The set-top streaming box market is already pretty crowded, with nearly every manufacturer offering some kind of streaming dongle or device. NVIDIA has been a holdout, but now they’ve announced a new Shield device designed specifically for streaming content to your television. The company already utilizes streaming technology with their portable Shield devices, so this move makes perfect sense.
The new Shield box is obviously purposed for playing games on your television screen and packs very capable specs for an Android TV box. You’ll get NVIDIA’s latest Tegra X1 CPU paired with a speedy Maxwell GPU and 3 GB of RAM, which can output 4k at 60 FPS. That hardware combination should have no problem pushing any available Android game. The device has 16 GB of internal storage with support for up to 128 GB microSD cards, and it’s bundled with a Shield controller for playing games.
Since it’s a Shield device, you’ll be able to use NVIDIA’s Grid technology to stream controller optimized PC games to the device, which makes for a very easy way to play games from a powerful Windows computer on your television. NVIDIA GameStream should also work, but you’ll need an NVIDIA GPU in that computer, obviously, but if you’re buying the Shield, that’s likely not an issue.
NVIDIA is launching the Shield at multiple markets, trying to tackle smart TVs, streaming boxes, game consoles, and Steam boxes all in one. It’s bold, but it looks like NVIDIA is offering a fantastic product to pull it off.
Expect the Shield to launch in May for $199. It comes with the Shield, a controller, an HDMI cable, a micro USB cable, and a power cable.
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