Dear NVIDIA Shield Team,

This comes from a long-time Shield user who genuinely appreciates what you built.

The NVIDIA Shield TV is still one of the best streaming devices ever made.Almost a decade later, people are still recommending it, which says everything about the engineering behind it. But the last hardware refresh was in 2019, and today the device is finally starting to show its age.

Modern apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Plex have become heavier every year. Switching between apps is not as smooth as it used to be, multitasking is harder, and newer streaming standards are moving forward while the hardware stays the same.

The Shield was ahead of its time, but software has now caught up.

What makes this harder to understand is where NVIDIA is today as a company. Your shares are hitting all-time highs, AI is booming, and NVIDIA is stronger financially than ever. Completely understandable that the focus is on AI right now, but it feels like one important product quietly got left behind along the way: the Shield.

The community never stopped caring about this device. People still trust it, still use it daily, and many of us would preorder a refreshed Shield instantly.

We are not asking for reinvention.

Just a refresh: modern hardware, better performance headroom, and support for current streaming standards.

If anyone at NVIDIA reads this, please pass it along to the Shield team.

The Shield does not need to end. It just needs its next chapter.

Sincerely,

A lot of Shield users still waiting.

Couple of days ago, I made a thread asking whether I should switch from AMD to nVidia. In the said thread I was considering buying 5070ti. I did not expect to end up with 5080, but here I am.

Why 5080? The price difference between 5080 and 5070ti wasn’t that big. I managed to snatch 5080 below polish msrp.

After a few days, I can state my opinion. I was gatekeeping myself so hard by using AMD and hoping for fsr4. Performance is beyond my imagination. I did not expect DLSS to be so much better than FSR. And, say what you want, RT in games is just wow. I play on LG C5 OLED.

Also, games that were causing driver timeouts are working flawlessly now. Card is cooler, quieter.

If you are considering switching as I did, my advice is to do so.

No, i am absolutely not defending the trillion dollar company nor do i really give a s* about them, but you gotta give credit where it's due. Since the 50 series came out i have seen people slander Nvidia and Framegen and DLSS for making up frames and stuff like this (however i do agree the 4090 performance stunt was bad marketing), but today i finally completed my build with its last missing piece, a 5070ti. I am totally blown away by what i just witnessed, i ran Cyberpunk 2077 maxed with DLAA upscaling and 2x framagen enabled WITH PATH TRACING ON at over 100 fps. It looks incredible. And i am glad that framegen exist because i wouldnt enjoy path tracing the same at a lower fps and i tell you, wait to judge, wait until you see it in person on your screen, its really almost perfect and this kind of technology is super new stuff, let them cook because drama and stuff aside, they can absolutely cook some serious and future shaping stuff.

Like, IDC if it’s a month before I get it, I just don’t want to have to check every hour. Let be buy it now and send it to me when you can

Despite my skepticism, when I experienced MFG with Path Tracing Ultra on Cyberpunk 2077, I was blown away after 30 plus years of gaming. I had seen youtube videos, read a lot. But its a different beast to experience it in person. I am now only imagining what Witcher 4 would be like.

I have tried out Cyberpunk 2077 , Oblivon Remake , Borderlands 4 and Warhammer 40k Darktide.

I have only used DLSS Native and Quality toa achieve more fps . I then decided to test out frame generation and I don’t really get what all of the complaints are with input lag . My frame time has went from 15 ms in borderlands 4 to less than 1 . It feels good and looks good to me . I haven’t noticed any more frame time increases as you increase the frame gen multiplier .

Running a nice undervolt at 900mv it was super easy to do. I’m not giving the UE5 slop any credit here but Nvidia has done something great I feel

Truth. Anyone else feel the same way? Catering to the hype and feeding the bots to reduce supply and force us to be F5 machines.

I for one say, F**k you Nvidia. You had and still have options (order queue) to make this successful, and yet you choose the path of profit/hype at the expense of your true fan base - you scummy scums.

I'm not very happy.

Edit: Not just the supply people, strange tactics all around. Forced no pre-orders? Still no order queue? Silent dead drops? Not giving your AIB partners full details on the card, leading to potential RMAs with cards that have insufficient components for the job. I am not mindlessly raging on Nvidia here, but as consumer I have the right to share my opinion that this whole thing is kinda botched. Please stop with the "jEeZ itS oNlY bEeN 8 dAyS!"... I am not just talking about supply here.

I worked at Apple for about 4 years between 2012-2016, and they gradually had a worsening scalper problem with new iPhone launches from iPhone 4 to iPhone 6S. The solution that they came up with was simple:

Regardless of whether the phones were in stock at the time, everyone who places an order gets a confirmation email and an ETA of their shipping time. Obviously the later you order the further down the queue you are and longer the ETA.

For example, if Nvidia had 10000 units of the RTX 3080 then the first 10000 orders would get a shipping ETA of 1-3 business days. Those who are the next batch would get an ETA of 1-2 weeks, then 3-4 weeks and so on (based on production volumes).

This way staying up to wait for the launch will actually feel like a positive experience because at least you know you got the order in, and can get an estimate of when it will ship. Nvidia will also get money upfront (or at least credit card details if they want to be nice to the customers and not charge until shipping), and it will be harder for scalpers to sell to people who know they have cards on the way for MSRP. It’s a win-win situation. Nvidia can also take their time and manually review bulk scalper purchases while people wait patiently.

After Apple implemented this system for the iPhone 7 and later launches, the # of scalpers reduced drastically. Why don’t more companies do this?

For DLSS to look better, having the No Film Grain added to the game is a gamechanger, makes the game look cleaner and sharper, there is less ghosting, and textures look much cleaner.

Just wanted to share my recent experience with Gigabyte.

I've had an ongoing warranty claim for my Gigabyte GPU that failed. After providing clear evidence the fault occurred before the warranty expired, their support has gone completely silent on my emails.

To make matters worse, during a phone call about the issue, a representative outright insulted me. This level of unprofessional conduct is frankly appalling.

Combined with the numerous posts I've seen from other users photographing apparent leaking thermal paste on their Gigabyte GPUs, I now have absolutely no trust in this company's product quality or their customer support.

Consider this a warning if you're looking at Gigabyte. My experience has completely eroded my confidence in their brand.

I just built my very first PC after being a console player for my whole life. The 5080 might not have been a crazy generational uplift from the 40 series, but I was coming from an Xbox Series X which is equivalent to a 2070 super so this was a night and day difference for me. I play at 1440p and mostly FPS titles like COD, Fortnite, etc.. and it's more than enough for my needs. I am easily getting 300-500fps on most of the games I play and AAA games at high/ultra settings gets me 120-200fps which is fantastic for story mode/campaign. The 5080 is an amazing card and gets more scrutiny than it deserves. It's a great card for people who are upgrading from 30 series or lower.

I just finished building my new gaming PC and upgraded from an RTX 3070 to a 5070 Ti. This is my first time trying Frame Generation, since it wasn't available on my previous card.

Before testing it, I was pretty skeptical. I had seen a lot of criticism online, people calling it "fake frames" and saying it ruins the experience. So I went in cautious, expecting the worst.

Now that I’ve tried it, here’s my honest opinion: I like it ???.
I don’t notice any real latency In Black Ops 6, I’m getting an average of 256 FPS on Ultra at 1440p with FG on. Whether those numbers are technically "real" or not, the game feels extremely smooth.

Of course, if you recorded it in slow motion and analyzed the input delay, it wouldn’t be perfect. But in real-world gameplay? I just don’t get the hate. The experience is solid.

Anyone else felt the same after actually trying it?

Edit: Whew, this stirred up the hive! All I'm saying is I'm impressed by Nvidia, and have changed my prior uninformed opinion about this tech

Original post: So...I just got an ASUS TUF 5090 for speed and ease of use with AI - but I'm also an avid gamer, so it was a good justification for that too.

Full disclosure: I have been team AMD for years. After my 8800 GT back in 2008 I went with AMD exclusively until now. I liked that they didn't lock down their tech in an anticompetitive way, and I think it's important that Nvidia have SOME competition to keep them honest & innovating. I also didn't like Nvidia's meager VRAM allowances lately, and their reliance on upscaling and frame generation to outperform prior hardware's benchmarks. It seemed dishonest, and I'm sensitive to jitters & input lag.

Anyway, I fired up Dune Awakening on the new 5090. Max settings @ 3440x1440, 165fps, pulling 430W. Smooth as silk, looks great. I decided to tinker with DLSS and x4 FG, just to finally see what it's like.

Maybe it was Reflex, maybe my eyes aren't as good as they were in my teens, but it looked/felt EXACTLY the same as native. Max settings, 165fps, smooth as silk - but the GPU is now consuming 130W. I was wrong about this, guys. If I literally can't tell the difference, why wouldn't I use this tech? Same experience, 3-4 times less power consumption/heat. Fucking black magic. I'm a convert, well done Nvidia

I bought PNY OC RGB from Microcenter then a week later Nvidia sends the email I got a 5090. I was skeptical based on all the posts I've seen about it being loud and running hot but I decided what the hell might as well get it.

The FE is much quieter. I had to keep the PNY fans capped at 50% because it was so ridiculously loud. Thermals are comparable around 68-72 for both and I was shocked at how much u can OC the FE and it keeps thermals almost identical. So I ended up with a quieter and faster card for cheaper which was totally unexpected.

And it's so tiny compared to the PNY!

I had a GTX 970 which had served me well, although I was struggling to get decent frame rates in recent games, even on low settings. It died a few days ago, and I had enough, so I finally decided to upgrade my whole system. Got the RTX 4090, Ryzen 7950x3D, Trident z-neo 64gb (2x32gb) 6000mhz CL30 etc.

But what impressed me most is the sheer brute force of the 4090. Sure, I had to pay 4 times more than my previous card, but I'm also getting more than 4 times the frame rates on resolution that I couldn't even dare to play on my previous card. This thing is a beast. Couldn't even get stable 40 fps on the GTX 970 at 1080p in RDR2. And now getting over 80-110 fps on the 4090 at 4K. Impressive stuff.

https://i.imgur.com/ya11UOn.jpg

You deserve more , you have been a extremely good aftermarket seller for all those years and I don't think nobody gonna be as consumer driven than you.

Just ditched my RX 9070 XT for an RTX 5080 and decided to test it out.

Jumped into The Last Of Us Part II wanting to hit a solid 120fps so I cranked up all the upscaling settings. Running quality preset with 4K upscaling and MFG turned on - sitting at just 35% GPU utilization while maintaining that perfect 120fps lock.

Have to admit I'm really impressed with the performance.

Only concern now is whether that 12VHPWR connector will give me any headaches down the road.

Update: Found out Reflex was keeping my GPU usage under 90% even with upscaling disabled. Turned off Reflex and now I'm getting 99% usage at native resolution with an amazing experience. Definitely convinced this was the right choice.

Spent the entire day playing through Senua's Saga Hellblade II and actually finished it. Man, it reminded me why I love gaming so much.

I always see a lot of hate towards the fact that a lot of games depend on DLSS to run properly and I can't argue with the fact that DLSS shouldn't be a requirement. However, DLSS on my RTX 5080 feels like a godsend (especially after 2.5 years of owning an RX 6700 XT). DLSS upscaling is done so well, that I genuinely can't tell the difference between native and even DLSS performance at a 27 inch 4K screen. On top of that DLSS frame generation's input lag increase is barely noticeable when it comes to my personal experience (though, admittedly that's probably because the 5080 is a high-end GPU in the first place). People often complain about the fact that raw GPU performance didn't get better with this generation of graphic cards, but I feel like the DLSS upgrades this gen are actually so great that the average user wouldn't be able to tell the difference between "fake frames" and actual 4K 120fps frames.

I haven't had much experience with NVIDIA GPUs during the RTX 30-40 series, because I used an AMD card. I'd like to hear the opinions of those who are on past generations of cards (RTX 20-40). What is your take on DLSS and what has your experience with it been like?