The NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Review
by Joshua Ho on July 29, 2014 9:00 AM ESTCPU Performance
As the first Tegra K1 device the Shield tablet is especially interesting. For those unfamiliar with the Tegra K1, NVIDIA integrated four ARM Cortex A15r3 variant cores along with a fifth companion A15r3. While on the surface it seems the CPU configuration it’s largely similar to the Tegra 4, there are some substantial differences. On the process tech side, the move to 28HPm adds SiGe source and drains for PMOS transistors, which dramatically improves drive current and makes it possible to bump clocks up to 2.2GHz for the CPU cores. The new revision of Cortex A15 also means that there’s better power management which should help with power efficiency (and thus battery life). The result is that peak CPU voltage drops from 1.4 volts in Tegra 4 to 1.2V in Tegra K1, and peak clocks are higher in the K1 as well.
Of course, the truly interesting aspect are benchmarks, as those will really show the differences between Tegra 4 and Tegra K1. It will also help to establish how Tegra K1 fares against the competition.
Despite the largely similar clock speeds compared to the Snapdragon 800 we see that the Tegra K1 is generally a step above in performance. Outside of Apple’s A7 SoC and x86 SoCs, NVIDIA is generally solidly ahead of the competition. Of course, as a gaming tablet there’s a strong need for GPU performance, so we'll look at that next.
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kron123456789 - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
Yes, you can use your Xbox360 controller with that tablet.LedHed - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
When is NVIDIA going to start putting competitive SSD's inside of their mobile devices?baii9 - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
Any comparison with a bay trail win8.1 tablet?nicolapeluchetti - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
Am i the only one who doesn't see the point of a gaming tablet with only 2.5 hours of battery when playing games?The need of a tablet for gaming is more related to situations where you have to play for lots of time without charging. I know that you can dial down the graphics and save the battery, but then where are the difference from an iPAd Air (which also has many more games?). This is totally pointless for me, it could have been good if battery lasted 5-6 hours, like it is know it's pointless.hahmed330 - Thursday, July 31, 2014 - link
If you run an ipad air full blast the batteries will last for 2.5 hours only... This is what they did.. If you run say dead trigger 2 or something like that the battery would last per say 4-5 hours.. That's pretty damn impressive by the way... I really hope this is successful as I would love play some really nice games..semi177 - Friday, August 1, 2014 - link
the comments on this site used to be good to read. now i just see bashing and misinformed comments. The admin should consider pushing down fanboy war threads much lower down and keep the useful ones on top.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, August 4, 2014 - link
Anybody know where the 32GB tablet is, or when it will release? not even nvidia shows it as available on their website, nor even mentions it.scbundy - Thursday, August 7, 2014 - link
So much for Charlie D's prediction that the Tegra K1 was going to be super hot, have a huge heatsink and use 50W.Azurael - Friday, August 8, 2014 - link
It's a bit of a disappointment in the display department, much like the Tegra Note 7 (which uses exactly the same display as the original Nexus 7 with a marginally better calibration as far as I can see) The stylus is great (in fact, I prefer it to the Wacom-developed screen in the Galaxy Notes) as is the SoC performance and value proposition - but if they want to appeal to people other than gamers (I would certainly have bought this), they've got to work on that LCD. I skipped the Nexus 5 and bought a G2 despite objecting to its size because the N5 LCD was a massive step backward in contrast from that in the Nexus 4 when calibrated. I bought a 2013 Nexus 7 to replace my 2012 Nexus 7 a few weeks ago because the LCD in the otherwise great Tegra Note is not a step forward. When will device manufacturers other than Apple realise that people do care about the LCD?sandy105 - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
I have both the tegra note 7 and nexus 7 2012 .The one on nexus 7 has bonded fused display while the touch layer and screen are separated on tegra note7 making it very poor and VERY reflective.It also has muted colors and looks washed out.