Nvidia shield - Overview

Ever wish you could play your graphic-intensive games on the go? Mobile technology is achieving higher clock speeds at a rapid pace, but it is nowhere near as fast as desktop computing hardware. Not to mention that they lack the room to allow for proper cooling. Nvidia has found a potential solution. They created the Nvidia Shield.

For those not familiar with the company, Nvidia is a large graphics card manufacturer that owns about 62% (tekrevue) of the GPU market. Not to mention that Nvidia has created some of the fastest GPUs ever made. So they already have a large base of gamers to test with. They took note of how lots of people use their mobile devices for games (usually not hardcore 3D gaming, but gaming in general). So they created a device that could play top-of-the-line games with bottom-line hardware. The whole system relies on the user owning a computer that has a supported Nvidia GPU (most Nvidia GPUs made in the last two years should be fine). Then using the Shield, they can pick any game from their library. The game will launch on their computer and the computer will stream the screen to the Shield. The Shield will also send back key presses to the computer to interact with the game. Essentially, it's just a fancy way to remote-control your computer playing a video game. The Shield supports sending 60 FPS @ 1080p over either Wi-Fi or Ethernet (Ethernet is faster). Recently Nvidia has announced that it will be supporting streaming over the internet, so you are no longer tethered to your home network. The Nvidia Shield itself runs Android on a 1.9 GHz quad core ARM processor called the Tegra (which is also manufactured by Nvidia). It has 2 GB of RAM and a 1280x720 IPS Retina display. The Retina part of it means that it has more pixels per inch than the human eye can tell apart, so the images look more realistic. It was released at $299 USD but has since dropped down to $199 USD. Overall it seems like a reasonable device, but the price tag of the Shield and a compatible Nvidia GPU is overkill. But if you like to play your games almost every waking moment of your life, it may be worth considering. Recently a lot of competitors have released their own version of Nvidia's streaming service (read my article on the Steam streaming service here).

3 reasons you should get it:
1)You can stream your games to play on the go.
2) You will soon be able to stream your games from anywhere in the world.
3)It runs android, so it can function like a normal Android tablet (without calling or SMS)

3 reasons you should not get it:
1)It carries a heavy price tag
2)It requires a fast computer and internet connection to function properly
3)Most people don't have a use for this. They like their giant screen that they play games on.

So ahead and leave a comment below, what would you use the Nvidia Shield for?

Sources:
http://www.tekrevue.com/nvidia-takes-62-of-discrete-gpu-market-share-in-q2-2013/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Shield

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Windows 8.1 Myths - Fact or Fiction?

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We all know how bad Windows 8 was. It was like Microsoft combined their Windows Phone Team and the Windows Team and somehow they got too much of the Windows Phone. Many desktop users were left in the dark with an operating system that really didn’t like mice and keyboards. Windows 8.1 inherited this bad reputation, namely because it still has an 8 in it. But with Windows 8.1, and even the spring update for it, is Windows 8.1 really that bad?

Myth: Windows 8.1 is horrible for gaming.

Reality: Fiction

I have one computer where I have been switching in between Windows XP Media Center 32-bit, Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, and Windows 8.1 32-bit (I use 32 bit Windows 8.1 because my processor doesn’t support PreFetchW). In all, I see better performance in games in Windows XP hands down. But between Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, I see AT LEAST a 10 FPS increase in all of my games. And I’m talking games Like Dead Space, Just Cause 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and several other intense games. Just to test it, I opened up Minecraft 1.7.9 and set all settings to max. Here are my results:

Windows 7: 45.2 Avg FPS

Windows 8.1: 59.8 Avg FPS

All of these tests were done on a near fresh installation of Windows with only Steam running in the background (which is required to launch most of my games). As for the upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, I had a friend who had recently bought a laptop that came pre-installed with Windows 8 64-bit Standard. He had bought it with the hopes that it would be able to play his games on the go. He was highly disappointed when he installed Call of Duty: Black Ops and found out that it operated at <20 FPS. Sometimes, it would even dip down to the below 10 range when he was in a large gunfight. He brought it to me and the first thing I noticed was that he hadn’t installed a single update from Windows Update (He was missing around 10 updates). We installed them all to no avail. In fact, I think I made it worse. I then proceeded to install the Windows 8.1 Upgrade from the store. After that, MASSIVE improvement. His FPS can peak at around 45 FPS and it rarely dips down lower than 20 in a really messy fight. I haven’t heard back from him whether or not the Spring Update boosted his FPS or not. It did on me, but only by about 5 FPS.

Myth: Windows 8.1’s metro apps are dumb

Reality: Fiction

Initially, we all hated the metro interface. It was like someone accidentally put a tablet app store in a PC operating system. Really though, they can have some potential. Sure touch screen desktops are a long way from claiming the market, but they still have their uses. In the spring update for Windows 8.1, they added the a ability to pin metro apps to the taskbar and to be able to minimize metro apps. And they even added the ability to see the taskbar while within the app. Sure you might hate the fact that the app demands all of your screen space, but now with the update, you can now just think of it as a really big desktop app.

Myth: Windows 8.1 doesn't support many devices.

Reality: Depends

For USB devices, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.x all use the same Windows update database for drivers. There is no reason it shouldn't support your previously working devices. As for computer internals, I have heard some rumors that Windows 8.x is a little bit picky with what it will run on, but I have no experience with this, everything worked perfectly on my three computers.

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