Nvidia ends the base Shield TV and raises the Shield TV Pro to $299

Two things happened at once, effective October 2:

• The base Shield TV is gone. Nvidia has ended production of the standard "tube" Shield TV, which also launched in 2019, 9to5Google reports. It had been out of stock for months.
• The Shield TV Pro costs more. Its price rises from $199 to $299.99, a 50% jump. TechRadar puts it at about £225 or AU$429 before tax.

That leaves the Shield TV Pro as Nvidia's only Shield streamer. 9to5Google notes it was just restocked at Best Buy.

For context, the standard Shield launched at $149.99 and the Pro at $199.99, IBTimes reports. "Starting October 2, SHIELD Pro will be priced at $299. The cost of components, including memory, has increased substantially across the industry," a Nvidia spokesperson told Ars Technica, according to IBTimes.

Memory. In its announcement, Nvidia says that "the cost of components, including memory, has increased substantially across the industry." TechRadar reports the same reason applies to discontinuing the base model.

A seven-year-old device with no new hardware is getting a $100 price increase purely because its parts cost more to buy today.

The memory squeeze is driven by AI. Demand from AI and data centers has soaked up supply, giving memory makers more pricing power. Back in February, research firm TrendForce raised its forecast for conventional DRAM contract prices in the first quarter of 2026 to a 90% to 95% jump from the previous quarter. It expected PC memory prices to more than double in that quarter.

Memory used in phones and small devices was hit hard too. TrendForce said contract prices for LPDDR4X and LPDDR5X, the low-power memory found in mobile devices, were expected to rise around 90% in that quarter, the steepest increases in their history.

TechRadar also points out the irony that Nvidia, whose AI chips are a big part of that demand, is now on the receiving end of it. IBTimes makes the same point: memory makers have shifted capacity toward high-bandwidth parts for AI servers, and a streaming box that needs ordinary memory sits downstream of that shift.

Why the Shield can't dodge it: IBTimes reports that Nvidia's Andrew Bell said earlier this year that the Shield is a passion project that's still being manufactured, and that Nvidia sells every unit it makes. There's no stockpile of boxes built before memory prices jumped, so new units are built with parts bought at today's prices.

Ars Technica reported that the higher price makes it economical for Nvidia to keep building more of them, according to IBTimes.

The Shield TV Pro made its debut in October 2019 and hasn't had a hardware refresh since, 9to5Google notes. It's still considered one of the most capable Android TV streamers available.

According to TechRadar, it includes:

• Chip: Nvidia's Tegra X1 family, with a 256-core GPU (IBTimes specifies the Tegra X1+)
• Memory and storage: 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage
• Video: 4K HDR with Dolby Vision support
• AI upscaling: can upscale video to as high as 4K at 60fps

It can also act as a Plex media server and decodes a wide range of video formats in hardware, IBTimes notes. Those features are why it stayed in production after cheaper streaming sticks took over the mass market.

The catch: some parts have aged. 9to5Google points out that it lacks support for the AV1 video format, for example. Still, the Pro remains unmatched in other areas, which is part of why Nvidia has kept making it.

In real life If you already own a Shield TV, nothing changes for you. Nvidia said earlier this year that it would keep supporting the Shield TV with software updates for the foreseeable future, 9to5Google reports.

No. 9to5Google calls it part of "RAMageddon," the wider wave of price increases tied to memory costs. Other streaming devices have gone up too:

Prices and timing come from 9to5Google. Game consoles have been hit too: IBTimes reports that Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have all raised prices on current consoles, and that the PlayStation 5 Pro, which launched at $699.99 in 2024, now lists at $899.99. TechRadar adds that the component cost crisis looks set to continue through at least 2027.

Yes, but more slowly. In its latest forecast, TrendForce projects conventional DRAM contract prices will rise 13% to 18% in the third quarter of 2026, and NAND flash storage prices 10% to 15%, as summarized by Tom's Hardware on Yahoo Finance. That's a marked slowdown from jumps of roughly 60% in the second quarter.

The cooldown isn't because supply improved. According to the report, device makers can't keep absorbing higher costs, and consumers are hitting the limit of what they'll pay. Memory makers keep shifting capacity toward higher-margin server products for AI, leaving less for consumer gadgets.

The big picture: TrendForce expects smartphone makers to raise handset prices to cover costly mobile memory, and higher memory costs are gradually showing up in laptop prices too. Memory executives have said they expect the RAM shortage to run through 2028, IBTimes reports.

What's next: probably not much new hardware. TechRadar expects this to be the last Shield TV Pro model for some time, given how long component costs are likely to stay high.

Nvidia also has other ways to reach people on the couch. TechRadar notes that its GeForce Now game streaming service runs on major desktop and mobile platforms, as well as on smart TVs from brands like LG and Samsung. Nvidia also recently revealed its RTX Spark chip for laptops and handhelds, which makes the Shield an increasingly niche part of its business, TechRadar says.

For more on Nvidia, see our Nvidia topic page.

• If you own a Shield: it keeps working, and Nvidia has promised continued software support.
• If you were about to buy one: the Pro now costs $299.99. TechRadar suggests waiting, since a new Apple TV model is expected soon.
• If you just want Netflix: IBTimes points out that Roku, Google, Amazon and Apple sell streamers for a fraction of the price. The Shield's edge is features like Plex server support, which most households don't need.
• If you want the cheaper model: it's discontinued, so look for remaining stock or consider another streamer.
• Expect more of this: memory costs are pushing up prices across many gadgets, not just streamers.