SiliconBeat

Nvidia said today that its chief financial officer, Marvin Burkett, told the company last week he wants to retire, according to an SEC filing. Burkett, 65, has been with the Santa Clara maker of video graphics chips since 2002. Prior to joining Nvidia Burkett was a financial consultant and served as CFO of Arcot Systems, a security software company. From 1998 to 1999 he served as CEO of Packard Bell NEC.

The bulk of Burkett’s career was spent at Advanced Micro Devices, where over the course of 26 years he worked in a variety of positions including CFO and corporate controller. AMD purchased Nvidia’s arch-rival, ATI, in 2001. In January, AMD started selling a new graphics card designed to boost performance for better computer games and videos.

Burkett will remain with the company until his replacement is found, and “”may continue in some capacity” with the company after that. Which would probably give him more time to vest and exercise any options he’s been granted, especially a grant covering 150,000 shares that were granted in March 2006 at a strike price of $28.74. Those are currently underwater in light of the 42 percent drop in Nvidia’s stock so far this year.