UPDATE 2-Nvidia profit beats, but revenue disappoints

* Q4 EPS ex-items 23 cents vs Street view 20 cents

* Q4 revenue $982.50 mln vs Street view $957.20 mln

* Sees Q1 rev flat from Q4

* Sees Q1 gross margin 44-45 pct vs Q4 44.7 pct

* Shares down 4 pct in after-hours trade (Adds analyst comment)

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on strong demand for PCs that use its graphics chips, but revenue came in below Wall Street's most bullish expectations.

Fourth-quarter revenue more than doubled to $982.5 million, Nvidia said on Wednesday. While that was above the average Wall Street estimate of $957.2 million, some had expected revenue to come in a bit higher.

"The whisper had them making up to $1 billion in revenue," said Wedbush Morgan analyst Patrick Wang.

One of Nvidia's segments may have declined faster than expected, Wang said.

"The chipset revenue decline is probably driving a lot of the disappointment there," Wang said, referring to chips on a board that connect a computer's microprocessing brain to other parts of the computer.

Nvidia shares fell 4 percent in after-hours trading, after having gained nearly 30 percent in the past three months.

The company said net income came to $131.1 million, or 23 cents a share, compared with a loss of $147.7 million, or 27 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding items, Nvidia earned 23 cents a share, ahead of the average analyst estimate of 20 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Nvidia forecast revenue for the current quarter to be flat from the fourth quarter, and gross margin between 44 percent and 45 percent, compared with the fourth quarter's 44.7 percent.

Shares of Santa Clara-based Nvidia closed up 0.96 percent at $17.84 on the Nasdaq and fell to $17.15 in extended trading. (Reporting by Ian Sherr. Editing by Robert MacMillan)