Price: TBA
CPU: NVIDIA Tegra 4, Quad-core ARM Cortex A15
GPU: Custom NVIDIA GPU
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 32GB + MicroSD
Display: 5" 1280 x 720
Web: shield.nvidia.com
If Valve's dedicated Steam box isn't your cup of tea, NVIDIA has, out of nowhere, come up with a portable PC gaming solution to a problem we didn't realise anyone had: how can we play our favourite PC games away from the computer itself?
This solution is called Project Shield, and it looks like a Game Boy designed by the people responsible for the original Xbox controller. It's a standalone gamepad with a flip-up 5-inch touch screen that sports a Tegra 4 processor and NVIDIA GPU under the thumbsticks; respectable gaming grunt crammed into the controller itself.
It's primarily an Android device, booting into the Jelly Bean version of the OS for full access to the existing Android library - augmented by gamepad control. But NVIDIA is also touting the Shield's integration with Steam Big Picture Mode - though its not what you expect.
Rather than run Steam games on the device itself, the Shield will stream the game to the device from any GeForce-powered PC over a local wi-fi network. So your PC handles the rendering, whilst your Shield handles the control - kind of like a local area network version of OnLive.
NVIDIA has coyly left out some technical specifics, but it's clear that it sees a future for PC gaming that is in line with other manufacturers - one that's micro, portable and modular.
NVIDIA GRID
Going hand-in-hand with NVIDIA's Project Shield is the company's proprietary approach to cloud gaing codenamed NVIDIA Grid. Following a similar on-demand streaming approach to OnLive, Grid will no doubt seek to unify gaing experiences acroos not just the shield, but tablets powered by Tegra technology, as well as PCs themselves. However, with OnLive's assets currently being sold with a view to inclusion in future Google TV's, the viablility of could gaming is still up in the air.
