The Nvidia’s Android powered handheld console, Shield, which we originally revealed in February of this year, has finally begun taking preorders today for its upcoming June release.  The original pre-order date was the 20^th of May, but apparently has been bumped up.  The device has a reasonable $349 price, and pre-orders can be made directly to Nvidia or from participating retailers such as Gamestop, Newegg and Canada Computer.

Shield will come with full Google Play access as well as a myriad of different add ons such as TwitchTV, Hulu Plus, TegraZone, Expendable: Rearmed and Sonic 4 Episode II THD.  Nvidia stated that growing buzz for the device was the reason for the bumped up pre-sale date.  More likely they wanted to space themselves a bit from Microsoft’s reveal of it’s new next gen Xbox on Tuesday the 21^st.  Either way, this device deserves a bit of it’s own time in the spotlight.

If you haven’t yet, check it out and get yours ordered today!

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According to NVIDIA, the upcoming Tegra 5 will be able to “outperform” the likes of the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. This comes by way of senior vice president of content and technology Tony Tamsai. The gaming performance is certainly improving, as evidenced by Tegra 4 and Project SHIELD. But can we put this in more quantitative terms?

Well, if you take the current PlayStation 3, you’ll find that it is rated at 200 GFLOPS. By comparison, the Tegra 3 is just 12 GFLOPS. However, the Tegra 4 is said to bring a seven-fold increase to that, increasing performance to about 80 FLOPS. With the Tegra 5 improving on that even further, it’s not that far-fetched to see it break the 200 GFLOPS threshold.

That being said, by the time it’s ready, the PS4 will likely already be out and that’s being rated at 1800 GFLOPS, still putting the mobile chip behind. If we assume the evolution keeps up its current pace, though, a Tegra 6 could be comparable to what we see in the PS4, possibly some time in 2016 or so.

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Just like Nvidia showcased Tegra 3 last year with a side-by-side comparison of games running with and without Tegra, this year at Mobile World Congress Nvidia has been showing off some gameplay comparisons with devices running the new Tegra 4 chipset.

Five new games have been announced, and below you’ll see a comparison video showing both the Tegra 4 and non-Tegra versions side-by-side. The five announced games seem to bring together a decent mix of gameplay, and although I doubt these first five games we’ll get to see on the market will be amazingly impressive, we are bound to see some beauties pushing the GPU to its limits later in the year  similarly to how Madfinger’s Shadowgun and Dead Trigger did in 2012.

The first two games shown follow a similar playstyle; Burn Zombie Burn is a zombie slaying fast paced 2D top down shooter, whilst Dead on Arrival 2 is a sequel of N3V Game’s first mobile 3D top down shooter.

CODEX: The Warrior takes a similar approach to the popular Blood and Glory titles with suped-up graphics, decent animations and detailed character models.

Carie: Blood Mansion, a gruesome action adventure title, lets you play with an over-the-shoulder third person view as you travel through a haunted house, shooting down ghouls and demons.

The last game is a anime style 3D golfing game by the name RU:Golf. Below you can see a video showcasing the Tegra 4 enabled version alongside the standard version already available on the Play Store. The video shows some neat lighting effects, but it doesn’t really give Tegra 4 the justice we’ve expected to see.

Despite the new titles, nothing seems to match the excitement I have towards the new Dead Trigger 2 that was showcased at CES 2013. Nvidia seems to have the raw power they need, but they seem to lack the developer support. If only we could get more devs like Madfinger games working with Tegra 4.

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Tegra 4 — Nvidia’s “secret ingredient” for future smartphones — is now the world’s fastest mobile processor, if we are to believe the benchmarks that are coming in. The Tegra 4 appears to be capable of demolishing every other mobile processor out there.

The new chip’s power was showed off on a few prototype devices at the Mobile World Congress and it appears to be far better than the Tegra 3 and Qualcomm S4 processors currently out there. But how about Apple’s A6 processor, you ask? The Tegra 4 Skadooshed it.

But just as Nvidia claimed about its new chipset, Qualcomm also boasts about its Snapdragon 800 that it is faster than Tegra 4. We will have to wait until 800’s benchmarks are here to know for sure, and also there is Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa to consider. The 1.7-GHz Snapdragon 600 chipset, 800’s little brother, on the HTC One was tested and we can see that the Tegra 4 is a clear winner.

For now, it’s safe to believe that the Tegra 4 is ahead in the race and we can wait for its arrival in Nvidia’s Project Shield, and don’t forget about the Tegra 4i powered Phoenix about which we reported earlier.

What do you prefer, Qualcomm or Nvidia processors?

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Qualcomm has been getting more attention in the mobile space of late, but NVIDIA appears to have an answer. Say hello to the NVIDIA Phoenix powered by the Tegra 4i, the chip that combines LTE with quad core.

But the high end 5-inch handset, which boasts a 1080p display and a 13 megapixel cam, you see above, is not for sale. It’s just a reference device meant to end up at the labs of various manufacturers who can develop their own smartphones with NVIDIA’s new tech inside. NVIDIA’s ultimate aim is to build “mainstream superphones”, devices having today’s highest specs with tomorrow’s mid range price tags.

The Phoenix is a reasonably powerful device, even if it is nowhere nearly as powerful as the NVidia Tegra 4 processor, it is still a reasonable step up from the Tegra 3.  According to available info, we can expect devices with the new tech to hit the market in less than a year. We will keep you updated, but in the meantime check out 4i’s graphics performance in the video below:

So what do you think, impressed by the performance of the NVIDIA Tegra 4i or not?

The post NVIDIA Tegra 4i Phoenix Reference Phone (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

There is strong rivalry between Qualcomm and Nvidia on the market but lately the momentum appears to be swinging in the former’s direction. As you might already know, the LG Optimus G Pro and the HTC One are coming with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor. And now, right after Nvidia unveiled their newest chipset, Qualcomm has announced their 200 and 400 chips.

The new chipsets are meant for entry-level and mid-range smartphones, and for the high-end devices the company already introduced the 600 and 800 processors back in January. The newly announced chips are coming with improved battery life, better performance and connectivity.

The Snapdragon 200 is coming with quad ARM Cortex-A5 CPUs which will run at 1.4GHz per core and an Adreno 203 GPU. You will also get support for 8 Megapixel cameras, HD video playback, GPS, and it features better battery life as said earlier and Multi-SIM capabilities, so it see quite a bit of popularity in Asia as well.

The 400 chipset will be available in two configurations: dual Krait CPUs at 1.7GHz per core or quad Cortex A7 at 1.4GHz. You will be able to enjoy 3D gaming with an Adreno 305 GPU and get support for up to a 13.5MP snapper.

According to the company, 55 Snapdragon 800-powered devices should be available by the second half of 2013. No info on which all devices will be powered by the newly announced processors. But we will keep you updated, so stay tuned.

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Earlier in the year we reported on Nvidia’s Project Shield Android mobile gaming console.  Now Project Shield demonstrates, in a video, its ability to wirelessly pair its Nvidia Project Shield handheld gaming console with a PC.  In the video they access their game titles on their PC by simply having a GeForce GTX 680 enabled PC with the software installed.

The Nvidia Shield sports a Tegra 4 processor, a custom 72 core GPU all being controlled by the dual analog control sticks and the 4 trigger controls.  Click play below to watch the Nvidia gaming console in action!

“In this episode, we take you through a demo of Project SHIELD playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted via a GeForce GTX 680-enabled PC. You’ll see how the best quality graphics from the PC combine with the smooth dual analog 

joysticks of Project SHIELD to deliver one of the best driving experiences possible.”

The Nvidia Project Shield has managed to create an awesome handheld gaming system with enough horsepower to play titles traditionally only available on your stationary consoles.  Is this the future of gaming as we know it or do you think that pricing and other issues will hold it back from taking the mobile gaming world by storm? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

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Back at CES, Vizio demonstrated the first tablet to run a Tegra 4. Now DigiTimes is reporting that Toshiba plans to be among the first (if not the first) to release an actual product running the new Nvidia processor.

The DigiTimes article further claims that Asus and Acer have at least briefly considered using Tegra 4, but right now Asus at least seems to only think of it as a “backup possibility” since they have a relatively close relationship with Qualcomm.
The sources to DigiTimes are rather critical of Nvidia chips in general, stating that Tegra 4 will struggle to compete with quad-core platforms developed by Qualcomm, Mediatek and China-based IC design houses.

The last bit of DigiTimes report suggest that the Tegra 3 processor costs will be cut to attract more entry-level orders, but the same sources say this likely won’t create a competitive enough solution against other processors.

Personally, while the Toshiba Tegra 4 use sounds very possible, the rest is awfully negative and I’m not sure I totally agree. The Tegra 4 processor looks like a solid offering, and while I believe Qualcomm will provide major competition for Nvidia, it sounds like the sources reporting are talking more about the general situation in China– not globally. In China, consumers will likely be more attracted by cheaper offerings from Mediatek and others, but globally? I anticipate that the Nvidia Tegra 4 will see quite a bit of success.

How about you, do you prefer Qualcomm or Nvidia chipsets for your mobile devices? Or perhaps you’d rather see Intel continue to move into the space? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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[CES 2013] The world has been screaming for a decent Android gaming setup for a long time. With kickstarted projects like the Ouya and the recent GameStick reaching quick success, it’s clear that Android gaming is something a lot of people want to see more of.

Now an even bigger name is getting involved in the Android console game: NVIDIA.

NVIDIA has just shared the first details of their new Project Shield, a portable Android gaming system that comes with a built-in controller and the full Android experience straight out of the box. The new piece of kit will include NVIDIA’s new Tegra 4 processor, apparently boosting the performance six-fold compared to NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 chipset.

On the outside, the device has a controller with physical buttons, attached to a flip-up 5 inch screen which displays images at HD resolution of 720p. The device will also have Micro-USB, HDMI output and a Micro SD slot for extra storage space, as well as access to the full Android offering without any restrictions.

The new Project Shield is also capable of outputting real-time HD onto a 4K display without any lag or detriment to quality.

NVIDIA was also smart enough to notice the current lack of hardcore gaming options available on the OS. In order to make it a worthy competitor to other handhelds like the PS Vita they have developed software that allows the Project Shield to stream and play any PC game via a connected WiFi network.

The bad news is that this only works when connected to your local network, so no playing your favorite PC games while in a taxi or elsewhere on the go.

NVIDIA has plans to ship the Android handheld by the 2nd quarter of this year, although pricing details are currently unknown.

The new NVIDIA Project Shield could be a success this year if some worthy developers step up their game and offer content for the powerful Tegra 4 to tear up. That said, unless mobile game developers really step up their game, Project Shield might only have very limited niche appeal- at least in my opinion.

What are your opinions on Project Shield? Excited or not?

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[CES 2013] Nvidia’s Tegra 4 is finally here, which the company claims is the world’s fastest mobile chip to date.

The new Tegra chip has 72 custom Nvidia GeForce GPU cores and has six times the processing power of the Tegra 3. The GPU also has a new quad-core variant of the ARM Cortex-A15 CPU.

Other features found in the Tegra 4 include support for 4G LTE voice and data, and power efficiency that consumers 45% less power than the last-gen Tegra chip. The chipset is also capable of powering ultra-high-def 4K resolution displays.

The Tegra 4 will be showcased during the next few days through several different devices at CES. For more information, check out the official press release below.

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