Nvidia readies new Android/PC games machine

Baku, July 15 (AZERTAC). Nvidia is to launch a new gaming device that can link up to a PC's graphics card to supercharge its own processing power when used in a different location, the BBC has learned.

The company will offer a budget-priced separate controller for the Android device, which can also stream PC games to a TV via its HDMI-out port.

That may pose a challenge to the forthcoming Steam Machine games PCs.

But analysts note that Nvidia's earlier Shield handheld console has struggled.

"I think it's fair to say that Shield sold reasonably poorly," said Ed Barton, a games industry analyst at the consultancy Ovum, who has now seen the new device.

"And if the new device requires your PC to have a relatively new Nvidia GPU [graphics processing unit] to make use of its abilities, that will really limit its addressable market."

The BBC understands the device will run PC titles via Nvidia's GeForce Experience system, which does require the PC to be fitted with one of Nvidia's more powerful graphics cards.

t will, however, be able to run Android games natively via Nvidia's new Tegra K1 chip.

The company recently showed off the mobile chip - which includes both an ARM-based central processing unit (CPU) and a 192-core GPU - at Google's I/O developers conference where it powered the graphics-intensive Unreal Engine 4 games software.

The new device may in part be intended to provide a showcase for the chip in order to encourage other tablet and smartphone manufacturers to adopt it.

As yet it has only been used in a small number of devices, including a tablet from the Chinese Xiaomi, a smart TV by Lenovo and Google's experimental 3D-gesture-sensing Project Tango tablet.

A spokeswoman for Nvidia would not confirm the details of the device beyond saying that the company had an "awesome new gaming product that is launching soon".