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.
- 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.