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Nvidia's booth tour leaves us jonesing for a SHIELD handheld gaming device.As busy as the last few days have been, one company that really stood out was Nvidia. The GPU maker came to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) prepared and ready to dazzle with its spin on mobile gaming, and folks, we're officially excited about what's in store for 2013. Join us as we tour the Nvidia booth and take a close up look at Project Shield and the GeForce Grid.
Starting with the former, Deputy Editor Gordon Mah Ung was able to spend some hands-on time with Nvidia's mobile gaming device. In the video below, you can see how well Shield streams content from a nearby PC -- in this case, a Falcon Northwest running a GeForce GTX 680 and hooked up to a wireless access point. It's more than just a simple streaming device, however, as it supports Valve's Steam platform and Google Play. Take a look:
Online Editor Jimmy Thang also spent some time examining Nvidia's Shield device. It's powered by a Tegra 4 processor and looks like an Xbox 360 controller with a 5-inch display attached. One thing Nvidia really stressed is the sound quality, claiming that the built-in speakers, developed in-house, pump out better audio than most notebooks.
In addition to Project Shield, Nvidia announced its GeForce Grid platform. The Grid is a server rack armed with 20 modules and over 240 Nvidia GPUs. All that power translates into 200 TFLOPS of performance, which is the equivalent of 700 Xbox 360 consoles.
Why make the comparison? Well, the Grid is a cloud-based gaming system. 3D rendering is handled in the cloud. Gamers tap into the Grid through a mobile device, like a tablet. Let's say your PC goes down for whatever reason. Using Grid, you could fire up Battlefield 3 on your Nexus 7 and pick up where you left off. Impressively, we didn't notice any lag or major compression issues.
You can take a look at the Grid in action, and be sure to check back often throughout the week for more CES coverage and videos. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at MaximumPCMag.
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beta212
January 12, 2013 at 12:29pm
Wanna bet it doesn't sell well? Consumers tend to gravitate towards simple things, cool things, and things that provide functionality that other do not have. This is non of them, the attached screen is rather dim, and more of a hindrance than any other thing. It's also overly bulky, at lease from the video it looks bigger than a PSP. Which will make some hesitate before buying it.
To top it off, it's entering a market saturated with competitors, Microsoft,Nintendo,Sony, Android devices, Apple devices... If you want to see how it might play out, just look at how much the stock has declined after Nvidia announced this.
As for project grid, I think it's got promise, if positioned correctly towards casual gamers and those with computers lacking enough power. Hardcore gamers will hesitate before jumping onto a platform that could introduce probably several times the usual lag. But if they want to aim this at emerging markets that they're screwed. Countries such as China/India etc will either have a slow/low latency infrastructure, or will have a giant firewall that can artificially make things lag.
So yes, this is probably a hit or miss plan.
reginhild
January 11, 2013 at 9:58am
Shield - the ultimate PC gaming controller?
Just stop and think about it a second. PC gaming accessories include multitudes of enhanced keyboards, mice, and other controllers that add extra buttons to better enable quick actions/shortcuts on PC games. With the 5" touch screen on the Shield we have the ultimate programmable controller for high end PC video games.
Philippe Lemay
January 11, 2013 at 9:49am
"Oh it's only a handheld that completely blows away every PSP, DS, and iPhone that has come before. In addition to being super competitive with most Androids as well. What's everyone getting so excited about?"
I mean... what's with these kinds of comments. Has the entire internet become totally jaded with tech gadgets already? This thing is freaking awesome! Exactly how awesome it winds up being will really depend on where the price-point falls... but man, even if they place it high it's a damned interesting product. And I like the big chunky look of it, maybe I just have big hands but I find all the other controllers are too small when I grip them. I actually liked the original Xbox controller.
Peanut Fox
January 11, 2013 at 11:42am
Handhelds don't sell particularly well. Unless you're Nintendo, no one has been able to carve out an acceptable niche in that market. Sony came close with the PSP, but that fire seems to be going out.
What in this nVida device, and the company in general has it poised to conquered a market that seems to be shrinking?
Granite
January 11, 2013 at 1:12am
Cool stuff.
So my son, who is a hardcore FPS gamer, will have a whole new bunch of game pad using people to beat up on.
He'll enjoy that.
vrmlbasic
January 10, 2013 at 11:25pm
That controller looks like a failed hybrid of a PS3 controller and a 360 controller, "failed" as it contains the worst of both.
A fighter with a D-pad like the 360's is a crime against thumbs. Typing this has been difficult as my thumbs have involuntarily cramped up as they remember the pain in playing Guilty Gear X2 #Reload on XBLA after discovering that the game then had only 360 D-pad support.
Microsoft refuses to fix their D-pad, but what is the excuse for this imitation's idiocy in following M$'s bad example with it?
Ezzme
January 11, 2013 at 4:52am
MS had an excuse, Nintendo has held the rights to the D-Pad up until last year. MS made an attempt before that but it wasn't as good but a big improvement. Either way, next generation they might actually be able to put a good D-Pad on their controller.
Gauntylgrym
January 11, 2013 at 8:10am
Really? Because it seems to me that Sony has had a superior D-Pad on their systems since Day 1.
MS just doesn't care to improve their D-Pad, Street Fighters be damned.
vrmlbasic
January 12, 2013 at 12:05am
As far as I've seen, the PS3 has the superior D-Pad amongst controllers. The spacing and the buttons themselves are much easier on my fingers for long bouts of fighters than the PS2s.
I remember a few year's back M$ had its "Major Nelson" hawking a new wireless 360 controller which had a modified d-pad that was a marginal improvement but they didn't go anywhere with it.
jgottberg
January 11, 2013 at 10:28am
I agree, MK on PS3 is great because of the D pad but in my opinion, sucks on the 360.
