By gaming, I mean that we’ll turn these TV set-top boxes and TV sticks into retro consoles for gaming. To do this, we’ll install emulators of retro consoles on them. I wrote about the best emulators for Android TV set-top boxes in this article. As for the best gamepads in terms of price-quality-functionality ratio, I wrote about them in this article.
To start, let’s use my favorite image about the performance of past gaming consoles.
It’s clear that we need to prioritize performance for emulation and enhancing graphics.
Let’s start with Xiaomi box. It has several versions. Last – Xiaomi Tv Box S 2nd Gen.
Let’s focus on the GPU – it’s equipped with two Mali G31 cores, providing a performance of around 20 GFLOPS. This might be insufficient for running emulators like Xbox, but it should be adequate for emulating PS2, GameCube, and Wii.
From Amazon devices, we’ll consider two devices: first, the second-generation Fire TV Stick – “Fire TV Stick 4K Max”, which has the following specifications: CPU PowerVR MT8696T, GPU GE9215. I’ll cut to the chase and say that its performance is only 20 GFLOPS. As you can understand, this is very low. But second device is interesting – Fire TV Cube.
It already has a more solid filling, in fact, as does the cost. 200 Flops this will be enough for emulators of PlayStation 2, GameCube, and the first-generation Xbox to run smoothly. However, it’s not sufficient for running emulators of more advanced consoles like Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U.
For such a price, there are more interesting TV set-top boxes. Check out my article – a review of the best Android TV boxes for gaming.
Next, we’ll also consider two Onn devices. These are the Onn TV Stick (priced around $15) and the Onn TV Box 4K Pro (priced at $50).
The Onn TV Stick has very modest specifications:
- CPU: Amlogic S805Y Quad Core A55 @ 1.5GHz
- GPU: Mali 450mp3
- RAM: 1 GB
- Storage: 5GB
Its performance is around 15 GFLOPS. However, it has very little RAM, and the GPU does not support Vulkan. This will be enough to run only very retro emulators. At best, PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64.
Pro Version specs:
- CPU: Quad-core Cortex-A55.
- GPU: Mali-G31 MP2.
- 3GB RAM with 32GB storage.
We have already disassembled a device with the same GPU, there are only 20 flops of performance, which are also very, very few.
For the remainder we were left with NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro for $200.
It looks absolutely gorgeous. But let’s see what Nvidia Shield Tv Pro can.
The Nvidia Tegra X1+ has impressive GPU specifications: 650 GFLOPS (32-bit) – 1300 GFLOPS (16-bit). It’s enough for emulation Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii U and Nintendo Switch.
Great device! But if you want to save money and take a more optimal device in terms of price and characteristics, take a look at my article review of the best Android TV boxes for games.