Nvidia has announced some bad news to users of its Shield TV box, including that it will stop supporting GameStream functionality from early next year.
GameStream, a feature Nvidia offers users of a PC using an Nvidia GPU that allows the PC to stream games in up to 4K at 60 FPS to another device over a local network, will soon no longer be available. The manufacturer has announced that from the beginning of next year this feature will be discontinued.
More specifically, it is from mid-February 2023 that Shield TV users will no longer be able to access it. As a reminder, the Nvidia box offered GameStream as part of the NVIDIA Games application on Android TV which is installed on all Shield TVs. Fortunately for users, Nvidia gave some alternatives.
End clap for GameStream, what to replace the functionality with?
For those who regularly use GameStream, Nvidia recommends its users to replace the feature with Steam Link. The latter supports streaming up to 4K (and also works on other Android TV devices).
However, this transition will cause you to lose some functionality. In effect, GameStream, for example, allowed you to manually add games that were not available on Steam’s giant catalog.. You will therefore not find them with Steam Link. For all these special cases, Nvidia recommends its users its paid cloud gaming service GeForce Now, which offers 4K cloud streaming on PC, Mac, Android, browsers, but also Shields.
A recent update also allows it to stream games in 1600p at 120fps, but the downside is that GeForce Now prove to be expensive. It takes 9.99 euros per month and up to 19.99 euros per month for the highest level.
Despite the end of GameStream, the Nvidia Shield recently received new features thanks to the Android 13 update. For example, it is now possible to change the definition and the default refresh rate on supported HDMI devices. .
