Introduction and 3DMark Firestrike

Last week, NVIDIA officially announced the SHIELD tablet (powered by the Tegra K1 SoC) and its companion SHIELD wireless controller. Just in case you missed the initial announcement, we’ve got it posted for you all right here, along with some early hands-on video, the device’s full specifications, and a handful of pictures and additional info.



To quickly recap, the SHIELD tablet’s specifications include NVIDIA Tegra K1 SoC (clocked at up to 2.2GHz), paired to 2GB of RAM and an 8”, full-HD IPS display, with a native resolution of 1920x1200. There are also a pair of 5MP cameras on the SHIELD tablet (front and rear), 802.11a/b/g/n 2x2 MIMO WiFi configuration, GPS, a 9-axis motion sensor, and Bluetooth 4.0 LE. In addition to the WiFi-only version (which features 16GB of internal storage), NVIDIA has a 32GB version coming with LTE connectivity as well.



The NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet and Wireless Controller - Find it @ Amazon

A few days after the initial announcement was made, we got our hands on a SHIELD tablet, wireless controller, and cover. We’re still working (and playing) with the SHIELD tablet, and will be posting up some more information about its gaming prowess in the days ahead, but in the meantime, we thought you’d all like to take to see just how the device performs.



Hands On Video and NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet Demos

3DMark Ice Storm Cutting-Edge 3D Rendering and Mobile Graphics Benchmark

First up, we have some tests with 3DMark Ice Storm. We've come to place a lot of stock in this test. This benchmark evaluates a device's performance in a number of key areas, from pure polygon and shader processing to physics calculations. Futuremark is also good about policing benchmark results in their database, looking for manufacturers trying to gain an edge by "optimizing" for the benchmark.

As you can see in this first result, the Tegra K1 powered SHIELD Tablet decimates all in the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark. The SHIELD Portable and recently-released Samsung Galaxy Tab S put up decent scores as well, but nothing comes close to touching the SHIELD Tablet here.