Nvidia shares will keep rising even after the stock's big gains this year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The firm reiterated its buy and 'top sector pick' ratings for Nvidia shares, predicting strong demand for the company's previous generation Pascal graphics chips.

In August, Nvidia announced its new eighth-generation Turing graphics architecture. Last week the first gaming cards based on Turing became available.

On Thursday Morgan Stanley said the gaming performance of Nvidia's latest graphics card is below its expectations.

We "believe Street's mixed initial reaction to NVDA's new Turing game card launch could prove short-sighted," analyst Vivek Arya said in a note to clients Monday. "In our view, better availability (and market prices) of Pascal along with initial Turing ramp provides a compelling case for ... NVDA gamers still on legacy/sub-standard tech to upgrade, regardless of which product family gamers ultimately choose to upgrade to."

Nvidia shares are down 0.6 percent in Monday's premarket session.

Arya reaffirmed his $340 price target for Nvidia shares, representing 29 percent upside to Friday's close.

The analyst said only 48 percent of PC gamers who own Nvidia cards have upgraded to the company's previous generation Pascal technology, according to his firm's latest survey.

"Even if Turing-based game card sales disappoint near-term, we think Street is missing what could be opportunity for offsetting upside from AI," he said.

Nvidia shares are outperforming the market this year. Its stock is up 36.2 percent year to date through Friday versus the S&P 500's 9.6 percent gain.