Open the two free company pages with one question
Open the NVIDIA and AMD company previews in separate browser tabs. You can read both public pages without creating an account. Begin with a question you can test, such as whether two growth observations cover comparable periods and business scopes. A broad question like which stock is better encourages you to combine unrelated figures before you have established what they measure.
This guide uses the two pages as starting points for a manual comparison in your own document or spreadsheet. It does not require a built-in comparison tool, an account upgrade or an automatic scoring system. Keep the company pages open so that every note can lead back to the source that supports it. The goal is a small comparison you can reproduce, including the places where a fair comparison is not yet possible.
Choose one business question for the first pass. If you start with revenue growth, postpone valuation and share-price performance until you have resolved the revenue definitions. You can add another dimension later without changing the meaning of the first one.
Create a comparison record before copying numbers
Give each company its own column and use the same row labels: question, metric, business scope, reporting period, unit, accounting basis, original source and unresolved issue. Leave cells empty until the source provides the needed information. A blank cell is a useful reminder to investigate; a guessed value can quietly turn an incomplete comparison into a false conclusion.
Add the date on which you checked the page, but keep it separate from the source publication date and financial period. Those dates answer different questions. A page visited today may contain an assessment reviewed earlier and a filing covering an earlier quarter. Recording all three helps you notice when the two tabs contain different information vintages.
The result should work even after you close the browser. Another reader should be able to identify which company and document each observation refers to, reproduce your calculation and see why you marked a comparison unresolved.
Use key factors to find evidence, then follow the source
On each preview, locate Current key factors and inspect the review date. Read What happened, Why it matters and What to watch separately. The first gives a reported development, the second an assessment and the third a possible next checkpoint. Do not place all three in the same factual row of your worksheet.
Choose the factor closest to your question and open its attached source. Check that the source supports the specific observation you want to compare. If one tab offers evidence of completed revenue while the other describes a future purchase or launch plan, label that mismatch. A completed result and a future condition can both be useful, but they are not equivalent measures of progress.
The Filings & news timeline can help locate another document when the selected factor does not answer your question. Use the original company disclosure for financial definitions. Collected news may provide context, but a headline alone does not supply the missing accounting scope or reporting period.
Match the period and scope before comparing growth
Look for the actual period end and whether the figure covers a quarter, a year or another interval. The word latest does not guarantee that two companies report the same calendar window. Record the difference instead of assuming that matching fiscal-quarter labels imply matching dates.
Next, determine whether the figure represents the whole company, a segment or a narrower product category. Do not compare consolidated growth in one column with segment growth in the other and label the row company growth. If the available disclosures cannot support a consistent comparison, write a narrower question that they can answer.
Here is a hypothetical exercise, not NVIDIA or AMD financial data. Company A increases consolidated quarterly revenue from 100 to 120 units, a 20% increase. Company B increases segment revenue from 20 to 30 units, a 50% increase. The second percentage is larger, but it does not establish that Company B as a whole grew faster. You still need its consolidated figures for a company-level comparison.
Check the denominator and the earnings basis
For another fictional example, suppose Company A reports operating income of 24 on revenue of 120. Its operating margin is 20%. Company B reports operating income of 9 on revenue of 30, giving a 30% margin. The arithmetic is simple; whether the comparison is meaningful depends on the definitions and periods attached to those figures.
If the first numerator is reported operating income and the second is adjusted operating income, do not silently present them as identical measures. Locate the adjustment explanation and reconciliation in the issuer document. Keep reported and adjusted comparisons in separate rows until you can explain the exclusions and decide whether they answer the same question.
The SEC financial-statement guide provides background on income statements, financial-statement notes and operating-margin calculations. Use that background to ask better questions of the company sources. It does not validate a particular number on either preview, and this tutorial does not independently audit the live financial values.
Keep price behavior and business evidence in separate rows
Return to the price-trend section on each company page and inspect its own date. A trend label describes observed price behavior over its stated window. It does not establish why the price moved or prove that one business improved more than the other.
You can write two adjacent observations without joining them into a causal claim: a source reported a business development, and a dated price series moved in a particular direction. Explaining the connection requires additional evidence. If the available material does not establish the cause, keep the causal question open.
Apply the same care to a valuation multiple. Check whether the earnings basis is historical or estimated, whether the periods align and which price date is used. A smaller multiple cannot settle the comparison by itself. For this first worksheet, it is acceptable to leave valuation out entirely rather than import a number whose basis you have not checked.
Write one counterexample and one next checkpoint
After recording a supported observation for each company, write a condition that could weaken your interpretation. For a hypothetical demand question, a reported order might be followed by a delayed delivery. For a margin question, a later disclosure might show that mix or a one-time item explained an apparent improvement. These are examples of questions to test, not claims about either company.
Then name the evidence you would need next. A useful checkpoint identifies a future filing, disclosure or defined operating measure. Avoid a vague reminder to watch the stock. The purpose is to make the next research session capable of changing your understanding.
Give unresolved questions equal space in both columns. More visible news or a longer factor description should not automatically create more confidence. If one company has the necessary source and the other does not, describe the evidence gap rather than turning missing information into a negative business judgment.
Finish with a bounded comparison you can revisit
End your worksheet with three short statements: what is comparable, what is not comparable yet, and what you will check next. For example, you may have matched the revenue periods while leaving an adjusted-margin comparison unresolved. That is a concrete result, even if you have not chosen a preferred company.
On your next visit, reopen the saved sources and compare the new documents with your earlier record. Preserve the earlier numbers and dates so that a revised source does not erase the history of your reasoning. ThesisMemo helps you reach company information; the external worksheet in this guide is your own manual record.
You can repeat this method for another question after the first one is documented. Keep each conclusion proportional to its evidence. A careful comparison can identify useful differences and missing information without becoming a buy-or-sell recommendation.
Product references
Questions & answers
Do I need an account to follow this NVIDIA and AMD comparison?
No. Both company previews are publicly readable. This walkthrough uses two browser tabs and a document or spreadsheet you maintain yourself. Saving companies to a personal watchlist is a separate account-based action.
Does this tutorial use the product’s Compare company button?
No. The steps here use the individual public company pages. They do not promise access to an authenticated comparison feature or an automatic ranking. Follow the two-page workflow as described.
What should I do if the reporting periods differ?
Record the actual start and end dates where available and mark the mismatch. Look for a comparable disclosure or narrow the question. Do not rename different fiscal periods to make them appear identical.
Can I compare a reported margin with an adjusted margin?
Keep them separately labeled until you have read the adjustment definitions and reconciliations. The two calculations may exclude different costs. A matching percentage sign does not make their accounting bases comparable.
Will the comparison tell me which stock to buy?
It is designed to clarify evidence, definitions and unanswered questions. It does not establish an investment recommendation. Finish with a supported observation and a specific next checkpoint rather than a winner chosen from mismatched metrics.