While set-top streaming boxes are a fairly saturated marketplace, most of these boxes don't take aim at gamers with powerful enough hardware. However, this is not the case with the Nvidia Shield Android TV, a sleek and small streaming box powered by the Tegra X1 20nm SoC, which utilises the Maxwell architecture and makes a big push for 4K content.
The star of the show here is really the Tegra X1 chip, which is based on the 20nm manufacturing process and sports an octa-core CPU configuration, with four of ARM's cutting-edge A57s paired with four lower-power A53s. Then on the GPU side you will find second generation Maxwell architecture with 256 CUDA cores, support for Nvidia ShadowPlay, GeForce Now and 4K decoding for technologies like HEVC.
Specifications and Features:
- Tegra X1 processor.
- 64-bit CPU.
- Maxwell GPU with 256 CUDA cores.
- 3GB of RAM.
- Android TV.
- HDMI 2.0.
- 802.11ac WiFi.
- Gigabit Ethernet.
- 16GB of internal storage.
- Micro SD card slot.
I bought this device on Black Friday and I still love it and use it every day, to play games and watch movies and series in Netflix and Kodi. I actually prefer streaming over Geforce Now to playing the same games natively on my PS4 nowadays. A highly recommended buy.