Quick Summary
Nvidia continues its mission to upgrade its six-year-old Shield TV devices this year.
This time, a new software update has added the ability to play GeForce Now games in 120 frames-per-second.
The Nvidia Shield TV Pro is easily one of the best streaming devices available today, even though the latest model is almost six years old. Powered by Android, it continues to be a serious rival to the Apple TV 4K and Google TV Streamer.
However, it’s a surprise that Nvidia hasn’t announced a new model in that time. Indeed, it barely even updated the existing device – nor the standard Shield TV variant.
Still, the company has recently proved that it hasn’t forgotten its video streaming lineup, having issued a few surprising updates over the last few months. And that includes a very welcome new software patch that you can download now.
Shield Experience 9.2.1 is available to all Shield TV and Shield TV Pro units, and as well as a swathe of bug fixes and tweaks, it adds a new capability that those with high frame rate TVs can enjoy.
The new software includes an update to the Nvidia GeForce Now app that introduces 120fps gaming to the cloud service.
Why is 120fps gaming important on Nvidia Shield TV Pro?
As well as stream the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ in 4K HDR (Dolby Vision), the Shield TV devices provide direct access to Nvidia’s own cloud gaming platform, GeForce Now.
This enables members of the service to stream their purchased PC games through Nvidia’s servers in up to 4K resolutions. However, gameplay on the set-top-box was limited to 60fps previously, even if you subscribe to the Ultimate tier, which offers 4K 240fps on other platforms.
Now though, if you have Ultimate membership, you can stream at 1080p 120fps, allowing for exceptional frame rates when playing on a capable TV.
Nvidia GeForce Now Ultimate costs £19.99 / $19.99 / €21.99 per month and plays games with RTX 4080 graphics with all the bells and whistles switched on. As the video is streamed to your device, with controller actions going in the other direction, you get a super high-end PC experience that wouldn’t usually be possible on a streaming device.
It certainly adds extra value to the six-year-old set-top-box, although we wouldn’t be sad to hear about a replacement model sometime soon. Let’s hope Nvidia has something else up its sleeve.
In the meantime, you can read about the new Shield Experience Upgrade 9.2.1 on the dedicated support site.
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