Nvidia Shield Owners and Discussion Thread (Shield Portable and Tablet)

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NZtechfreak

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#150565 26-Jul-2014 22:28

[UPDATE] First review is in, and it's extremely positive really - http://gizmodo.com/nvidia-shield-tablet-review-a-gaming-beast-but-so-muc-1612430076

Thought I would start a thread on the Shield series of devices, given the recent announcement that the Shield Tablet, which will join the newly titled Shield Portable in the Shield range. For myself I have the latter, and have pre-ordered the former.

(FWIW, I accept the risk that this thread might largely entail me talking to myself – especially if some kind of HTML code again sneaks into my third attempt to post this thread killing the ability to reply to it)

Anyways, the Shield Tablet:

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#1096385 26-Jul-2014 22:40

A lot of reaction to this seems to be focused on the chances that it can bridge the gap between desktop and mobile gaming, and from that perspective impressions are mixed, with some fairly negative views on the device as a whole coming from people adjudicating it solely on those grounds.

For myself, this is the tablet I want to own, first and foremost, and the other stuff amount to being some very nice bonuses regardless of whether they achieve Nvidia's broader aspirations.

For $299US the spec is absolutely top notch, and basically exactly what I want with a K1 not attached to a resolution higher than 1080p (in console mode this outputs 1080p to connected monitors). For my purposes 1080p is all I need for a good while yet, and for some of the things I value like emulation I'd rather have a very powerful GPU not constrained by needing to push 1440p+ resolutions. Anyone who has been paying attention will have noticed that Nvidia's commitment to firmware updates has been peerless for both the original Shield and their Tegra Note range of devices as Android OEMs have gone over the last year. This is, to all intents and purposes, virtually a Nexus device - only one that comes with micro SD expansion.

As far as the gaming stuff goes, well, for emulation this should be VERY good, which means access to a vast range of truly excellent games right off the bat. Case in point, the developer of the Dolphin Gamecube emulator has been using the K1 development board with virtually a straight port of Dolphin that is already running quite well with basically no optimisations:

Regarding some of the crossover with PC gaming stuff - the PC ports for Portal and Half Life 2 I have been playing on my Shield Portable are truly excellent. I'd actually never played Portal, and HL2 I've not played through since it first released. Look forward to what else they can bring from the Steam catalog with the superior hardware available in the form of the K1 - as a lapsed PC gamer there will be a number of great games from the last decade I've never played that will likely become available over time on this platform. No Nvidia GPU available on my desktop here to take advantage of the streaming stuff, but I think the entry level GPU capable of that isn't that dear, so I may look into that.

Looking forward to 1080p Netflix streaming also, since to date the Shield Portable is about the only mobile device I have encountered that seems to do well with Netflix. In a show of commitment to the original Shield, it gets the updated Netflix app and a firmware update on the day the Tablet releases, which goes some way toward reassuring that Nvidia won't drop support for it anytime soon either (a presumption voiced by quite a few).

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ZiglioNZ

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#1096889 28-Jul-2014 09:18

Looking forward to seeing what you think.

So far I've only seen two reviews of devices with a K1:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-xiaomi-mipad-review

http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-hardware/22731/nvidia-jetson-tk1-review

540trickzter

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#1098723 30-Jul-2014 17:35

I wish this had the K1 64bit Denver SoC. Hopefully nVidia release an updated model with Denver at the end of the year and add AC WiFi. I'll definitely order one if they add those 2 things. If not, then I'll see what how Volantis turns out.

NZtechfreak

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#1098747 30-Jul-2014 18:31

ZiglioNZ: Looking forward to seeing what you think.

So far I've only seen two reviews of devices with a K1:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-xiaomi-mipad-review

http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-hardware/22731/nvidia-jetson-tk1-review

Only review I have seen for the Shield Tablet so far is this Gizmodo one: http://gizmodo.com/nvidia-shield-tablet-review-a-gaming-beast-but-so-muc-1612430076

Usually I find Gizmodo reviews quite terrible, but this is a suprisingly decent review compared to their usual standards. Extremely positive overall too.

Still hoping to get my shipping notice from Nvidia today, unfortunately others like Newegg and Amazon are beating them to the punch!

Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org

NZtechfreak

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#1098816 30-Jul-2014 21:04

OK, many reviews now hitting online, and all of them extremely good. Anandtech, Androidpolice, you name it. Mine will hopefully ship very soon!

Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org

xainee

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#1098913 30-Jul-2014 22:56

NZtechfreak: OK, many reviews now hitting online, and all of them extremely good. Anandtech, Androidpolice, you name it. Mine will hopefully ship very soon!

where did you buy it from? do you reckon nvidia accept NZ CC?
I'm so hyped up for this tablet, and now I'm heavily contemplating whether i should wait for the LTE version.

ZiglioNZ

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#1099043 31-Jul-2014 09:47

NZtechfreak:
Only review I have seen for the Shield Tablet so far is this Gizmodo one: http://gizmodo.com/nvidia-shield-tablet-review-a-gaming-beast-but-so-muc-1612430076

Usually I find Gizmodo reviews quite terrible, but this is a suprisingly decent review compared to their usual standards. Extremely positive overall too.

Still hoping to get my shipping notice from Nvidia today, unfortunately others like Newegg and Amazon are beating them to the punch!

You're right, most reviews are glowing. In one review, they mention some frame rate drop in games.
I would expect that, I compare the K1 to my laptop that has got two kepler cores, so roughly twice the power, and still stutters at times.
Also, thermal constraints are the bottleneck, I've read somewhere the peak power is 2W on this tablet.
I expect micro-console to go higher that that, thanks to more air, and fans. They could potentially feature more than one K1 processor, it's cheap enough!

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NZtechfreak

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#1099078 31-Jul-2014 10:12

xainee:
NZtechfreak: OK, many reviews now hitting online, and all of them extremely good. Anandtech, Androidpolice, you name it. Mine will hopefully ship very soon!

where did you buy it from? do you reckon nvidia accept NZ CC?
I'm so hyped up for this tablet, and now I'm heavily contemplating whether i should wait for the LTE version.

Interestingly my purchase from Nvidia was declined, when using the same purchasing details they accepted and filled my order for the Shield Portable.

Grabbed one from Amazon instead yesterday and it should be with Shipito later today/first thing tomorrow and with me early next week.

If the LTE version can make phone calls I may well grab that and ditch my phone and use an 8-inch tablet for both purposes!

Twitter: @nztechfreak
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NZtechfreak

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#1100296 1-Aug-2014 20:25

Walp, should have mine Monday (but controller and folding cover coming later after needing to change order the Amaxon).

Kudos to Shipito, who had it out the door about 2 hours after it arrived.

Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org

Echoe

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#1100469 2-Aug-2014 08:58

Just ordered mine aswell. Great reviews. Now to start ROM development.

NZtechfreak

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#1102805 5-Aug-2014 18:58

So I got mine yesterday, early impressions extremely positive here.

Nice feel with the soft-touch back, display is fine, speakers are excellent, so far gaming looking very good (only tried Trine 2 and Riptide 2 briefly so far, and yeah, the graphics are pretty wow-inducing). Have just downloaded HL2 and Portal and ported across to the external SD card, so will be interesting to see how much nicer they are on K1 vs my Shield Portable. Right this very second copying some PSP ROMs over to see how they perform.

EDIT: Well, that was a pretty good PSP session. Tekken Dark Resurrection runs basically perfectly at 1080p on the Shield Tablet with no frameskip and no other speed tweaks enabled - to put that in perspective my S800-toting Note 3 can run it well enough to play nicely, however it requires frameskip of 2 and sits variably between 80-95% of full speed, whereas the K1 runs it basically locked into 100% framerate and speed with no frameskip. Tried Wipeout Pure next, which nothing else mobile can run past an unplayable speed of about 60% no matter what speed tweaks are enabled in settings, and was shocked to see it running at 90-100% in actual gameplay. Perfectly playable, which is awesome, and means I'll likely be having a little Wipeout revival soon. Tried GoW:Chains of Olympus next, and, well, it runs it about the twice the speed of anything else mobile I've used, but it's still needs another 50% speed boost to be playable. Will have a play with settings and see if the speed can be increased a little, but for now it looks like the K1 isn't quite enough to manage it. Probably at 1xPSP rendering and letterboxed it'll be playable, but then I might as well be playing it on my actual PSP in that case.

Oh, should mention, most things I've thrown on there so far have been transferable to the external storage. So far have moved HL2 and Portal (but you'd expect the Nvidia-partnered ports to work like that), Jet Set Radio (so it looks like Sega support it), Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel games) and Riptide 2 also (so Vector Unit titles look good to go also). Will have a flail at some Gameloft stuff and Madfinger games, but I'm pretty sure they support moving their games to external SD.

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Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org

NZtechfreak

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#1103145 6-Aug-2014 11:21

Oh my, running Mario Kart - Double Dash! on Dolphin emulator on the Shield Tablet - getting between 43 and 57 fps on time trial tracks. For a non-desktop device that is hugely impressive. I think my Note 3, which lacks latest OpenGL support, can do about 3fps.

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Krishant007

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#1103147 6-Aug-2014 11:28

How is the battery life on the Shield? Do you think this is a purely gaming tablet or can be used as a daily tablet driver replacing a nexus 7?

NZtechfreak

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#1103150 6-Aug-2014 11:32

Krishant007: How is the battery life on the Shield? Do you think this is a purely gaming tablet or can be used as a daily tablet driver replacing a nexus 7?

Used as a tablet battery seems commensurate with other tablets this size. Once you start AAA gaming though expect only 2.5-3hrs battery life.

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ZiglioNZ

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#1103152 6-Aug-2014 11:38

NZtechfreak: So I got mine yesterday, early impressions extremely positive here.

Nice feel with the soft-touch back, display is fine, speakers are excellent, so far gaming looking very good (only tried Trine 2 and Riptide 2 briefly so far, and yeah, the graphics are pretty wow-inducing). Have just downloaded HL2 and Portal and ported across to the external SD card, so will be interesting to see how much nicer they are on K1 vs my Shield Portable. Right this very second copying some PSP ROMs over to see how they perform.

Thanks for your report. Have you plugged it to the TV yet?
I'm curious to see if any of the games from Tegrazone with Stereoscopic 3D support work on the K1 in stereo mode.
That was the main reason why I got a Tegra 3 device, the Ouya, but never managed to enable 3D stereo:

http://forums.ouya.tv/discussion/1970/missing-com-nvidia-nvstereoutils-jar#latest

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