[Shield Tablet General] seh6183:
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.