The tests on this page are JavaScript- and HTML5-heavy selections from our Web Browser Grand Prix series. Such tests are extremely meaningful to mobile devices because so much of the in-app content is served via the platform's native Web browser. These tests not only offer a view of each device's Web browsing performance, but since these tasks are traditionally so CPU-dependent, browser benchmarks (especially JavaScript-heavy tests) are a great way to measure SoC performance among devices using the same platform and browser.
JSBench
Unlike most JavaScript performance benchmarks, JSBench could almost be considered real-world, since it utilizes actual snippets of JavaScript from Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo.
JSBench doesn’t take advantage of more than two cores and seems insensitive to CPU clock rate, its performance primarily dependent on CPU architecture. Apple’s A7 posts the best time followed by the three SoCs with -A15 cores. Krait doesn’t handle this benchmark well, posting the two worst times.
The one anomaly is Tegra K1, completing the benchmark 20% faster than both the Tegra 4 and Exynos 5 Octa. It’s tempting to ascribe this result to K1’s frequency advantage, which is about the same percent difference. However, none of the other SoCs sharing the same CPU architecture see any benefit from frequency scaling or additional memory bandwidth. All three SoCs also use the same 2MB L2 cache. Tegra K1 does use the newer revision -A15 cores (r3p3), but looking through the ARM revision history only reveals “engineering errata fixes” and some additional clock gating features introduced in r3p0. There's nothing that would explain a 20% performance improvement.
Peacekeeper 2.0
Peacekeeper is a synthetic JavaScript performance benchmark from Futuremark.
We see nearly the exact same trend in Peacekeeper. The iPad Air holds a 24% advantage over the Shield Tablet, which is 23% faster than the other two SoCs with -A15 cores.
WebXPRT 2013
Principled Technologies' WebXPRT 2013 is an HTML5-based benchmark that simulates common productivity tasks traditionally handled by locally-installed applications, including photo editing, financial charting and offline note-taking.
Tegra K1 isn’t able to break the A7s dominance in our browser benchmarks, only achieving 81% of its high score. The Exynos 5 Octa matches Tegra K1s performance, but Tegra 4 trails behind. Curiously, Qualcomm’s highest-clocked Snapdragon, the 805, comes in last, trailing the lower-clocked Snapdragon 800 in the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE.
- The Nvidia Shield Tablet And Controller: Defending Against Boredom
- Availability, Options And Accessories
- Shield Tablet: Look And Feel
- Shield Controller: Look And Feel
- Software Tour
- Stylus And Inking
- Console Mode And GameStream
- Grid, ShadowPlay And Twitch
- The Games
- Benchmark Suite, Methodology And System Specs
- Results: CPU Core Benchmarks
- Results: HTML5 And JavaScript Benchmarks
- Results: GPU Core Benchmarks
- Results: GPGPU Benchmarks
- Results: Display Measurements
- Results: Battery And Throttling
- A Multifaceted Shield Worth Carrying Into Battle



Lol this is epic! xD
Anyway, great and unique review. Especially for the so many GPGPU benchmarks.
Nvidia tablet at $299 seems to be a great buy.
I know people are excited about the raw performance of this tablet. But, other than raw GPU power, EVERYTHING else is compromised.
-matt64
After clarifying this with Nvidia, only the press kits included the cable. The retail boxes do NOT include the HDMI cable. I'm sorry for the confusion and we'll update the article to correct this.
-matt64
P.S.
How is the heat on the thing after a few hours in warm weather?
Heat can cause lock ups (as you will know); but maybe its a software thing that will be ironed out.
I was hoping it would be smoothe and excellent; but I knew it would get hot. Too slim you see. Look at the PS Vita as comparrison. Chunky and cool.
The heat was not an issue I was thinking about when I mentioned a design flaw for gaming (I have a neat solution for).
Although the heat issue did give me the idea for a slot on the back of the unit (maybe magnetic) to put 6mm thick (30mm diameter) frozen metal wafers in located on the back near the CPU/GPU housing, so that it can drop the heat off a bit during an hours play. You get a kit of two or three or somthing; keep one in the freezer and swop them.
Nobody plays them all day do they?
For general browsing, should not be required; but when you start pushing the graphics, they be pretty handy on a hot day.
My Terga 4 smartphone has automatically shut itself down due to overheating itself a hundred times in summers in the Far East..
10,000 ideas.
nice.