keep up. For now, neither NVIDIA nor we have a precise estimate of when the situation in the GPU industry could return to normal, but it will take several quarters.
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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