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NVIDIA Shield Releases July(ish?)... For $299

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AnandTech posted their review of the Shield:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7190/nvidia-shield-review-tegra-4-crossroads-pc-mobile-gaming

I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I'd still like to see how well it streams. :$

What Mobile devices severely need is a FAST storage transfer speed. None of the 10-20MB/s crap. If they're using stacked NAND, integrate a 4-8 channel SSD like controller and give us 100+ MB/s, USb3.0 jumpdrives already can.

Eh... I might expect to see this in tablets, but I doubt that you'd see it anything smaller because the power consumption is still high. I mean... look at the power consumption numbers on the latest SSDs. The sleep numbers are fine and idle is even sort of alright, but load? Some of those numbers are higher than the SoC itself! Although, to be fair, we would probably see smaller capacities, which means less RAM, and NAND blocks. Although, less NAND also means lower performance (without any tricks like in the Samsung review that I linked earlier).
 
There is plenty of room for a fan, why not?

My Nexus 4 obviously has no room for a fan and when I'm gaming or other heavy apps, the Snapdragon S4 Pro makes the phone really hot. So it's not like these chips can't be cooled better and since the Shield has the room, it's a great idea to use it.
Going for a fan and a bigger battery actually makes sense for a handheld gaming system, as such a system is expected to maintain maximum load for extended periods of time. It is quite different than the route Nintendo has done in the 3DS (using less powerful hardware to keep acceptable battery life + temps + costs low). If Nvidia were to swing this as a handheld console (or something similar), and get Developers onboard, you may have a device that provides decent competition in the handheld gaming market.

And yes, I certainly love having my 3DS (or my GBA) for gaming, especially as I don't drain the battery on my rather-important phone. 😀
 
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AnandTech posted their review of the Shield:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7190/nvidia-shield-review-tegra-4-crossroads-pc-mobile-gaming

I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I'd still like to see how well it streams. :$

The streaming is all but useless if you ask me. The only way you will get playable latency is by using it on your home network. Unless Nvidia has somehow found a way to break the laws of physics.

If getting your ass handed to you because you are playing a PC game with a controller while taking a dump is important to you then by all means spend the $300.
 
And i pay $299 and can play where i am and not only at home.
And at home i play with much better graphics thx to the streaming feature.

Hm, i dont know but paying $100 more for less is not really sane...
 
The only way you will get playable latency is by using it on your home network.

Which is why WiFi is required?

If getting your ass handed to you because you are playing a PC game with a controller while taking a dump is important to you then by all means spend the $300.

I guess I better unhook that XBOX 360 controller from my PC because all PC games are god awful with a controller. 🙄

Frankly, I ought to just throw your opinion out the window for even assuming that I'd play a FPS (can't imagine what other sort of game you'd even be referring to) with a controller. Such things would get me exiled from the PC Gaming Master Race! :colbert:
 
I already got most of my android emulator apps planned out.

I'm downloading all the ROMs of my favorite console and arcade games (that I own of course).

Talk about ultimate emulator product!

The review looked great. better than I expect. Battery Life is the most impressive.

I'm happy to hear about the wifi being as strong as it is. My 5ghz wifi at home drops in the corners of my house. Hopefully this can use 5ghz all over my house. Certainly 2.4ghz
 
The streaming is all but useless if you ask me. The only way you will get playable latency is by using it on your home network. Unless Nvidia has somehow found a way to break the laws of physics.

If getting your ass handed to you because you are playing a PC game with a controller while taking a dump is important to you then by all means spend the $300.

It only works on your home network...

OnLive failed because they tried to do it over the internet, too much latency. Streaming games on your own LAN seems very plausible to me.
 
Plausible but actually useful?

Very. Why don't you see it?

You have a server/PC sitting in a closet that's got nice specs, and thanks to LAN streaming you can play all your games on any device, your phone, tablet, laptop, TV, etc.

The potential is fantastic. Instead of every machine needing high end video capability, you just need one rig and you can game on every device in your network.
 
Yes but I have a comfortable chair, a large monitor, a decent sound system, a nice mechanical keyboard and a precise mouse at my desk. I can even plug in my USB gamepad if I really wanted to use it (like for Sonic Generations).

There's literally no place more comfortable and well suited for gaming in my house *especially* for PC gaming.


I can make the case that playing my 360 games on my couch with my TV is a scenario that can't be replicated but then again, 360 games are quite different from PC games.
 
Yes but I have a comfortable chair, a large monitor, a decent sound system, a nice mechanical keyboard and a precise mouse at my desk. I can even plug in my USB gamepad if I really wanted to use it (like for Sonic Generations).

There's literally no place more comfortable and well suited for gaming in my house *especially* for PC gaming.


I can make the case that playing my 360 games on my couch with my TV is a scenario that can't be replicated but then again, 360 games are quite different from PC games.

Look, it's great you love to play games only at your desk, so then it seems this technology is not for you. But there are many out there who would appreciate LAN game streaming and being able to play on just about any device at any place in their home.
 
Very. Why don't you see it?

You have a server/PC sitting in a closet that's got nice specs, and thanks to LAN streaming you can play all your games on any device, your phone, tablet, laptop, TV, etc.

The potential is fantastic. Instead of every machine needing high end video capability, you just need one rig and you can game on every device in your network.

Your own little cloud!

But cloud is "bad"! Or is this a "cloud is good" week? I forget.

Either way I won't get one but the idea of a little "super emulator" device is somewhat alluring.
 
Look, it's great you love to play games only at your desk, so then it seems this technology is not for you. But there are many out there who would appreciate LAN game streaming and being able to play on just about any device at any place in their home.

That's the thing. If you're going to play it console style, why not play it on your capable console? That's why I mentioned my 360. Console style games work best on that and I play on my couch and TV.

If you're going to play it PC style, then a Shield-type controller isn't going to do it. In which case, getting a comfortable PC set up makes sense (which I have as well).

It's the same reason why tablets are so nice. Sure a laptop can do the same thing but it's a more comfortable format for its specific niche.



The Shield is more comfortable for mobile gaming than phones but so is the Vita which still isn't exactly taking off. The streaming gaming thing isn't even new; from what I've heard, Splashtop is perfectly capable already for this in a LAN setting.

The super emulator thing has me wondering. Even the Shield can't do PS2 class emulation so you're limited to PSP, DS and Nintendo 64 class emulation. But the Vita can do that at full speed too and as mentioned, hasn't taken off.
 
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That's the thing. If you're going to play it console style, why not play it on your capable console? That's why I mentioned my 360. Console style games work best on that and I play on my couch and TV.

Whose to say you can't do that with the Shield? The only issue is that it doesn't do it at a great price point of $300. Anyway, the Shield has a HDMI Out, USB and Bluetooth. So, if you really wanted to, you could always plug it into your TV and use a separate controller with it.

I've mentioned this before, but I think NVIDIA would be much better off creating a cheap set-top version of the Shield for ~$100. This allows you to stay in the PC ecosystem even if you don't want to sit at your desk anymore.

from what I've heard, Splashtop is perfectly capable already for this in a LAN setting.

I use Splashtop quite a bit for remotely connecting into my desktop, and there's one huge barrier compared to the Shield: Splashtop doesn't support full-screen gaming!

But the Vita can do that at full speed too and as mentioned, hasn't taken off.

Isn't the Vita rather limited in what homebrew it can run? I believe I read that it can only run PSP homebrew, but I don't really keep up with the Vita hacking scene much.
 
The software in Shield is a custom version of splashtop.

Well, I can assure you that the normal version doesn't work with full-screen DirectX layers. I know that from personal experience as if I want to enter a Borderlands 2 SHIFT code, I have to swap it to windowed or else I get an error window where Splashtop tells me that it doesn't support full-screen games.

If what you're saying is true, is there a way to pretend to be a Shield using the Splashtop client? I have a GeForce video card that supports streaming, and I have a HTPC on every TV.
 
I already got most of my android emulator apps planned out.

I'm downloading all the ROMs of my favorite console and arcade games (that I own of course).

Talk about ultimate emulator product!

The review looked great. better than I expect. Battery Life is the most impressive.

I'm happy to hear about the wifi being as strong as it is. My 5ghz wifi at home drops in the corners of my house. Hopefully this can use 5ghz all over my house. Certainly 2.4ghz

I feel the original PSP was better for this. It could run a Lot of emulators in a MUCH better form factor.
 
Whose to say you can't do that with the Shield? The only issue is that it doesn't do it at a great price point of $300. Anyway, the Shield has a HDMI Out, USB and Bluetooth. So, if you really wanted to, you could always plug it into your TV and use a separate controller with it.

I've mentioned this before, but I think NVIDIA would be much better off creating a cheap set-top version of the Shield for ~$100. This allows you to stay in the PC ecosystem even if you don't want to sit at your desk anymore.



I use Splashtop quite a bit for remotely connecting into my desktop, and there's one huge barrier compared to the Shield: Splashtop doesn't support full-screen gaming!



Isn't the Vita rather limited in what homebrew it can run? I believe I read that it can only run PSP homebrew, but I don't really keep up with the Vita hacking scene much.

This could work. Your Idea of using it as a settop box and therefore being able to game on your HDTV and your desk. For me, that'd be MUCH more useful. Right now, I had to pick between them. I chose my HDTV. But playing BF4 with a mouse/keyboard is impossible. Where do I put the mouse/keyboard? I'm going to end up playing with an xbox360 controller. We'll see how fun the game is playing against people with mouse/keyboard.
 
If what you're saying is true, is there a way to pretend to be a Shield using the Splashtop client? I have a GeForce video card that supports streaming, and I have a HTPC on every TV.

No idea, it's not something that I'm particularly interested in doing.
If there was some way to hack support I doubt that your video card would matter, I've a feeling that it's one of nvidias special constraints put in "for your convenience".
 
This could work. Your Idea of using it as a settop box and therefore being able to game on your HDTV and your desk. For me, that'd be MUCH more useful. Right now, I had to pick between them. I chose my HDTV. But playing BF4 with a mouse/keyboard is impossible. Where do I put the mouse/keyboard? I'm going to end up playing with an xbox360 controller. We'll see how fun the game is playing against people with mouse/keyboard.

Just like no every PC game would work great on the Shield itself because of the transition in controls, I'm not suggesting that a set-top version would work any better with a controller. However, for those games that work well with a controller, going to relax on your couch or on your bed could be a bit nice. I can tell you one thing... I'd much rather pay $100 for that convenience than $300. 😛

No idea, it's not something that I'm particularly interested in doing.
If there was some way to hack support I doubt that your video card would matter, I've a feeling that it's one of nvidias special constraints put in "for your convenience".

Well, it appears that the NVIDIA benefit is already baked into Splashtop:
http://support-remote.splashtop.com/entries/20169946-optimized-for-geforce

There's also a $10 in-app purchase for iOS (and I'm assuming Android) that seems like it lets you use a gamepad. I'm not sure if the Windows software allows for it too, because I use an older version. Splashtop pretty much screwed over their older customers by forcing them to pay for unnecessary services. For example, prior to a specific update, you could just add a computer to the client, which includes remote computers (port forwarding required). However, now you can't do that. You have to pay for their anywhere access package ($10 a month). Albeit, it does let you access any PC rather than just the one that's been forwarded to. (It's free for iOS users because we originally paid something like $15 for the app.)

I might try installing the newest remote client on my HTPC and seeing what it can do.
 
I still don't see this being a sell in 2013. 2006 it would've done really well. I think this thing is pointless today, what with all of the similar and more capable options out there.
 
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