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NVIDIA’s still working on pushing SHIELD to more consumers, but you’d be a fool to think they aren’t working on their follow-up behind the scenes. The NVIDIA SHIELD 2 is expected to be quite the doozy, but we didn’t know what to expect… until today.
A new Antutu benchmark entry tells of a SHIELD test unit that runs Android 4.4.2. Some of the early hardware reported sounds quite powerful. Take a look yourself:
- 2.5GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra K1 with GeForce Kepler graphics (192 CUDA cores)
- 1440 x 810 display resolution
- 4GB of RAM
- VGA front camera
- 16GB of internal storage
It sounds like some pretty massive firepower. While we expected Tegra K1, the 4GB of RAM took us by surprise. It’s not that we don’t believe NVIDIA would want to make this thing as powerful as it can be, but Android in its current state wouldn’t be able to take advantage of all four gigabytes. Perhaps NVIDIA wants to make sure this thing is as future-proof as possible for when Google eventually introduces 64-bit support.
Of course, it’s only a test unit so any of this stuff could change at the snap of a finger. For now, though, it sounds like NVIDIA doesn’t want to introduce a device that’s going to disappoint.
[via G for Games]
no 1080 on the display??? seems a little lacking these days…
With its use case of gaming, higher resolutions for a mobile platform are not ideal. Lower resolutions mean they can push for more effects and higher frame rates. 720p and up is perfectly fine for mobile gaming. Its not as if the display is going to be inches from your face.
If you want to game in 720p you would buy the original one then, which only requires a gt 650 for 720p pc streaming. So this would be a similar experience in terms of resolution with current shield.
I was referring to playing games on the device itself, like Android games.
I don’t get this product … screen is smaller than my phones screen, and also less resolution. .. I know my phone doesn’t run a Tetra k1 (yet) but i also know i dont wanna be carrying that thing around all the time…..
Can your phone stream computer games to your couch? That’s the main use. With it being able to use mini hdmi and blue tooth controllers you can use it as a portable steam box at a fraction of the cost. Plus it works great as a tablet too. Granted its niche luxury product but as an owner I can tell you its definitely worth the cost. The streaming keeps getting better each update.
Put Pokemon red on this and I’m set.
I think that modern 32bit ARM can handle more than 4G of RAM in a manner similar to x86 Intel PAE extensions. Individual applications are limited to a 32bit address space, but that’s not limiting on a system with 4G total. In short, you don’t need 64bit to handle something in the ballpark of 4G of RAM.
Two things:
1) 32-bit operating systems with no tweaks can address a full 4GB of RAM. So, 64-bit support is not needed in order to support the rumored 4GB of RAM on this device.
2) Let’s pretend that the device had 8GB of RAM, and only 4GB was addressable on a 32-bit version of Android. A 64-bit update would not fix this problem for THIS device, because the CPU being used is a 32-bit Cortex-A15. Without hardware support for 64-bit, the operating system cannot run.
Only 16GB internal storage? This is a dedicated gaming device and one game could use a quarter of that. This should be released in 128GB only.
Also, the 32-bit K1 only goes up to 2.3GHz. Therefore, this is the 64-bit version with 2 x Denver CPU.
Why don’t you just get an sd card with more space?
64bit K1 is dual core only though. This is quad.
And jack up the price to $500+? No thanks. I’d rather them put in 16-32 GB internal and have SDXC support for the new 128 GB Micro SD cards. Or heck, replace micro SD with SD; it’ll be cheaper for us.
Dedidicated gaming devices are are rather redundant on Android. With the ever changing landscape of hardware, this thing will be obsolete once 64bit is introduced. Not too mention Tegra games are only compatible with Tegra devices.
Nvm red below
Depends on which version of the K1 they’ll be putting into this thing. If it has the Denver CPU version, then it’ll have 64-bit support.
K1 and 4GB of RAM? Nice!!! 16GB storage is super small. They must allow memory cards? If this is as good as I think it is, I’ll definitely buy it. Android needs to improve their game software selection. The only Android game I’m really dying to play is the upcoming Hearthstone and that is a better fit for a tablet. Ideally, games like Dark Souls 2 will play natively on Android with this device.
Well Portal is coming to Tegra 4 devices, so perhaps that will open the doors for more developers to consider Android as a new platform for their games.
Looks awesome, hoping nvidia can provide something special as the current range of Snapdragon 801 and Exynos SoC’s are not providing much of a boost.
How about fixing the current shield? Or is that no longer an option for the nvidia folkz? And there are still tons of android games not supported ojn the shield yet.. even tegra 3 games are not compatible.. on a tegra 4 plattform…
hurry up and take my money!!
Get rid of the vga camera and put a real one in as well as another one in the rear. Otherwise i will not waste my money!