NVIDIA Lowers Q4 Revenue Estimations

Expects a 40 to 50% drop

NVIDIA, the world’s leading manufacturer of computer graphics processors, announced on Tuesday that it expected to show a 40 to 50 percent decline in revenues in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 ending on January 25, 2009. According to the newly announced figures, the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker could see fourth quarter revenue of between $449 million and $538 million, down from the reported third quarter revenue of $897.7 million.

The green company could see a significant drop in year-over-year revenue, according to the latest details. When compared to the record revenue of $1.20 billion, reported in the fourth quarter of 2008, the recent revision could be considered one of the company’s worst.

NVIDIA didn’t outline any specific product segments where the company has seen the highest decline, but it did say that it would be reporting its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on February 10, when the chip maker is also expected to release additional commentary.

The leading graphics chip manufacturer isn’t the only major company to have recently revised its fourth quarter forecasts, as some of its main competitors have also changed their Q4 revenue predictions. Both AMD and Intel have revised their fourth quarter earning forecasts, with Intel now expecting to show a 20 percent drop in revenues, compared to the previous quarter. All of the aforementioned companies have seen a lower than expected revenue drop, as a consequence of the ongoing slow global demand for their products.

Just recently, NVIDIA has unveiled some new products, in the company’s high-end desktop graphics card product range. The GeForce GTX 285 and GTX 296 graphics cards are expected to lead the company’s graphics card sales for the ongoing year. In addition, the manufacturer has also entered the fast growing market for small form factor and low-power PCs, with the introduction of the Ion platform, which could potentially boost the company’s revenues, given the fast adoption rate of netbooks and nettops.