Nvidia Shield update delivers native 1080p, 60 FPS output

sincity · December 2, 2013

Although many PC gamers are focused on scoring a Cyber Monday deal on the latest software titles, now would be a great time to boot up their Nvidia Shield and install the latest update instead.

Nvidia announced the release of its December Software Update today, delivering improvements to 720p, 60 FPS Console Mode in addition to official support for a number of new games.

A more enticing reason to install this month's update, however, is the launch of 1080p, 60 FPS PC Gaming Console Mode, which promises to deliver the "ultimate level of image quality" for your favorite PC games.

The lineup of games with 1080p support includes "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag," "Batman: Arkham Origins," "Battlefield 4," "BioShock Infinite," "Borderlands 2," "Crysis 3," and "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," with additional titles to be enabled on a weekly basis.

Map those gamepads

Although 1080p game support would be enough to satisfy many PC gamers, NVIDIA is taking things a bit further with its December Shield update, which adds a few new tricks to the Gamepad Mapper functionality added back in October.

Gamepad Mapper allows Shield players to remap touchscreen-based game functionality to physical buttons on hardware-based controllers, but Monday's update extends the feature to gyroscope and motion-based movements as well.

Fans of titles such as "Mass Effect Infiltrator" will also be pleased to discover the December update enables a new analog stick function, which allows players to move with the left thumbstick while using the right thumbstick to look around.

Acknowledging that gamepad mapping can be time-consuming, Nvidia automatically downloads pre-created profiles for the most popular titles, and has launched a new community profile beta feature for players to create and share their own profiles, even with their favorite Android games.