NVidia Shield

[Deleted]

Can somebody please explain the principle of this to me? From what I've read you can stream games to your Shield from your computer if you have an NVidia graphics card. Which is great, if you want to game in bed, but since I can use my PC while in bed it's irrelevant to me.

Apparently I heard you can also stream games from your home PC to the Shield over the internet - so you could play at work for example, which sounds great. Is this true? And how does that work, do you just leave your home PC on?

Beyond that you can stream games directly using Grid? Sort of Netflix for games?

Having never had a tablet I'm also unsure if I could install my Steam games directly on to the shield. Could I put my copy of FTL from Steam onto a tablet running Android? Or do you have to buy the games separately just for Android, unless you're streaming them from your PC?

Long story short, I would like to play Civ 5, FTL and maybe Skyrim on the train. Is the Shield good for this, yay or nay?

[Vash The Stampede]

The shield is the most useless device there ever was. Really has no point and so many hurdles to overcome just to use it. First you need the shield for $300. You need an Nvidia graphics card to stream games from your PC. If not that then you need to buy games which are Nvidia Tegra only. As opposed to just buying a cheapo $300 laptop and using Steams streaming service to Stream games from your home PC with ANY graphics card.

As for Civ 5 buy a $300 laptop and use that to Stream games from your PC. USB tether your phones data to the laptop and you're golden.

[Remilia]

I think you can for the over internet, I don't know how well it works. PS4 one works as well as your upload rate is and I'd imagine this wouldn't be any different, on network or wi-fi is fine.

As for your hypothetical on the train, maybe. If your internet isn't stable it'll be very 'fun' (unfun) streaming to a shield device. I don't know how it handles though, probably lots of stutter. PS4 one just gives you a warning and pauses everything and disconnects if it's very bad.

The grid one requires a very good download rate. Of course it has latency / lag in between depending on how far you are from the data center, supposedly average 100-150ms(?) iirc. Your mileage may vary.

I believe it goes off GeForce Experience, so whatever game that float's it's boat will work I imagine.

For $200/300, it's... overpriced and honestly really not useful.

[BicycleMafioso]

The shield is the most useless device there ever was.

I disagree!
The Shield is the only thing that makes me be on the nVidia side. It is really handy (hurr hurr) and it is a fun way to game when you don't want to sit around on your desktop.
Laptop? There actually is not a thing I despise more in the entire world than laptops, at least in the computer world (because Bieber springs to mind). They are clunky and you cannot game on their mouse, their keyboard nor their screen.

[Remilia]

I disagree!
The Shield is the only thing that makes me be on the nVidia side. It is really handy (hurr hurr) and it is a fun way to game when you don't want to sit around on your desktop.
Laptop? There actually is not a thing I despise more in the entire world than laptops, at least in the computer world (because Bieber springs to mind). They are clunky and you cannot game on their mouse, their keyboard nor their screen.

I rather pull out my Vita or 3DS.

[Deleted]

I have a friend who ha this an she regrets buying it, I really wouldn't. It is a game console device thingy and its just not good (according to him)

[Vash The Stampede]

If Nvidia...

A. Made a phone like the Much W1 or the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, I could see this working. Otherwise a tablet with a separate gamepad just isn't going to fly, at least not as a portable device. While their first generation Shield device did this, it didn't do anything else. Make it a thin working phone then we'll talk. Just cause the Ngage failed doing this doesn't mean it wasn't a good idea. The Shield is more akin to the Nintendo Virtual Boy, as it's not portable and awkward to play with in public.

B. Made your games available for all Android devices. Android is full of crappy games that don't work with gamepads. The few good games you're releasing on your Shield devices won't work on your competitors hardware. Nobody is going to buy that. Just release the games for all Android devices but Gameworks the hell out of them. Cause they probably won't run well on Adreno or Mali graphics anyway cause we know their drivers are crap. You're preventing games made in 2004 from running on anyone else's Android devices is just stupid. Cause those games will run on any cheap PC today so it isn't just Samsung or Qualcomm you're competing against.

C. Stopped requiring their hardware to stream PC games. Just making it harder for people to want to buy this. Not everyone is going to have Nvidia or AMD graphics. Intel is still the #1 graphics supplier and they're only going to get better with Iris Pro graphics. Steam does it without requiring specific hardware. Just a matter of time before Valve releases an app for streaming PC games to Android devices.

[BicycleMafioso]

A. Made a phone like the Much W1 or the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, I could see this working. Otherwise a tablet with a separate gamepad just isn't going to fly, at least not as a portable device. While their first generation Shield device did this, it didn't do anything else. Make it a thin working phone then we'll talk. Just cause the Ngage failed doing this doesn't mean it wasn't a good idea. The Shield is more akin to the Nintendo Virtual Boy, as it's not portable and awkward to play with in public.

FWIW, I was talking about the Shield, not the Shield tablet.

[Piffweaver]

that sucks I have it too

[kaamila]

I have an Nvidia Shield Tablet and personally I love it. First and foremost, it's a tablet. Like every other. It can do anything else a tablet can do. Only difference is, that the Shield tablet was made to play 360/ps3 graphic level games as well so the hardware is alot better. If you have an Nvidia graphics card in ur PC, then you get even more benefits from it. You can stream your PC games to the shield and play the game while your on the shitter or wherever you are in the house. And the graphics will look exactly the same and run at the same speed since your PC is doing all the work. Also can stream directly into twitch if your into that sort of thing, as well as record game sessions with a click of a button. And ya, there is an Nvidia Grid kinda like Netflix but for games that you can stream into your tablet to play. Right now it's free and has been free for the last year but it ends this month. After that, it'll be subscription based like Netflix.

I follow the Nvidia forums on a daily basis and there's a risk if you buy the tablet. Battery drain, cracked edges(albeit old problem I don't hear about anymore), sleep of death(battery drain when not active), among other things that I haven't experienced on my own tablet but who knows. If you do get it, wait for a sale, usually happens around holidays to get a bundle pack like I did(32gig unlocked, controller and 3 games(portal,hl2,hl2:ep1) ) for the same price as the 32gig tablet alone.

EDIT:
Just read down in the comments you weren't talking about the tablet lol. IDK if youre talking about the Shield portable or the Shield TV then. If you're talking about the Shield Portable then I wouldn't get it, just because its older tech and not worth it anymore IMO.

If you're talking about the Shield TV, this is actually something I've been looking into buying myself. Think of it as an Apple TV or other similar products like Roku etc. Again, the difference is that it's made to play games so the tech is a hell of alot better than the rest. Also the only product of that type to allow 4K streaming movies. And from what I also heard, 4K for games that are compatible; things that not even the Xbox One and ps4 can do. Of course, you need a TV that can do 4K as well. I watch Netflix ALL THE TIME so for me, my next decision is to whether get the 16gig or the 500gig version. With Android M coming soon, the 16gig might be the way to go since Android M is going to let you move everything to an SD card if you want.

EDIT 2:
Shit realized the comment I read wasn't OP lmao. Oh well. Just some more info for those wondering like I am.