Using The NVIDIA SHEILD As A Desktop Replacement?

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Could you imagine trying to use the NVIDIA SHIELD as a desktop replacement? The crew at eTeknix claims to have done just that.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing around with the Nvidia Shield quite a lot, I’ve reviewed it, I’ve used it to stream games around my house and I’ve pushed its limits as a games console emulator, so what else can it do? Having forgone the use of a tablet over the last few months, I now use the Shield and my Smartphone for many tasks, but I wanted to push the limits and see if I could not only game on it, but also work from it, much as I would from my Ultra Book or desktop PC.
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Ehh... the Motorola Atrix was doing this, in a much less getto way, years ago. Nothing new here.

Streaming games is ok, but not worth much more than that.
 
So for $250 you get this shit load of fuck? Look at the thing, it's on life support. And any game worth a damn requires you to be running a desktop PC, preferably with a Nvidia GPU.

WHY WHY WHY WHY does nobody here see this as a huge joke?

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Ashbringer said:
So for $250 you get this shit load of fuck? Look at the thing, it's on life support. And any game worth a damn requires you to be running a desktop PC, preferably with a Nvidia GPU.

WHY WHY WHY WHY does nobody here see this as a huge joke?
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ROTFL... :D

that will depend on the amount of money nvidia has reserved for the continued marketing this thing.
 
I have a hub and a mouse/kb and USB Ethernet adaptor for my shield. It works well enough - especially on the plasma TV. It works well for streaming music, browsing and of course playing games but I hardly ever use it and when I do decide to, the battery is usually dead.

It's a great device, but I'm on my PC so much and the game I play most does not lend it's self to streaming so I might end up selling it.

I use my ipad every day - the Shield, not even every week.
 
Ashbringer said:
WHY WHY WHY WHY does nobody here see this as a huge joke?
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Because it isn't? Its great for what it was designed to do. Playing some Borderlands or Fallout New Vegas on the couch is heaven.
 
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If you're using your Shield to play PC games, you're doing it wrong.
 
DPI said:
Because it isn't? Its great for what it was designed to do. Playing some Borderlands or Fallout New Vegas on the couch is heaven.
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Um, laptops have a bigger screen and you can use one of those on a couch. I am right now while typing this!
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Um, laptops have a bigger screen and you can use one of those on a couch. I am right now while typing this!
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While technically true, it's a little awkward to hold a gamepad or use a mouse/kb while holding a laptop on your lap on the couch. Say you have a little table or tray. Even then it's more awkward than just sitting down with a little device and streaming things to it. That said, I have an HTPC with wireless gamepads already. I also have a Wii U if I want to play something while someone's using the TV. I think the Shield is cool, but I don't think I'd use it too much if I had it given what I already have at my disposal games-wise.

Trying to use it for non-gaming seems silly in the extreme...
 
I got partway into this before I realized that the real story is this guy somehow gets paid to do nothing.
 
Megalith said:
If you're using your Shield to play PC games, you're doing it wrong.
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This. Shield is best emulation machine in existence, now that in home streaming is working well on laptops, Id much rather game on that for PC games than on the shield. Just hoping the newest iteration can take the step up to fullspeed psp emulation - then Id be in heaven.
 
cp_kirkley said:
This. Shield is best emulation machine in existence, now that in home streaming is working well on laptops, Id much rather game on that for PC games than on the shield. Just hoping the newest iteration can take the step up to fullspeed psp emulation - then Id be in heaven.
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I was under the impression that the Shield was a rather poor emulation device, because the T4 chipset couldn't handle the demand of emulators.
 
The shield is a BADASS emulation device. If there's an android emulator for it, it will run it and run it well. Even DoSbox.

I've had mine since February and its been used day in and day out. I have two toddlers and its hard to be able to sit down in front of the PC to game or anything else for that matter. The shield let's me game enough yet able to watch the kiddos.

Posted from my shield.
 
Ashbringer said:
This can play Borderlands and Fallout just fine, and comparable in price. And this can do it for $500, even though I feel you can build a better gaming PC for that amount. Both will hook up to a TV and take up little room. The Nvidia Shield on Amazon is $240, which to me is high for a device that relies on a desktop PC.
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Irrelevant. I have my HTPC with a GPU, that's not the issue. There are times someone else is tying up the TV.

Not sure why you're arguing so hard against there being one more choice, one more way to play PC games. I mean jesus christ.
 
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Angry said:
The shield is a BADASS emulation device. If there's an android emulator for it, it will run it and run it well. Even DoSbox.

I've had mine since February and its been used day in and day out. I have two toddlers and its hard to be able to sit down in front of the PC to game or anything else for that matter. The shield let's me game enough yet able to watch the kiddos.

Posted from my shield.
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I don't know whether to get one right now at $200 or wait for Shield 2.0 with a Maxwell/ arm soc.
I'm stuck sitting my now 98 year old great grandmother with dementia 99% of my free time.
 
SGA76 said:
I don't know whether to get one right now at $200 or wait for Shield 2.0 with a Maxwell/ arm soc.
I'm stuck sitting my now 98 year old great grandmother with dementia 99% of my free time.
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Feel for you. My wife's 97 year old grandmother with dementia lived with us for four years. She's now at my wife's parents' house. While I'm proud of how we helped her when we could, we feel like we have our lives back now. We have four kids, and that was like having a fifth. That is quite an undertaking. I think you deserve a current one AND the new one. :D
 
DPI said:
Irrelevant. I have my HTPC with a GPU, that's not the issue. There are times someone else is tying up the TV.

Not sure why you're arguing so hard against there being one more choice, one more way to play PC games. I mean jesus christ.
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Cause it's stupid? Valve is also doing this in home streaming service as a way to make up for lack of Windows compatibility in Linux. But nobody is going to run two machines to do the job of one.

#1 It's a gamepad that plays PC games.
#2 Steaming is limited to local in home use.
#3 The shield can't stand on it's own cause most Android games suck. Hence why it's a great emulator device.
#4 It's also very high in price for what it does.

If someone else is tying up a TV do you buy this.
project-shield-open-left.png


Or buy this? Don't give me the excuse of lack of room cause the Shield in that photo required a lot of garbage just to function.
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Ashbringer said:
Don't give me the excuse of lack of room cause the Shield in that photo required a lot of garbage just to function.
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A lot of garbage that most people who'd be interested in it already have. I already have multiple PCs. If I was in the market for something like this (and it is tempting though I know I completely don't NEED it) everything is already in place. As DPI said, it's just one more way you can access your games, and then it has some additional functionality aside as a bonus. I play my Wii U when people are using the TV all the time on the controller screen. (which is the reason I don't really need a Shield)

If you have no need for it, then fine, but there's no reason that people that DO want/need it (because it fills a role in their situation) shouldn't be able to get it.

Also, buying another TV isn't just about room, it's about aesthetics in the room, conflicting audio, too much visual stimuli, etc. etc. Sure you could put up two TVs, but that's not really an attractive option if you have any sense of decor.
 
J3RK said:
Also, buying another TV isn't just about room, it's about aesthetics in the room, conflicting audio, too much visual stimuli, etc. etc. Sure you could put up two TVs, but that's not really an attractive option if you have any sense of decor.
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Get a laptop for that price then. You can still stream games to it from another PC through Steam and it's not limiting you by needing a Nvidia GPU installed in your desktop PC. Also, if you want text on the screen then you can do better on a cheap $250 laptop than a Nvidia Shield. I mean just look at it. Text on a screen, that's a joke. I can has text on screen too?

If you're not laughing at this then I feel that you can't laugh.
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What's hilarious is you spend $180 you can get a Tegra Note 7, which is the exact same as the shield, except 100mhz slower, which is nothing

I used it for everything around the house when I'm not at my PC, even brought it upstairs, hooked up a bluetooth controller and let my nephew play PS1 games on it
 
Ashbringer said:
Get a laptop for that price then. You can still stream games to it from another PC through Steam and it's not limiting you by needing a Nvidia GPU installed in your desktop PC. Also, if you want text on the screen then you can do better on a cheap $250 laptop than a Nvidia Shield. I mean just look at it. Text on a screen, that's a joke. I can has text on screen too?

If you're not laughing at this then I feel that you can't laugh.
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Oh I'm TOTALLY laughing at that. However, I'd never in a million years attempt something like that or remotely think it was a good idea. If I had a shield, I'd use it to stream games or play emulators. With the emulators, it's completely portable. With streaming, as I mentioned previously, it seems a lot less awkward than trying to game a laptop in a couch-type situation. If you're streaming to a laptop, you still pretty much need a game pad or mouse, both of which could be a little awkward if you sitting on a couch with a laptop. Sure it can be done. I've also used a tablet with a gamepad, and yes, it works very well, but then you still have two different objects to deal with. Any of these solutions is completely valid. I just think for sitting around and playing on a couch the Shield would be pretty cool (if the TV was in use.)
 
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