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Unreleased NVIDIA Shield Portable 2 found, similar specs to Nintendo Switch

A

Atheerios

Member
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NVIDIA would go on to make two more tablets, but a successor to the Shield Portable was never officially released. FCC documents for a new Portable were filed in 2016, which were released publicly earlier this year. But out of nowhere, Reddit user /u/FwrigginRwootbeer has found a Shield Portable 2 developer unit - at a pawn shop in Canada.


According to the user, he saw the Portable 2 in a pawn shop and traded in his original model to help pay for it, unaware that the model he was buying was never released publicly. He later posted it to /r/theNvidiaShield, where others were quick to point out that the Shield 2 was never official. We can also independently confirm that it is a developer unit that was never intended for public release, and was provided to game developers for testing.

The photos match the Shield 2 FFC filing from last year. It's slightly less bulky than the original model, with smaller bezels around the screen and a modified navigation button layout. CPU-Z on the unit reports an ARM Cortex-A57 CPU at 1.91 GHz (possibly a Tegra X1 chip), 3GB of RAM, a 1440x810 display, and a code name of "loki_e_wifi."
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http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/08/26/unreleased-nvidia-shield-portable-2-found-pawn-shop-canada/

I wonder if this was abandoned because of the partnership between Nintendo and Nvidia
 
H

hanspampel

Banned
Atheerios said:
I wonder if this was abandoned because of the partnership between Nintendo and Nvidia
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nah. probably just because of lackluster Shield sales
Nvidia has huge margins right now. Why destroy that with subsidizing a product in a basically non existing market (Android Game Consoles)


great find, tho
 
A

Aztechnology

Member
It would have been cool, but sold like crap. They made the right choice. Eventually a partnership with someone like Valve/Steam on a handheld steam machine (Yes I know there are handheld like the GPD etc, but branding is huge) might be a good idea. But as it stands now it was a smart move.
 
Toadthemushroom

Toadthemushroom

Member
Cool bit of kit. Though it's clear it's been beneficial for Nvidia to drop Google for Nintendo.

Not only have they had better control over the software stack (NVN API, Nvidia libraries for developers) but having Nintendo handle the hardware has obviously led to a much more compelling design than the Shield Portable too.

I get the impression that Android is what held back Nvidia's hardware and software goals - seeing MGS2 run at 720p30 on what is hardware more capable than Nintendo Switch docked clock speaks volumes, as was the performance of Metal Gear Rising and Resident Evil 5.
 
M

Malakai

Member
alf717 said:
Thanks I was alway curious why the Switch took such a big hit in the CPU/GPU department.
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That and MDave reported that when you max out the CPU clocks the GPU throttles a bit in the Nvidia Shield TV so it is a bit of limitations of the silicon itself.
 
Toadthemushroom

Toadthemushroom

Member
Hero of Legend said:
Could we assume that parts of this literally were re-purposed for Switch, explaining the rumored good deal Nintendo got with NVIDIA?
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Just the X1 chips:

Fourth Storm said:
The article is available to subscribers only, however the gist of it is this:


  • Though Nvidia downplayed console margins, their pride was hurt by the loss in console contracts. All the talk about "focusing on Shield" was a cover for the fact that MS and Sony had soured on them and would not enter negotiations.

    [*]Nvidia team was told to get a console win or "go home." Enter Nintendo, who apparently made off very well in this deal. This to the point that SemiAccurate questions whether this is a "win" at all for Nvidia.

    [*]SA has heard that Nvidia are promising software, support, and the whole shebang at a very low cost. According to one source, Nvidia may even be taking a loss on this deal. (Take the second sentence here with an extra portion of salt)
  • Not mentioned which generation of Tegra or which process node will be used or when the handheld is scheduled for release.
  • No mention of the home console, but we can speculate what that might be and who might provide the chipset for that one.

http://semiaccurate.com/2016/05/12/guess-whos-silicon-is-in-nintendos-nx/
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Thraktor said:
Well, for all we know Nvidia could have done Nintendo a deal on the X1 simply to use up a TSMC 20nm wafer purchase commitment (as the X1 is their only 20nm chip, and it's only been used in the Shield TV and the Pixel C, neither are big sellers). It may have been cheaper for them to sell the chips at a loss to Nintendo than to pay a penalty to TSMC for dropping out of their wafer order.
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Thraktor said:
The reason I was talking about it there is that it would explain why Nvidia would be willing to make a loss on the deal. As a point of reference, AMD was penalised to the tune of $320 million when they pulled out of a wafer order commitment with Global Foundries a few years back. That's the kind of order of magnitude you'd be looking at if (and it's a bit if) Nvidia had committed to large 20nm purchases from TSMC and they had to renege on them due to poor sales of the Nvidia X1. They'd be desperate to make the sale to Nintendo, as Nintendo would be pretty much the only customer buying in the quantity necessary to cover their wafer commitments, so would be willing to offer Nintendo an absurdly good deal, even to the point of making a loss on each chip sold, as it would still be better than paying the penalty to TSMC.
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D

Dremorak

Banned
At the end of the day I found very little use for my shield. the controller felt too bulky and it just wasnt a great experience overall. Kinda makes me wish I sold it while the price was still stupid high
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
i wonder if there's a possibility for Nvidia and Nintendo going for an X1 die shrink lower than the cuarrent 20nm and open up yet another performance mode when the device is docked to get close to the theorical maximuns of the APU. Basically Shield TV clock speeds but with no throtling.

Also there seems to be enough space in the cuarrent Switch to hold a 7'' screen. So a redesign could potentially have the bigger screen at the same size, improved battery life and extra performance when docked. The stuff that runs at 900p with adaptive res could go for full 1080p.

Maybe passive cooling in both modes or move the active cooling to a redesigned dock for when the system is at the higher performance level. Add a rotating kickstand to use the device in portrait or wide screen modes when in table top and Nintendo has a every compeiling new model for middle life of the Switch.

On topic: Hows the battery life of this model in comparison to the original Shield portable? It would be informative to have performance comparison between the old and new versions.
 
N

nampad

Member
I thought it was pretty much confirmed (or at least heavily rumored) that NVIDIA cancelled their new portable because of the Switch.

We even got some benchmarks of the Shield Portable 2 quite some time ago.
http://vrzone.com/articles/nvidia-s...arked-with-3-gb-ram-and-fhd-screen/92360.html


Sucks that NVIDIA cancelled it because I waited for the Shield successor to get one but I guess the market got even more competitive for them with the GPD Wins claiming the portable emulator space.
 
A

antonz

Member
Ricerocket said:
Switch uses a stock Tegra X1, it's not really news that it would be similar. X2 is still in automotive purposes it seems.
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X2 ended up being little more than a die shrunk X1 with improved memory interface as far as performance goes. Cost versus performance likely favored sticking with plain old X1 quite a bit.

Lots of us had much higher hopes for Parker than what it ended up being. Tegra Xavier seems like it will be the step forward people wanted out of Parker but then again we know very little about Xavier other than it will move from 256Cuda Cores to 512 etc
 
SmokedMeat

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Aztechnology said:
It would have been cool, but sold like crap. They made the right choice. Eventually a partnership with someone like Valve/Steam on a handheld steam machine (Yes I know there are handheld like the GPD etc, but branding is huge) might be a good idea. But as it stands now it was a smart move.
Click to expand...

This what I've been wishing for. But then it would slaughter sales of Switch's overpriced indies as you'd either already own the games, be able to get them for far less money, and wouldn't have to wait for them to show up.
 
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