4K Gaming In The Living Room

Introduction

There are a lot of buzz words in the gaming industry, but there are a few that really stand out to us here at eTeknix, and they’re ones that we don’t think a lot of people have been enjoying to their fullest potential. I am of course talking about 4K and Game Streaming. For your common system build, those things may be a little out of reach, but with the increasing popularity of 4K TVs, high-speed home routers, and powerful smart TV devices such as the Shield TV, you can make all your hardware sing and dance together like never before.

“The NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV box is powered by the Tegra® X1 processor, which supports 4K H.265 (HEVC) and VP9 video streams at a fast 60 fps refresh rate – making SHIELD fully HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 compliant. This is much better than, for example, the new Fire TV that supports 4K resolution at 30 fps and delivers sub-optimal experiences while viewing fast action sports, movies, and video games. Plus, it delivers a wider 10-bit color range (as specified by rec. 2020) and offers High Dynamic Range (HDR) for smoother gradients and richer and brighter colors on your TV.” – Nvidia

High-end PC gaming is great, and if you’re lucky enough to own one of the latest graphics cards, such as the Nvidia GTX 1080, then 4K gaming is within your grasp, and so is GameStream too. With the Nvidia Shield TV, I’m going to try to stream my games in 4K from our PC to the living room, so I can play on the big screen in 4K. This is super appealing to many, as while some of you may have a 4K monitor, it’s more likely at the moment that you have a 4KTV in the living room before you have a 4K monitor on your desk, although the trend is certainly growing quickly for both.

We actually reviewed the Nvidia Shield TV a while ago, and you can check out our in-depth look at the hardware right here, but for today, it’s all about the gaming!

Test System Specification

• Intel Core i5 4690K @ 4.6GHz
• Kingston Hyper X Predator 16GB DDR3 2400Mhz
• SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD
• MSI Z87 MPower ATX Motherboard
• Noctua NH-D14S CPU Cooler
• Inno3D GTX 1080iChill Air Boss X2 Graphics Card
• Seasonic 1000w Platinum PSU
• Windows 10

Additional Hardware

• Nvidia Shield TV
• Shield Controller
• LG 49UH770V 4K HDR TV
• Onkyo 656 Atmos Amplifier (Running 5.1.2 speakers)
• Gigabit ethernet (all tests wired unless stated otherwise)