Actually this is something very interesting. I've got a PC rig compatible with 4k output, but little time/interest to play certain games solo on my desktop. If it was possible to output 1080p/60fps to my TV without loosing texture/lighting/etc quality, I'd be very tempted. But alas, technology goes forward in such a fast speed that the future is hard to predict..
ps. For streaming, the Steam Link is a clear competitor..
Be VERY WARY of nVidia Tegra claims. They claimed 1080p high profile for BOTH Tegra AND Tegra 2 which NEVER materialized in any demonstrable fashion.
OS: Erm you missed ANDROID?!
perf: I MAY be overly optimistic on it v. the Wii U, HOWEVER the GPU may allow it to appear to have better perf, as ARM remains a pretty pisspoor design and so far there are no 3rd party designed from scratch to be compatible with the newer 64b ARMs since they jerked around their naming schema yet again. Last I heard qualcomm and nVidia were still in that game but were a ways off. Apple is the other one that designs from scratch a compatible ARM, but they haven't for a while. ALL of the other SoC purveyors just use the licensed block asis from ARM as well as the other licensed blocks, i.e. GPU, modems, etc. or rely on external components(usually modems and then usually qualcomm(who own their entire stack, well until they started using the licensed blocks in recent SoCs for the CPU)).
It remains to be seen what will show up on it, however the last I bothered to check their tegrazone on my shield handheld(probably a year or so ago) I wasn't impressed.
ARM licenses in a couple of ways, you just get block XYZ and use it as provided OR you essentially license the command set and implement it from scratch on your own. The from scratch AFAIK has only been applied to the CPU blocks as many of the SoC purveyors either just license mali(and a few powervr seems the supercheapo ones license mali) or have their own GPU tech.
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More reading other replies:
perf: It should easily be faster than any phone given that it will have an essentially endless powersupply AND should EASILY have better thermodynamic performance(no->limited thermal throttling).
SteamOS: No go, as you'd essentially be able to look at it, but have no software. There is NOTHING available on Steam compiled for ARM and very little for java which would theoretically be your only hope. Even then perf would likely be worse than an ultrabook w/HD4400 iGPU.
Windows: Well at least this one you could have some ARM stuff, well you'd be on RT and then you'd be dealing with the game wasteland that POS is.
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Ouya: Yeah by now Ouya should be down to at least $50, given that internally it should be around the BoM of an rpi2 or odroid-c1 just for the bare board. Add in a few $$$ for case/controller/PSU. The Odroid selling at ~$35 shows that rpi has to be making even more $$$ than one would think, esp. IF you were thinking subsidized by Broadcomm, and while it may be that would just mean that they're making more $$$/unit add to that I'm sure that the rpi is being in MUCH higher volumes than odroid...
Ouya volume: no idea. I've never bothered to look for it in a store, but it "feels" low profile to me. They MIGHT just be selling old stock. I haven't booted mine up in even longer than I have my shield... as a matter of fact it's residing in a drawer with my tablets ATM. (Gave up on tablets as being mostly useless excepting for PDF view as well.)
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Missed chromecast earlier and re-address software:
Chromecast: Ah! another device residing in that very same drawer with the ouya tablets and some old stick ARM computers. The chromecast since I got an ASUS m004u chromebox for $100, maxed memory(16GB) and swapped the ssd for 128GB -> openelec/kodi instantly WAY WAY WAY more useful for me than chromecast($20).
Games: yeah, as you MAY(or may NOT) have inferred from prior comments I don't really have any high hopes for decent games for this beyond pretty much what is already available for Android. One thing though is that the "Tegra" subsection(or whatever) of the "play" store has higher rest(overall supported res/texture quality/etc.) for at least a little while before it usually eventually moves to the regular play store.
That said, there just aren't many good android games. The VAST majority is just casual shovelware, and given the boxes show apparently for launch I'm NOT impressed at all. Even existing and prior consoles got most of those in some form or other and Windows, MANY aeons ago...
Desktop: I game all of the time on mine. Hell I still play alot of Team Fortress Classic which all of my machines for about the last 14y or so have been WAY overkill for and Fortress Forever(available on the steam store now, it's what Team Fortress 2 SHOULD have been rather than the casual POS that we got -- I still don't know why TF got singled out to be f'ed over while Counterstrike and Day of Defeat got MUCH better upgrades to Source versions...)
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