Tegra 3, GPU Demand Drive Strong Q3 Nvidia Growth

The processor manufacturer said quarterly revenue was $1.07 billion, up 4.9 percent from last quarter’s revenue of $1.02 billion, up 26.3 percent from $843.9 million in the same period a year earlier.

Nvidia’s Q3 net income was $178.3 million, up from $151.6 million in Q2 and $84.9 million during the same period last year.

"NVIDIA's strategy is coming into its own, as the world becomes increasingly visual and mobile," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive of NVIDIA. "Our GPU business accelerated in the third quarter, driven by strong demand from gamers and the professional market. And our mobile business benefited from new devices coming onto the market. With Tegra 3 phone wins well ahead of Tegra 2's pace, we're expecting strong growth in the year ahead."

NVIDIA launched its Tegra 3 “Kal-El” quad-core processor in Q3 for smartphones and tablets, providing three times the graphics performance of Tegra 2 with up to 61 percent lower power consumption.

Tegra 3 processors also leverage Variable Symmetric Multiprocessoing (VSMP) technology, which arms the device with a fifth CPU. While the four primary cores are used for more power-hungry tasks, Tegra 3 processors switch to this fifth, low-silicon companion core to preserve energy during low-power activities.

Nvidia also saw a jump in the adoption of its GPUs for high-performance computing, with major research facilities including Oak Ridge National Lab and the Russian Academy of Sciences fueling their supercomputers with Tesla processors.

Looking forward, Nvidia anticipates Q4 revenue to be relatively flat, plus or minus two percent, from the third quarter.