NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience isn’t a baby anymore – several months in and 2.5 million downloads since this system’s introduction and eventual public beta release, this game optimizing control center will replace the company’s “NVIDIA Update” system as the standard. In each driver package included with a GeForce graphics card, the GeForce Experience will be packaged, starting this week with the R320 GeForce GTX 780 launch driver.
The NVIDIA GeForce Experience will be released in version 1.5 this week as well, bumping the number of games supported to 70 and ushering in support for the newest graphics hardware on the market with the GTX 780. This release will be the first in which the GeForce Experience is packaged with a driver, but will be retro-fit to all systems supported being released in the future – where applicable.
The GeForce Experience is now well out of beta, acting as both a user interface through which a gamer’s check and update to the newest GeForce drivers is made simple and providing a place where games can be optimized instantly.
The big deal with the GeForce Experience is the gamer’s ability to one-step optimize their game settings to the best they can be given their computer’s abilities. This system is made for two kinds of people playing games:
1. Users who know what some of the setting available to them are, but not the whole lot, and want to optimize their gaming experience.
2. Users who want to optimize their gaming experience and have no idea what the vast majority of the settings are – or mean – in each game.
For each of the 70 games optimized uniquely by NVIDIA graphics and performance specialists, maximizing image quality “while maintaining great performance” is literally as easy as clicking the button “optimize.”
NVIDIA has also let it be known that they’ll be releasing new features for the GeForce Experience later this summer, one of them being Optimal Playable Settings (OPS) Customization – this means you’ll be able to bump up a setting here, knock another down here, and the system will compensate and act accordingly. More than just “this is best” will be available to you once this customization feature is released.
This summer users will also see support for NVIDIA SHIELD. This little mobile device will have its own connection on your PC, rather than having its own Android application, this allowing you to optimize the full-powered network-streamed games it’s capable of playing straight from the source – but optimized for SHIELD. Further details surrounding unique SHIELD options will be coming soon.
Finally there’s ShadowPlay, another “later this summer” update. This release is essentially “TIVO for games”, as one NVIDIA representative puts it, allowing you to record video of your system constantly and select segments you’d like to save. ShadowPlay will use Kepler graphics driver technology to record 20 minute segments at a time, allowing you to keep what you want and toss the rest – all through the GeForce Experience.
In a move that most gamers will instantly see as a battle up against FRAPS, NVIDIA has this week shown off ShadowPlay, a screen capture feature for the future of the GeForce Experience. Before you get too excited, it’s important to note that ShadowPlay will not be implemented until later this summer with an update to the GeForce Experience – for now you’ll have to wait and wish for this optimized setup.
ShadowPlay will be a feature inside the NVIDIA GeForce Experience that’ll be working with all Kepler GPUs inside Summer 2013. NVIDIA has made this system out to be a system that more than takes on FRAPS, it out-does it: ShadowPlay takes a minimal performance hit so gamers can play with minimal draw on their system whilst playing.
While we’ll have to wait for this system to roll out to actually test that claim, at the moment what we’re being told by the company seems to be as easy to use as the GeForce Experience game optimization system itself.
ShadowPlay uses the H.264 video encoder built-in to every Kepler GPU to “seamlessly” record the users last 20 minutes of gameplay footage, 20 minutes at a time. With the driver you’ve got built-in to the Kepler graphics card already in your machine, this system will be able to run all the time, while you pick up the segments of video you want and the rest are dumped.
This ShadowPlay system’s pre-set 20-minute segments are the current optimized pre-set lengths that each video will be recorded in. This amount of time is not set in stone – NVIDIA may change before the final release – but for now, the company says it’s the best amount of time based on their testing of the feature.
As NVIDIA continues its journey down the gaming road with software specifics such as the GeForce Experience, so too do they continue to tweak and empower their graphics cards – like the GeForce GTX 780, for instance. This week the GTX 780 has been revealed with much of the same hardware delivered in the GeForce GTX TITAN, but with slight differences that make it just a little bit less expensive and, as NVIDIA has informed us, “more of a pure gaming focus card than TITAN.”
The GeForce GTX 780 works with the same GK110 GPU used in the GeForce GTX TITAN. Inside are 12 SMX units bringing 2,304 CUDA cores, along with six 64-bit memory controllers (that’s 384-bit) with 3GB of GDDR5 memory – that’s 50% more of each than the GTX 680 delivered.
This memory interface also delivers up to 288.4GB/second peak memory bandwidth to the GPU. Like TITAN, this card is meant to run next-generation technology such as WaveWorks and FaceWorks, each of these demoed at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference earlier this year.
GeForce GTX 780 works with a base clock speed of 863MHz while a typical Boost Clock speed works at 900MHz. This number comes from an average found by NVIDIA running “a wide variety of games and applications”, while the actual Boost Clock speed will depend completely on your actual system conditions. Memory speed on the 780 is noted at a 6008MHz.
The GeForce GTX 780 works with a new Adaptive Temperature Controller – working here with NVIDIA’s GPU Boost 2.0, fan speed will be adjusted up or down “as needed” to maintain a temperature of 80C. With the Adaptive Temperature Controller working on the GTX 780, an adaptive temperature filter eliminates “unnecessary” fan fluctuations with an advanced RPM and temperature targeted control algorithm.
The software solution that allows this control will be available on the NVIDIA reference design for the GTX 780 as well as to partners who wish to implement it on their fans. Expect a bit more of a smooth ride with this feature implemented on your card – TITAN quiet.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 is build to work with, again, the same die as the GTX TITAN, but here has no extra double-precision floating-bit. Users will be working with around a 70% performance upgrade over the GTX 580, and an overall experience that’s consistent with gamers wanting to blast out maximum graphics settings and screen resolutions with high levels of AA to boot.
The NVIDIA-made GeForce GTX 780 reference board is 10.5-inches in length and works with two dual-link DVIs, one DisplayPort connector, and a full-sized HDMI out. Users will need to power this amalgamation with one 6-pin PCIe power connector and one 8-pin PCIe power connector.
THe NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780′s pricing sits at $649 USD and this will be the first card delivered with NVIDIA giving manufacturers the GeForce Experience to include on their install disks. While the GeForce Experience is an entirely optional system to install, and it’s completely free to download from the web either way, this release does mark the first point at which NVIDIA is formally pushing the GeForce Experience as an interface they recommend to anyone and everyone working with GeForce hardware and a love for one-button graphics and performance optimization for games.
It’s well over a year since the GTX 680 came out, but given how that card was a strong contender it may feel too early for an upgrade. NVIDIA knows the score, which is why it’s made a particular point of pitching this year’s card at owners of the GTX 580 instead. Upgraders from that GPU are pledged a 70 percent lift in performance, which is about double the gain a GTX 680 owner would see. On the other hand, something more people might notice — if NVIDIA’s slides prove to be accurate — is a 5dBA drop in noise pollution, as well a new approach to fan control that attracts less attention by varying revs less wildly in response to load. This is surprising given that most of the extra performance in this card stems from more transistors and greater power consumption, but that’s what we’re told. Feel free to hold out for our round-up of independent reviews or read past the break for further details.
Due to an apparent collaborative request from NVIDIA’s retail partners aiming to carry their new SHIELD device, it would appear that the device’s pre-order date has been bumped. But where situations such as these generally have delays in mind, this change in the minds of the market rulers is in favor of an earlier time for consumers to join in on the purchase of this device. In other words: where the pre-order date for SHEILD for the public was the 20th of this month, it’s now today, May 17th.
The device formerly known as Project SHIELD will be coming from the same set of retail partners as it was when its first availability was announced before Google I/O. This change of heart affects each of the set: NVIDIA’s home page, Newegg, and Gamestop in the USA and Canada Computer in the Great White North. It’s just Micro Center that’s not got a pre-order page prepared at the moment – they’ll be going live inside the next few days.
SHIELD retains its specifications outlined in detail earlier this week, it being an NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core processor-powered gaming Android clamshell-style gaming handheld device made for both local and streaming game content. Utilizing the Tegra 4′s 72 GPU cores for graphics prowess, this machine is being marketed as both the highest-powered Android gaming device on the market while it brings streaming PC gaming at the same time.
It’s important to note, mind you, that the PC gaming streaming abilities SHIELD employs will not be launched in their full, finalized form when the device ships. Instead, NVIDIA suggests that this part of the equation will remain in Beta for an unspecified amount of time – but not so long that we imagine users will be freaking out.
Have a peek at the PC streaming abilities of this device as well as some Android gaming above in a couple of SlashGear’s several hands-on demos with this device as it inches closer to a final release. Expect shipping to take place sooner than later.
This week NVIDIA’s Project SHIELD was revealed all over again, this time renamed simply: SHIELD, arriving as both the company’s first handheld gaming device and hardware sold direct to end users, all at once. It is here that NVIDIA starts its journey in converging the worlds of mobile and desktop gaming with the Tegra 4 mobile processor on one end and GeForce graphics on the other. NVIDIA has announced today that SHIELD will not only be available in the US and Canadian markets starting in June, but that it’ll be up for pre-order (for some) starting today.
If you’ve been following email updates about Project SHIELD straight from NVIDIA before today, you’re in luck. Those signed up with the company as a gamer interested in the product as an early adopter will be given the first shot at the device.
A shot at ordering SHIELD as a pre-order, that is. The device itself will be the same, but these earliest pre-orders will be filled first – of that you can be sure.
Hardware
At the head of this device is the NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core A15 CPU with custom 72 code GeForce GPU. That’s a mouthful, and we’re certainly not going to try to explain the full ins and outs of it here. Instead you’ll want to head over to the SlashGear 101: NVIDIA Tegra 4 in detail post we’ve prepared for an occasion just like this. In short: it’s got so much graphics power it’ll be good to go for years to come.
SHIELD works with a 5-inch 720p multi-touch display which flips-up from its hardware controller body. In this shell-opening form-factor, this device allows the user a gaming experience only otherwise given in part by 3rd-party accessories attached to smartphones. With NVIDIA’s solution, the display is made specifically for this setup, while the controls, sound system, and form factor are all made with one final single product in mind.
With SHIELD, users will be working with integrated speakers – both a left and a right – along with two tuned ports for high-end bass response. Each time we’ve handled this machine thus far, the sound has been full and deep, with the ability to get loud enough that it’s necessary to pull the volume back. Don’t want to wake up the upstairs neighbors, after all.
NVIDIA has let it be known that the device has seen a few – not many, but some – changes between its reveal and its final form, that being the one we’re having another look at here today. The device has had a tiny bit of weight added since CES 2013 several months ago – welcome, in this case, as this adjustment allows the device to feel the correct amount of substantial in a user’s hands. The device remains largely plastic, but certainly looks and feels like a high-end product, as it should.
SHIELD will be available for a retail price of $349 USD right out of the gate. This price remains the same no matter how or through whom you’ll be ordering it. Orders will be done through NVIDIA’s own website and through NewEgg and Micro Center here in the USA. Canadian gamers will be able to pick the device up at Canada Computers as well.
Android / TegraZone Games
The device will be delivered with a couple games installed, NVIDIA’s own game portal TegraZone – and that’s it. This delivery essentially counts as a vanilla build of Android Jelly Bean, allowing users to work with as simple and recognizable – and customizable – an experience as possible.
Five new games have been promised for SHIELD and its high-powered processor backing up Android, each of them coming to Android here for the first time. Double Fine will be bringing the games Broken Age and Costume Quest. Broken Age is an epic fantasy tale set in the clouds with flying ships, computers, and oddities galore. Costume Quest is a game that’s appeared on Windows PCs, PlayStation 3, OS X, Linux, and the Xbox in the past, coming to Android for the first time here to show the power of NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 processor.
Above: SHIELD at CES 2013 hands-on with Android gaming (Hawken, specifically).
Flyhunter: Origins is a new Android game coming to SHIELD from the developers at Steel Wool Games. This game will deliver not only a strange miniature storyline, but high-class art as well – NVIDIA has specifically pointed out the lovely artistic abilities of the development group behind this game – bright and pretty!
Dedalord Games will be bringing Skiing Fred with a full free-movement system that will be entirely unique to SHIELD. Don’t get caught in the drift! Developers at Niffler will be bringing Chuck’s Challenge to life on SHIELD as a 3D puzzle game that allows users to create their own levels and share with friends.
Two high-powered Android games will be installed on the device out of the box: Sonic 4 Episode II and Expendable: Rearmed. We’ve had our own hands-on look at Sonic 4 Episode II back a few months ago in all its full super-speed glory while Expandable: Rearmed makes with the massive amounts of firepower.
PC Connectivity with GeForce game streaming / Steam
Valve has joined the party as well for this device’s PC connection. As SHIELD is made to bridge the gap between PC and mobile gaming on Android, Valve’s own Steam gaming experience will be in play. Though GeForce game streaming will be launching as a beta feature, we’ve seen it in action more than once, and it looks pretty rad.
Users will need their own compatible PC and a WiFi network they can connect with to make any and all desktop gaming a reality on SHIELD, Steam included. Once this connection is made, Steam’s Big Picture Mode is the user interface that SHIELD will use. With a healthy handful of PC games (20 games at first, we’re told) optimized and prepared for this cross-device compatibility at launch, user’s should have no problem finding a good title for which to game from their couch.
Controls for these games will be automatically fitted to SHIELD’s own, allowing gamers to, for example, break into Borderlands 2 the first time they open it with the device. This set of games is not a limit for the device, of course, as SHIELD’s controls are able to be fit to any game that’d otherwise be able to work with a controller connecting to your PC with, for example, a USB or Bluetooth connection.
Development
NVIDIA’s SHIELD device will have more details revealed over the next few weeks, and of course the GeForce game streaming bit of this amalgamation will see mighty changes in the near future, but the main bulk of the device and its features are here. This device is a market-ready machine, and in it we’ll be seeing the NVIDIA Tegra 4 in action out in the wild for the first time.
Have a peek at the brief timeline of SHIELD items we’ve collected in the recent past and hit SlashGear’s Tegra hub for more information on NVIDIA’s mobile universe. SlashGear’s Project SHIELD tag portal will also serve to give you an exploratory look at the demonstrations and details that have emerged prior to today, as well.
The mobile gaming device known as Project SHIELD is nearly ready to be launched to the public in its final form, NVIDIA making it clear today that they’re far beyond the point of no return. The company that brings the mobile world its Tegra processors for Android devices and high-powered desktop computers their GeForce GTX processors for superior gaming have shared a miniature behind-the-scenes look at the device that will tie the two worlds together, showing how close this device is to the real world here in the spring of 2013.
We’re just days away from Google I/O 2013, this heralding the introduction of new services from the source of Android, if not new products as well. As such, it’s no surprise that companies like NVIDIA are preparing for the storm of excitement with announcements of their own, starting right here with a peek at the production of the device they introduced to the world earlier this year.
What you’re seeing above is a mold used to create the final casing for Project SHIELD as it exists today. As this mold is being presented by NVIDIA as a finished part of this puzzle, we can only assume that the final product is well on its way.
According to NVIDIA, the casing for Project SHIELD is made starting with an injection of polycarbonate material into the the RHCM (Rapid Heat Cycle Molding) tool you see above. This is done at a terrifying 10,800 PSI and 300 degrees Celsius, says NVIDIA, while the mixture is made up of 90% Sabic 500ECR-739 PC and 10% glass. That’s a mixture that’s rough and tough yet lightweight for easy carrying.
This device retains much if not the entirety of the look it did when we first saw it back at CES 2013. There it also had a set of specifications that have stuck – a 5-inch 720p HD touchscreen display, NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor inside, and connectivity with the user’s GeForce GTX-toting gaming PC at home over their wireless network for full-sized PC gaming in a hand-held package.
The NVIDIA Project SHIELD device is the first all-NVIDIA-made mobile device the company has ever made. It’ll be sold by NVIDIA straight to consumers and will be found in retailers across the United States by the end of the year – and likely much sooner than that. Have a peek at SlashGear’s Project SHIELD tag portal for more demonstrations with this device and stick around for more action in the near future as well!
Today users of PCs working with NVIDIA GeForce graphics processors will be finding an update available to them, this software download continuing a legacy of similar pushes by the company to keep up-to-date with the latest top-tier gaming titles on the market. The NVIDIA GeForce 320.00 beta drivers appearing on machines this week are being pushed both automatically – through users’ notification pop-up system in Windows – and through NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience application. The NVIDIA GeForce Experience is another effort by the company to connect their graphics development team to the end user in as simple a form as possible.
With the update being offered this week, NVIDIA has delivered new support for a series of games most recent to the market. Support of what NVIDIA says is “up to 20% faster performance” is included for games like Dead Island: Riptide, Neverwinter, and the Star Trek title associated with the film Star Trek Into Darkness. Dead Island: Riptide is also included in the GeForce Experience instant optimization collection.
NVIDIA continues to make pushes in the gaming market both in the desktop and mobile gaming arenas. Earlier this year at CES, NVIDIA announced several cross-over projects that would have traditionally mobile platforms such as Android working with high-powered gaming PC graphics processing over wireless local networks. Have a peek at our coverage of NVIDIA’s Project Shield to see NVIDIA’s mobile gaming device hero that’ll be released later this year.
Have a peek at other recent updates to NVIDIA’s gaming environment and see for yourself how they’re aiming to keep their name in gamers minds through 2013. Let us know if you use NVIDIA’s GeForce GPUs and how you find the upgrade process as well, and if you’re a gamer who uses something other than a GeForce GPU, too!
If you thought the beast that was the Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon was never going to see the light of day – that light being the open market – you were wrong! This lovely amalgamation of gaming coolness is up for sale now for $1,699 USD and will be available wherever fabulous Lenovo products are sold this week. Have a peek at the hands-on looks we’ve gotten with this device right this minute!
Is this monster worth the monstrous price it comes attached with? The device itself is one massive display that you can mount on your wall or sit flat on a table – or on a carpeted floor if you’re all about the cross-legged way of going about things. When you’ve got it all set up (when you’ve got it turned on, that is), you’ll be playing a collection of uniquely tuned games made specifically for this interface.
You’ll find Monopoly – the real deal! – Draw Race 2, Raiding Company, Air Hockey, and a whole heck of a lot more! Each of these games are either built-in to the PC or will be available for download in their full form for free. Not that you’ll be worrying about the cost of a piece of software after you’ve dropped the $1,700 USD you’re spending on this device, but it’s nice to know how simple it’ll all be.
Inside you’ve got a 27-inch 1920 x 1080 full HD display optimized for not just 10-finger touch, but a collection of accessories that come with the machine as well. Paddles for air hockey, game pieces for board games, and a unique 6-sided die that the computer can read with ease!
The most basic model you’ll be working with has a 3rd-gen Intel Core i5 processor with NVIDIA GeForce GT620M graphics and 2GB of memory. Along with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, you’ll be blowing up the finest of next-generation touch-friendly games. You’ll be given a stand to set the Horizon up if you wish, and higher-powered versions of the machine are in the pipeline – stay tuned for more!
It’s time to jump back in the big pile of mobile smart gaming device excellence with NVIDIA’s own Project SHIELD handheld monster. This little beast works with the NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core processor and will be able to both play Android games natively and stream higher-powered games from the NVIDIA GeForce GPU-powered PC you’ve got in your home. Here we’re seeing this little beast play an enhanced version of Arma Tactics.
The game you’re seeing here will be available on the Google Play app store as well as the TegraZone for Tegra-toting smartphones and tablets rather soon. For now you’ll be seeing the highest-powered version of the title on the machine we’re also not going to have in our hands for several months. You’ll be battling it out with battlefield tactics on a wide playing field with a set of controls that, on other devices, will only be available on-screen.
Here you’re able to use essentially every control button on the Project SHIELD hardware, those being the ABXY buttons, joysticks, directional pad, and four buttons near your pointer fingers. Triggers, in other words. You’ve got the touchscreen up front as well to change the direction in which you’re viewing the ground.
You’ll be running through randomly generated missions with randomized objectives on the fly – this game is everything you’ll have wanted as a big fan of the PC-bound Arma titles of the past. Here on Android you’ll be getting as close to possible without the full streaming connection to Arma’s PC titles.
Have a peek at the timeline below to see additional Project Shield hands-on bits and pieces from the past few months and get pumped up about the final drop!
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