Software Section
Performance/Power Setting
I have been intrigued with the "performance/power" section of the settings on the Shield k1. I only got my tablet just a few days ago but have already found some things I didn't see mentioned on XDA. I'm sure this stuff is all over the forum buried somewhere, but I didn't see it mentioned so I figured I would post it for those interested. In this section I am going to show the minimum and maximum processor states for each mode under "Performance/Power" in the settings app. Before posting I would like to point out that whatever you choose for these settings are system wide and override EVERYTHING else that you try to use, such as app optimization or even gltools. If you set "Limit Frame Rate" under custom to 20, nothing will get you more than 20 fps in any game. Even if you command it higher with app optimization or some other way. This also applies to watching videos or anything system wide, so be aware.
Max performance
Min = 1224 mhz
Max = 2218 mhz
Optimized <------------ Most people should use this
Min = 204 mhz
Max = 2218 mhz
Battery Saver
Min = 204 mhz
Max = 1530 mhz
Custom **
Min = 1122 mhz
Max = 2218
**Custom turns out to be the worst choice of the bunch. First off the "CPU Cores" setting does absolutely zero. You can set the cores to 2, 3, or 4, and no matter what, 4 cores will always run. It does nothing to disable the cores. One thing to note here is that when you start disabling cores, there WILL be an impact on benchmarks even though the cores aren't turning off. I am not sure exactly what's happening here, but something is going on with the frequencies or something that I cannot detect. Next is the "CPU Frequency" which does work, however setting it to the lowest possible setting will only net you a minimum processor state of 1122 mhz, much higher than you can get in the other options. So this would not help you in any way for battery life. The max processor speed doesn't go any higher than the others either, so there is no advantage (battery life or performance) to using custom. The final section of custom is "Limit Frame Rate" and it works as well. However, limiting the frame rate is something that is usually done to conserve battery life, but since you are stuck with a rather high minimum processing speed (1122 mhz), then any battery life you may gain from the lowered FPS will be lost with the processor drain. Your best bet is to set the processor state to "optimized" as it has the lowest AND highest achievable clock speeds (for best battery life and performance) and then turn the FPS down under app optimization if needed.
App Optimization Setting <------------ Most people should leave this setting untouched (disabled)
All settings under app optimization work as expected except of course the Max CPU cores again. It does nothing. The Frequency limit does work as well as the frame rate limit. All options works as expected except turning off the cores. For the most performance and battery life it would be best to use the "optimized" power plan from above, and then go into the app optimization and turn down the Max CPU frequency as far as you can without experiencing lag. You can also adjust the resolution if the loss in quality doesn't bother you. I personally don't touch anything in app optimization. I play pretty graphic intensive games so need my processor cores to run at 100% because I hate lag. I also don't like running LCDs at anything other than native resolution so I don't adjust that. Frame rate limit is a waste as the panel automatically caps it to 60 (the max it can display) and I want to see as many frames as possible.
That leaves "Optimize System Memory". This has been a hard one to benchmark, but here is what I've noticed. With this setting enabled it seems that I lose 2-4 frames when the tablet gets loaded up. If you run an FPS monitor you will notice that occasionally the FPS will dip when too much is going on. Well when these dips happen and "Optimize System Memory" is enabled, I find that it dips lower by a few frames.
I almost exclusively do not touch app optimization. The only time I would use this is for a game that took very little resources to run (PVZ2). I would turn the processor clocks down to 50% to conserve battery, but that is about the only use I see for it.
GLTools
This is what I use to monitor FPS. I have been unable to squeeze any extra performance out of any game using this. The only thing this app can do to help frames is reduce resolution, but you can do that with the "app optimization" section in the main settings. This app does many other things for compatibility, but they aren't useful to me at this time. I just use it to monitor FPS, as FPS METER crashes the tablet in both the rooted and non-rooted versions. I was really hoping that forcing anti-aliasing to off in the games would help with the frames, but it appears to do nothing. I suspect that most of the games for android don't have anti-aliasing to begin with, which is why turning it off doesn't seem to help. Bummer.
Gamestream
I have figured out a way to get gamestream to work with zero lag. It's as if my PC was connected directly to the TV and sitting on the floor below it. I cannot tell that the PC is in another room and broadcasting over wifi. I have a decent home network, but nothing special. When I first set it all up there was so much input lag that I considered it unplayable. I have since figured out why and it's perfect. I can't even believe it every time I use it, it's almost too good to be true. The trick is that you need to pair your controller directly to the PC and not the tablet, this will eliminate the lag. When I paired the Xbox One controller directly to the Shield K1 over bluetooth, the controls would work, but there was noticeable input lag if too many inputs where happening in a short time. I then bought the wireless adapter for the controller and paired it directly to my PC via wifi and the problems were solved. This is another great thing about the new Xbox One controller, it has both wifi direct and bluetooth so you can use either.
Zero lag setup:
Mid-high grade AC router
Comcast 30mbps cable internet connection
Router connected to PC via cat 6
5ghz signal to the Shield K1
Xbox One controller paired directly to the PC via wifi
"Game mode" enabled in TV settings
With the above setup I have a 1ms delay which isn't detectable to my eye. Gamestream works better than I expected and I plan on using it quite a bit. Geforce Now looks interesting, but I have no intentions of doing any testing with it. I don't like monthly fees and I have tried streaming services in the past; there is just too much delay for me.
Hardware Section
Dual Shock 4
What a mess. This is one of the best controllers money can buy. It's comfortable, it has a touch pad, the analog sticks are amazing, excellent d-pad, it has the highest quality build, it's rechargeable, and it just doesn't work with android.... If you try to connect the controller directly through the bluetooth section in settings, it will connect and then within 30 seconds be lagging like crazy. I then installed "sixaxis controller" (requires root) and connected that way. Controller worked almost perfect with this app and it let me totally customize the controller. However some things were still broken. For example in the game Half-Life 2 Episode One, the d-pad doesn't function correctly. No matter what I try to do to the mappings, it just won't work right. It works in some menus, but not most. Too bad because this is a really great controller. One last thing to note. I connected this to my S7 Edge running Nougat (hoping that the new native gamepad support would do something) and it connected right away. However the controller did absolutely nothing. I could see that it was connected and it showed up in the bluetooth menu, but no buttons would respond and games wouldn't detect it. Too bad.
Nvidia Shield Controller (1st gen)
I did not test this controller for a very specific reason; it does not use bluetooth. All of the big-name companies have moved over to bluetooth. Sony has always used it, Microsoft just added it, and even the next Nvidia Shield controller is bluetooth. The bluetooth option has lower bandwidth and less range than the wifi controllers, but is more power efficient. Who needs a controller that can stay connected at 200 feet when you can't even see the TV from that far? LOL There also seems to be zero difference in latency between the wifi and bluetooth variants, so I would pick a bluetooth controller for the energy savings.
Amazon Fire TV Controller (1st gen)
Well this thing sucks. I got this when I purchased my first Amazon Fire TV and use it occasionally. I hooked it up to the Shield for testing and I was not impressed. The d-pad likes to click multiple directions at a time (even when you are extra careful), I literally had it register an up and a down at the same time LOL. Not only this but the trigger buttons for some reason have compatibility problems with a lot of games, sometimes the controller randomly loses connection and you have to pull the batteries for 30 seconds to get it reconnected, the thing just sucks. It's something you use when you just want to play a quick game on your Amazon TV or hand it to a little kid to play some games for a bit, it's not to be taken seriously. Oh and the "dead zones" on the sticks are way to wide. You can move the stick about 25% in any direction before anything responds on screen. And sometimes for no reason at all there will be delay between button presses. Just stay away from this one, seriously.
Xbox One S Controller (bluetooth)
Well this controller comes in at a close second to the Dual Shock 4, but has one major advantage; it works. You power this thing on, hit the connect button, and connect it straight to the tablet in the settings menu under bluetooth. That's it. No special apps or mapping problems, or lag, or stutters. It works exactly like it would on an Xbox. You hold the home button and it auto connects to the tablet and when you are done you hold the home button and the light goes out and it powers down. All mapping is done for you and everything works perfectly (new info below). The analog sticks are great, the new d-pad is a ton better than the old 360 one, it's nice and clicky now. This is a great controller and it's on sale right now everywhere for $49.99 so you should pick one up. Also, if you plan on gaming a lot you may want to get the rechargeable battery unless you like buying a ton of AA batteries and swapping them out. These new controllers charge with a standard micro USB cable, so it's super convenient to get the charging pack.
**update**
Turns out this setup isn't exactly perfect either. It may be an Android 6.0 problem though because it doesn't act like this on my s7e running 7.0, who knows. Everything works as described above, but if you reboot the tablet, toggle bluetooth, or enter console mode (VERY annoying) the controller will need to be deleted and paired again. It wouldn't be such a big deal if console mode didn't trigger it because you can avoid rebooting and toggling bluetooth, but the console mode thing is a huge inconvenience. I really hope this gets fixed, either by android or microsoft updates because it really messes up an almost perfect controller experience. Also, to properly pair the controller you have to use the pairing button at the top. When you first power on the controller with the xbox button it will try to pair with the tablet, don't let it and instead hold the connect button on top of the controller to enter pairing mode (the light will flash fast) and then select the controller from the bluetooth list to pair. If you don't do it this way, the controller will never actually talk to the tablet.
Dual Shock 3
It's a Dual Shock 4 without a touchpad so it has the same issues.
Nvidia Shield Controller (2nd gen)<------------------ Buy this controller
I just purchased the new Shield TV and it came with this controller. What a great controller this one is, definitely rivals the Xbox and Sony controllers for quality and performance. However this has one major advantage over the other two, it works perfectly with the Shield Tablet, Shield TV, and any other bluetooth device that you want to connect it to (as long as it isn't a PC lol). This brings me to the one single problem with this controller, it doesn't work right with PC, yet. When you connect it to a PC via bluetooth, it connects just fine and actually does work, however the mappings are wrong so when you push up on the left analog stick it registers as a trigger pull or something. I have a ticket opened to get this controller fixed for PC so I'm sure it won't be long before they fix it or I fix it myself. I am trying to find the config file on my PC that generates when you install this controller, then I could fix the mappings myself. Unfortunately this makes Gamestream unusable as the input lag is just too much for me when connecting straight to the tablet. Once the mapping is fixed this controller will be flawless for any Shield device, Android device, or even as a full time PC controller. Even though this controller has the mapping problem, it does eliminate the bluetooth glitch that the Xbox controller has (where if you toggle bluetooth it has to be re-paired to the tablet), so that effectively makes it the number one choice for controllers at this time. It also has a capacitive volume slider built into the face of the controller and is rechargeable right out of the box as well. So far the battery life has been insane. I never even charged it when I took it out of the box Thursday and have been using it multiple times a day for at least an hour each time and it still has over 50% charge. It doesn't look like it has lost a percent honestly lol The controller also powers down automatically after you don't touch it for five minutes and then when you pick it up it auto powers up and reconnects for you.
Game Specific Section
Order & Chaos 2
O&C2 is a beast of a game, it's like the Crysis for mobile. The game doesn't even look that amazing, I think it is just poorly optimized (just like Crysis), at least Crysis is beautiful though. The game has a hard cap at 30 fps, so don't expect any more than that no matter what you do to the settings. I have found through my testing that the best mix of visual and performance is the following:
In game settings:
Graphics profile = Optimal
Render scale = 100%
Frame rate limitation = 30
Crowd control = slider all the way up
Dead Effect 2
This is one of the best looking mobile games to date and is optimized for Nvidia, which is great for us. This game actually looks almost as good as Crysis, but doesn't run as poorly. It has been optimized very well. There also happens to be a lot of graphical adjustment in the settings which allows for fine tuning. Through testing I have found the game to look amazing and run 45-60 fps (no matter how much action on screen) with the following settings:
In game settings:
Visual Quality = Custom
Shader Quality = Medium
Effect Quality = Medium
Model Quality = High
Texture Quality = Full
Shadow Quality = Low
Bloom = Low
Plants Vs Zombies 2
Pvz2 also has a hard cap of 30 FPS and there is no adjustment of the graphics in the settings menu. I have found that the game runs at a locked 30 FPS even with the processor at 50%, so this is where I leave it to conserve battery life.
App optimization settings:
Performance Setting = Custom
Max CPU Cores = 4
Max CPU Frequency = 50%
Frame Rate Limit = Off
Resolution Rendering = Native
Optimize System Memory = Off
Real Racing 3
Real Racing 3 runs pretty well. Most of the time the FPS stays locked at 60, but when there is a lot going on it can dip to 30 or just below. There are no in game graphics adjustments and I wouldn't turn the processor down at all because you will need full power when there are 10+ cars on the screen.
Do not adjust.
Doom 3
It's funny I remember 10 or more years ago when Doom 3 came out and I was upset that my PC couldn't run it LOL Now we can play it on a tablet that fits in our pocket. Anyway, I couldn't do much testing with this game as GLTools wouldn't show the FPS, it glitched out when I enabled it. The game has no graphical adjustment in it's setting as well and I wouldn't reccommend turning the processor down in app optimization without being able to confirm the impact. Game runs great though. The only issue I found was popping through my bluetooth headset, that could have been the headset.
Do not adjust.
Oceanhorn
What a great little game this is, really reminds me of Zelda. This game is very well optimized and never misses a beat. It looks and plays fantastic. I would like to see more quality games like this come out in the future, this kind of stuff can give consoles a run for their money. I have the in game settings turned all the way up and the processor set to 50% in app optimization and the FPS never dips more than a couple frames. This is a game that everyone should check out.
App optimization settings:
Performance Setting = Custom
Max CPU Cores = 4
Max CPU Frequency = 50%
Frame Rate Limit = Off
Resolution Rendering = Native
Optimize System Memory = Off
Pretty useful information, thanks bro
Good to see your reference to order and chaos 2, it's the only game I enjoy playing. I have bought a shield basically to stop hammering my Galaxy S7's battery all the time.
crash_194 said:
Good to see your reference to order and chaos 2, it's the only game I enjoy playing. I have bought a shield basically to stop hammering my Galaxy S7's battery all the time.
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That's my main game, I play every day. You can squeeze a lot more performance out of the game if you start to reduce the graphics quality, but I'm big on visuals.
I have in my possession an Xbox One S controller, Dualshock 3, DualShock 4, and an Amazon controller. I will be doing a comparison in one of my reserved posts above. I also just downloaded Half-Life 2 episode 1 and was doing some testing with gamestream last night as well. I will be adding information about all of that as soon.
seh6183 said:
That's my main game, I play every day. You can squeeze a lot more performance out of the game if you start to reduce the graphics quality, but I'm big on visuals.
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O&C2 is a very good looking game, I hate to reduce the visual quality too much. I do think crowd control needs a happy medium though as it can get rather chaotic when loads of people start letting off AOE attacks.
I tried playing the game on a 2013 nexus 7 which I also own, it just doesn't have enough grunt though unfortunately and is an absolute lag fest. Can't wait for the K1 to land hopefully later this week.
crash_194 said:
O&C2 is a very good looking game, I hate to reduce the visual quality too much. I do think crowd control needs a happy medium though as it can get rather chaotic when loads of people start letting off AOE attacks.
I tried playing the game on a 2013 nexus 7 which I also own, it just doesn't have enough grunt though unfortunately and is an absolute lag fest. Can't wait for the K1 to land hopefully later this week.
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I couldn't squeeze any more frames out with crowd control, where do you suggest I test to do this? Also would you mean by wait for the K1 to land?
seh6183 said:
I couldn't squeeze any more frames out with crowd control, where do you suggest I test to do this? Also would you mean by wait for the K1 to land?
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I only just ordered one the other day mate and I'm waiting for it to arrive! Lol I'm a bit slow on the uptake I'm just speaking from experience of O&C2 on my Galaxy S7 at the minute.
crash_194 said:
I only just ordered one the other day mate and I'm waiting for it to arrive! Lol I'm a bit slow on the uptake I'm just speaking from experience of O&C2 on my Galaxy S7 at the minute.
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Gotcha, I just got mine the other day too. I would root it immediately if I were you because it wipes the device and I had to download all my games again. It took me like 3 minutes to unlock the bootloader, flash custom recovery, and root it. Great device. I use an s7 edge and the performance is comparable, but the k1 edges it out. However you won't be playing on your s7 much anymore lol. Once you get used to the 8 inch and the speakers, your phone will feel like a joke, I laugh when I pick it up haha. I only use it as a last resort. The k1 fits into my back pocket so I have it with me most of the time.
seh6183 said:
Gotcha, I just got mine the other day too. I would root it immediately if I were you because it wipes the device and I had to download all my games again. It took me like 3 minutes to unlock the bootloader, flash custom recovery, and root it. Great device. I use an s7 edge and the performance is comparable, but the k1 edges it out. However you won't be playing on your s7 much anymore lol. Once you get used to the 8 inch and the speakers, your phone will feel like a joke, I laugh when I pick it up haha. I only use it as a last resort. The k1 fits into my back pocket so I have it with me most of the time.
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That is good to hear! At the risk of going off topic, are you using a case and screen protector? If so, what sorts?
crash_194 said:
That is good to hear! At the risk of going off topic, are you using a case and screen protector? If so, what sorts?
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Nvidia folding cover and stylus on the way.
I have been using the stylus and the flip cover for over a week now and they are both great. The cover is necessary really as there is no way to prop the tablet up without it. I usually yank it off when I am gaming or holding the tablet with one hand (that's what's great about magnets), but leave it on as protection when moving around and to prop it up for viewing. The stylus isn't nearly as good as a Wacom stylus, but works well enough and I definitely find it useful for web browsing or editing a picture.
Also, I have purchased both the Microsoft Folding Keyboard and Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse for when I need to do some serious editing or school work. Every human being should buy that mouse immediately at the very least. The keyboard is optional as Googles voice dictation works nearly flawless, almost negating the need for a keyboard, but that mouse, buy it. The top surface of the mouse doubles as a touch pad and works great for android. I can control the entire tablet 5 feet away at work with one finger or at home 15 feet away when it's connected to the TV. Check out the reviews for it, it's definitely worth it.
Anyone play sky force reloaded?
_-..zKiLLA..-_ said:
Anyone play sky force reloaded?
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No but that looks like some good Ole fashioned fun right there lol
seh6183 said:
No but that looks like some good Ole fashioned fun right there lol
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It's amazing. It's gets very hectic though and can be laggy on some devices. I get my k1 tomorrow so my fingers are crossed lol
_-..zKiLLA..-_ said:
It's amazing. It's gets very hectic though and can be laggy on some devices. I get my k1 tomorrow so my fingers are crossed lol
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The k1 is a fricken beast and you have nothing to worry about lol
Guide updated with core information and Shield 2017 controller addition.
Really informative post seh6183.
Thank you. I also bought the new controller (kept the NSTV V1 as for now it's the same as the V2)