Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has been affected by many of the same issues that have hit other chipmakers, including its graphics card rival Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD). Despite facing similar challenges, the two companies have performed very differently on the stock market over the past 12 months. AMD has seen growth topping 92%, while Nvidia stock has dropped nearly 36% in value — and that’s despite the fact that NVDA has significantly grown its GPU market share lead over AMD during that time.
Nvidia has been teasing something “super” coming soon, and rumor has it that will be refreshed GeForce RTX graphics cards, options at lower prices and a release timed to disrupt AMD’s latest product launch. If leaks are right, we could be getting an official announcement next week. Will NVDA’s new GeForce RTX Super cards be enough to kickstart a comeback for Nvidia stock?
Countering AMD’s New Navi Graphics Cards
AMD has been getting a lot of buzz from the new Navi graphics cards it announced at E3 2019. The new 7nm architecture is being used for everything from PC graphics cards to cloud servers and Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) forthcoming Xbox Scarlett game console. And AMD has been openly talking up the performance gains of these new Navi cards — like the Radeon RX-5700 series — over their NVDA equivalents.
The headlines and buzz have been great for AMD investors, but for those who own Nvidia stock, it hasn’t exactly been great news. Add it to the other challenges hitting in the industry, including demand for GPUs from crypto-miners that cratered, and the ongoing trade war with China, and the results haven’t been pretty for the Nvidia stock price.
However, NVDA hasn’t just been sitting back and watching all this happen. The trade war may be out of its control, but the company has a plan to combat the new AMD graphics cards with some new releases of its own. It started with the “super” tease at E3, timed to steal some of AMD’s Navi announcement thunder. And the latest rumors point to a July 2 announcement from Nvidia that will confirm its new GeForce RTX Super graphics cards.
Super Cards Could Super-Charge Nvidia Stock
AMD is planning to release its new Navi-based Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics cards on July 7, priced at $379 and $449, respectively. That means NVDA has to move quickly if it wants to steal the spotlight. According to Digital Trends, that means an official announcement of the GeForce RTX Super graphics cards on July 2, followed by a release of the first two cards in the series on July 9.
Nvidia’s strategy is to put out revised graphics cards that pack more power (using the existing architecture), then discount the current versions. The Super cards are aimed at being the new gold standard, while the discounted cards make gamers think twice about switching to AMD.
Digital Trends’ sources also have prices for the new NVDA cards, along with the revised pricing for previous generation versions. According to those sources, the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super will go for $430, while the existing GeForce RTX 2060 drops to $350. The GeForce RTX 2070 Super gets a $600 price tag, while the GeForce RTX 2070 drops to $500. At the upper end of the spectrum, NVDA is also expected to release a GeForce RTX 2080 Super closer to the end of July with an $800 sticker, while the current GeForce RTX 2080 drops to $700.
Will the release of the GeForce RTX Super series of graphics cards effectively counter AMD’s Navi release? And will it finally re-ignite Nvidia stock, which is off nearly 50% since nearly hitting $290 last October? If the rumors are right, we should start to see results next week.
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
