While Nvidia admits that a big chunk of the cash it made last year was due to the cryptocurrency miners, it does not think that the boom will last and it is not worth ending up with an inventory of cards when the bubble bursts.

Nvidia chief financial officer Colette Kress told investors during its earnings call that strong demand in the cryptocurrency market exceeded Nvidia's expectations.

"We met some of this demand with a dedicated board in our OEM business, and some was met with our gaming GPUs." But Nvidia is having trouble keeping up with the demand, and it's recommended retailers put gamers ahead of cryptocurrency miners while supply is limited.

Kress acknowledged the shortage on the call and reaffirmed Nvidia's commitment to gamers. "While the overall contribution of cryptocurrency to our business remains hard to quantify, we believe it was a higher percentage of revenue than the prior quarter,  she said.

"That said, our main focus remains on our core gaming market as cryptocurrency trends will likely remain volatile."

Jensen Huang, Nvidia's chief executive officer, insisted that crypto demand will be approximately flat.