Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

Grid, ShadowPlay And Twitch

Nvidia Shield Tablet And Shield Controller Review
By

Nvidia Grid

GameStream plus the cloud equals Nvidia Grid. Rather than using a local PC for rendering, Nvidia’s servers handle the pixel wizardry and stream H.264 video over the Internet to a Shield portable device running the Nvidia Grid app, available for free from the Play Store. The service also requires an Internet connection with at least a 10Mb/s download speed and 40ms ping times to the Grid servers.

Nvidia Grid is currently in beta with game servers singly located in San Jose, CA, which may degrade the experience for those outside the western U.S. For gamers who aren’t geographically challenged, the service is free during the beta phase. As of now, there are 18 titles available. Check out the Nvidia Grid Cloud Gaming Beta page for more information.

I played some of the games at different times spread over a couple of weeks. Living in close proximity to California and with a connection rated for 50Mb/s down and 10Mb/s up, I found the Grid gaming experience to be generally excellent. The video was smooth and there wasn’t any conceivable input lag, myself being about average in lag sensitivity. Only a single gaming session was marred by lagging inputs.

I see a bright future for Nvidia Grid and other similar cloud gaming services, freeing us from the tedium of downloading, installing and updating games; no more license keys or intrusive DRM. Nvidia will need more game servers to expand Grid’s reach and more games to broaden its appeal, but the potential is obvious.

ShadowPlay And Twitch

The Shield Tablet includes Nvidia’s ShadowPlay screen recording technology. Like the desktop version, ShadowPlay on the tablet directly accesses the frame buffer at a low level and then passes the frames to the NVEnc hardware H.264 video encoder. In addition to capturing a video of the screen, regardless of what app or game is in use, buttons along the top of the Nvidia Share menu individually toggle options to record audio from the microphone, overlay video from the front facing camera or even overlay a chat window. The size, location and opacity of the chat and front camera video overlays are adjustable.

There are two different options for video recording. Manual Record allows precise control of when to start and stop recording. The Auto Record mode, once it starts, continuously records video into a fixed length rolling buffer like a DVR, which works well for capturing your prowess while gaming. It also keeps videos from consuming too much valuable storage space. The buffer is user configurable for durations of 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 minutes. There are also four different quality settings for capturing video: low (360p, 25FPS), medium (480p, 30FPS), high (720p, 30FPS), and ultra (1080p, 30FPS). All four modes use a variable bit rate.

ShadowPlay also enables the Shield Tablet to broadcast live gaming sessions, complete with your eloquent commentary from the integrated microphone and video overlay of your noble face from the front camera, directly to Twitch.

Add a comment
Ask a Category Expert
React To This Article

Create a new thread in the Reviews comments forum about this subject

Example: Notebook, Android, SSD hard drive

Display all 23 comments.
  • 0 Hide
    blubbey , October 3, 2014 12:40 PM
    Those GPGPU benchmarks are ridiculous in comparison. It looks like a great bit of kit from what I've seen so far. A die shrunk Maxwell should be fantastic. Maybe even a lower clocked version just for power consumption? It'll still perform as well, if not better than the K1 at 750MHz (assuming 2 SMMs) I'd assume.
  • 1 Hide
    Memnarchon , October 3, 2014 12:41 PM
    "Based on these results, Tegra K1 must be “a neural net processor; a learning computer” sent back through time to destroy all of the other SoCs that could lead a rebellion in the post-apocalyptic future."

    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.
  • 1 Hide
    aberkae , October 3, 2014 12:52 PM
    If maxwell brings double the performance per watt on the same node the next tegra chip on 20 nm node should be a home run for the company
  • 1 Hide
    HardyHarHar , October 3, 2014 1:23 PM
    I am blown away by this tablet.
  • 1 Hide
    deftonian , October 3, 2014 2:43 PM
    Impressive, but I feel it's still missing that "umph" to get me to buy this and carry it around as an added device, next to my phone (Note 3). Maybe I just don't game enough on the android market or steam. Either way, I think it is impressive for a mobile gaming device and all the things it offers. I think they've started a great line and hope it grows into a successful tablet/gaming brand.
  • 1 Hide
    TheMentalist , October 3, 2014 2:48 PM
    Holy....that tablet is a beast!
  • 0 Hide
    aberkae , October 3, 2014 5:23 PM
    If maxwell brings double the performance per watt on the same node the next tegra chip on 20 nm node should be a home run for the company
  • 0 Hide
    gio2vanni86 , October 4, 2014 12:41 AM
    The streaming a game while i'm at my friends house using my PC at home is what has me very interested. Plug into his TV and play amazing games he can only dream of. I'm in.
  • 1 Hide
    iknowhowtofixit , October 4, 2014 9:09 AM
    Wow, nVidia will literally sell HUNDREDS of these tablets until the battery life can catch up to the performance. Why bother with a tablet when you are forced to be constantly tethered to a power source.

    I know people are excited about the raw performance of this tablet. But, other than raw GPU power, EVERYTHING else is compromised.
  • 0 Hide
    eklipz330 , October 4, 2014 11:11 AM
    this is great, there aren't many good 8" android tablets.
  • 0 Hide
    CRITICALThinker , October 4, 2014 5:50 PM
    When was a HDMI to mini HDMI cable included? mine never came with one.
  • 0 Hide
    vithrell , October 6, 2014 4:24 AM
    Just wait for Intel's Core M. It wont match the price (CPU alone will cost $300), but in fanless tablet form factor it wont have worthy competitor. Early GPU benchmarks give Core M 55k graphics score in Ice Storm, so more than 1.5x more power than Tegra K1. AND you can run full Windows on it. I wish Nvidia took x86 path with its cpu cores.
  • 0 Hide
    Niva , October 6, 2014 8:02 AM
    Only thing I'm worried about with this tab is Android L and what their software/OS refresh capabilities will be. Has nVidia made any statements about that? Getting this and being stuck with kitkat would bite.
  • 0 Hide
    matt64 , October 6, 2014 10:27 AM
    I asked Nvidia about updating the Shield devices to Android L. Nvidia will update to the new Android version soon after it's officially released by Google, though Nvidia couldn't provide an exact date at this time.

    -matt64
  • 1 Hide
    matt64 , October 6, 2014 10:30 AM
    "When was a HDMI to mini HDMI cable included? mine never came with one."

    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
  • -1 Hide
    Roger Rogers , October 7, 2014 6:15 PM
    I have a Great product concept for the K1 gaming tablet. Vastly increase sales. But who to take it to...
  • 0 Hide
    Iriman , October 9, 2014 5:28 AM
    Typing from my shield now. I love this decide. As a gaming tablet, its unmatched. As a media device, its extremely hard to beat. Its responsive and I find myself using it more then my moto x and my computer combined. It has plenty of oomph to handle anything I throw at it. WiFi isnt the best out of all the devices I've played with, but in no way is it nearly as bad as the transformer prime was back when it was released. Fantastic device. Gaming is unmatched!
  • 0 Hide
    Roger Rogers , October 14, 2014 6:10 PM
    It has a serious design flaw as far as gaming is concerned from my PoV (which would only be easier for you to understand if you knew the specifics of my PoV [design issue that affects every user and potential user]).

    P.S.
    How is the heat on the thing after a few hours in warm weather?
  • 0 Hide
    CRITICALThinker , October 14, 2014 7:15 PM
    it does have some heat to it, though throttling should be minimal, I am only having a few issues with the lock screen freezing and requiring a manual reboot.
  • 0 Hide
    lookanlearn , October 15, 2014 8:54 AM
    Quote:
    it does have some heat to it, though throttling should be minimal, I am only having a few issues with the lock screen freezing and requiring a manual reboot.


    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.



Display more comments
React To This Article