Nvidia's Rumored Shield Tablet Surfaces at GCF

By Kevin Parrish
published

Nvidia's tablet may have 3G and 4G LTE connectivity.

Is Nvidia still building a Shield gaming tablet? That seems to be the case based on a current listing on the Global Certification Forum website (GCF), showing that the device will support 3G and 4G networks when it is eventually released. The GCF is an "active partnership" that includes mobile devices, mobile carriers and the test industry.

Unfortunately, the GCF doesn't provide any additional hardware details. However, the Shield Tablet will supposedly feature a 7.9-inch screen with a 2048 x 1536 resolution, a Tegra K1 processor with a 192-core GPU, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. The tablet will also include a 7MP camera on the back and a 4.8MP camera on the front, along with wireless (N or AC) and Bluetooth connectivity.

Back in May, the rumor mill speculated that Nvidia's gaming tablet will feature the company's GameStream technology, which will allow customers with a Kepler-based GPU in their gaming rig to stream PC games to the device. The tablet will also have dual-band wireless connectivity so that gamers can stream those PC titles on the less-congested 5 GHz band.

There is speculation that this 7.9-inch tablet will have a controller dock, similar to what Wikipad 7 and Razer Edge Pro currently offer. We're guessing that this dock could include an extra battery for extended gameplay, and possibly additional space for playing stored movies and music.

Does this mean Nvidia is building two Shield devices? The Shield 2 was spotted back in April, packed with the Tegra K1 chip powering a 1440 x 810 screen, 4 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, and a 0.3MP camera. This version may keep the same clam/controller form factor as the original, providing a 5-inch screen that closes shut.

Providing two gaming devices is quite possible for Nvidia. The company could sell the 5-inch Shield 2 at a lower price while the 7.9-inch Shield Tablet addresses gamers wanting a bigger screen for their streaming PC games. Whatever is going on, something is in the works, and we're betting, based on the GCF info, that one or both will be revealed sometime this month.

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Kevin Parrish
17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • RoxasForTheWin
    Not a big fan of tablets. I hope the tablet doesn't overtake the normal Shield, because I hate touch screens in place of conventional controllers.
    Reply
  • RoxasForTheWin
    Not a big fan of tablets. I hope the tablet doesn't overtake the normal Shield, because I hate touch screens in place of conventional controllers.
    Reply
  • Mike Friesen
    I'd much rather have 1200 by 1920, to free up a little more horsepower, and have a nicer 16*10 ratio.
    Reply
  • drakennz
    I'm sure there is a completely valid reason, but can someone explain to me why people would want to stream their PC game off of their PC onto a tablet? Also what is the logistics behind how that works, can someone else be using the PC to do their stuff while you stream your game onto your tablet?
    Reply
  • Zepid
    I doubt Nvidia would be foolish enough to show the market their next-generation K1 with only 2GB of RAM and without dual-denver onboard. They will want it to attract 3rd parties to buy their new K1 64bit platform on their own in-house ARMv8 chip (which is fucking incredible by the way) and not the shitty appropriated 32bit tech on their jetson SDK that is an entire generation old.
    Reply
  • Zeroplanetz
    The 2gb of ram and only 16gb of internal storage will definitely make this a no go for me. Also it should be ac wireless.
    Reply
  • airborne11b
    I'm sure there is a completely valid reason, but can someone explain to me why people would want to stream their PC game off of their PC onto a tablet? Also what is the logistics behind how that works, can someone else be using the PC to do their stuff while you stream your game onto your tablet?

    You can now stream over wifi connection. So with SHIELD (handheld or tablet with physical controller) you can play any PC game you want, while you're not home, as long as you have access to a wifi connection. It works best when you're within 200 miles of your PC. I have a SHIELD myself and I use it constantly. When I got a Wifi connection I play PC games that work good with a controller, like Skyrim. When I don't have wifi, I play tegra/android games, or use android emulators and play classic games from NES, SNES, Genesis, Playstation, etc. Having Super Metroid and a Link to the Past anywhere you go is awesome.
    Reply
  • somebodyspecial
    64bit K1 won't be here for 4-5 months (in time for xmas stuff), so shield 2 is K1 32bit and so will all things K1 until at least oct-nov. Nothing foolish about marketing a 32bit K1 when it's all you have and Qcom's new S805 is 32bit also. Until Android L 64bit is kind of pointless for android.

    Having said that, drop the res or it's pointless as a gaming tablet. 1080p tops (should be for ALL tablets) as above this on anything 13in or below is really not much better for the extreme hit you take. Granted a few tablets for special needs maybe above 1080p but really 99% of us would take 1080p and FAST games. Not that these can even do that without turning things off, but if they're upscaling 720p games out to 1080p tv it isn't bad since it's rougly xbox360/ps3 already for k1 so should do 720p stuff upscaled pretty well.

    But yeah, double the storage and ram or again this is pointless (should be 4GB, and options for 32/64GB storage). At least give the options. 2GB is dead to me for ram, and 16GB is against my religion at this point too for storage...LOL. Games are already multi-GB, and will quickly head to 3-5GB as unreal 4 starts pumping out mobile games (among other engines). At least shield 2 has 4GB ram, I just hope they offer at least 32GB or hopefully 32/64GB options. Why not? They would find the 16GB sells very little if they did this. Both are gaming devices, so why not offer $20/$50 options for 32/64GB? It's probably much cheaper than that and they should just do it at cost to further their goals and push the shield platform to better stuff. You can fill up 16B with 6 games today as many high end titles are 2.5GB etc and this is just the beginning as they now know they can do quite a lot on S805/K1 etc and 20nm will explode the perf levels of all SOCS.

    I'd rather have devs thinking everyone has plenty of space rather than, "well we can't do that, because we have to keep the game textures etc low for puny 8GB/16GB models or to deal with fitting inside 2GB of memory". pffft..
    Reply
  • hannibal
    More memory would be nice, but because all other tabs has 500Mb to 2Gb memory there is not support / demand to have more memory. It would also make that tablet more expensive, so they keep on using small amount of memory in theirs tabs.
    So what we need is to have aps that demands more memory and there will not be aps because there are not devices that that have 4Gb memory... Chicken and eggs situation... once more. And in tablet market it is even harder, because the competition is so fierce.
    Reply
  • icemunk
    Not a big fan of tablets. I hope the tablet doesn't overtake the normal Shield, because I hate touch screens in place of conventional controllers.

    Just buy a Bluetooth controller; there available almost everywhere for $20.
    Reply