Nexus 9 is currently up for pre-order, ships out in November

Oct 18, 2014 14:00 GMT  ·  By

After being in the rumor mill since the dawn of time, Google finally launched the Nexus 9 tablet. Unexpectedly, the search giant did so under pretty obscure circumstances – it did not do so during a special event and just posted the information on its official blog.

The tablet arrives with an 8.9-inch form factor which is neither small nor large. Enthusiasts might go as far and call it just right. But one of the most interesting aspects of the slate is that it runs on a 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor.

NVIDIA Tegra K1 is touted as being "insanely" powerful

The processor is actually a dual-core platform, with two large NVIDIA Denver CPU cores.

The chip arrives with a combination of 192-class GPU cores which in theory should bestow incredible graphics horsepower and extraordinary power efficiency. The Tegra K1 is built on the same NVIDIA Kepler architecture that is behind the world’s most powerful gaming computers.

NVIDIA Tegra K1 powers the Nexus 9
NVIDIA Tegra K1 powers the Nexus 9

So, the chip should offer console-class mobile technology, giving users full support for PC-class gaming technologies like DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.4 and Tessellation.

What I am trying to highlight here is that the presence of the NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor might turn the Nexus 9 tablet into a serious gaming machine.

After all, NVIDIA’s own Shield Tablet which also takes advantage of a Tegra K1 (32-bit this time) is marketed as being a game-friendly mobile device.

The Nexus 9 is a barely a few days old, but the tablet already went through its first benchmark which tested CPU performance.

The Tegra K1 inside the Nexus 9 already got benchmarked

The results showed the tablet burning through the competition, receiving a better score than the high-end Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Sony Xperia Z3 and even Apple’s new iPhone 6.

Bear in mind that the benchmarks did not test GPU performance, but nevertheless, the preliminary results are quite encouraging.

What the Nexus 9 currently lacks is a dedicated gaming controller that can be paired with the tablet. But we shouldn’t rule out Google launching such an accessory in the upcoming months. After all, Xiaomi rolled out a dedicated controller for the Xiaomi MiPad (which also runs on the 32-bit Tegra K1) months after the tablet was made official.

However, the powerful Tegra K1 chip inside the Nexus 9 isn’t the only reason why Google’s latest might turn out to be quite popular with gamers.

The tablet is the first of its kind to come equipped with Android 5.0 Lollipop. And the good news is the OS will have a feature that gamers will certainly love to have around.

Google announced on its Android Developer’s Google+ page that Android gamers would be able to engage in local multiplayer action which will come about curtsey of an update to the latest Play services version.

Android now supports local multiplayer

Through games that support Play Game multiplayers, users can find gamers nearby and invite them to play the same game. This feature is said to be available for all Android devices that have updated to the latest Play services version, but Android 5.0 Lollipop users will get to take advantage of it first.

Before you say anything, while Lollipop is the best an Android tablet owner can hope for, it’s not exactly the sort on which console and PC games designed for Windows can really operate. So even with 2GB of RAM onboard a 32GB of internal storage, you might still find it hard to stumble upon supported games.

Actually, scratch that. With the Shield Tablet, NVIDIA is offering a bunch of titles especially optimized for Tegra K1, including Trine 2: Complete Story, Amadeus the Wizard or Portal.

Given the close working relation between Google and NVIDIA, we don’t see why the same titles won’t be made available for the Nexus 9 tablet.

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Nexus 9 might appeal to gamers
NVIDIA Tegra K1 powers the Nexus 9
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