Nvidia raises the 7-year-old Shield TV Pro's price by $100 amid the memory crunch

Nvidia has raised the price of the Shield TV Pro by $100: the streaming box first released in 2019 now costs $299.99 instead of $199.99. The new price took effect on October 2. The company says the increase is due to the rising cost of components, memory in particular.

What the Shield TV Pro is

The Shield TV Pro debuted in 2019, and Nvidia still manufactures it today. It runs Android TV, offers AI upscaling and hardware decoding for nearly every video format. Inside is an aging Tegra X1+ processor that remains fast for streaming. The Pro model cost $199.99 at launch, while a cheaper non-Pro variant sold for $149.99; that version has since been discontinued.

Why the price went up

An Nvidia spokesperson told Ars Technica: “Starting October 2, SHIELD Pro will be priced at $299. The cost of components, including memory, has increased substantially across the industry.” The AI boom is the main driver: data centers keep pushing up demand for memory chips, raising prices across the industry. Nvidia is hardly a bystander here, as its market-leading AI chips made it one of the most valuable companies in the world. In a January interview with Ars Technica, Nvidia's Andrew Bell framed the Shield as a passion project and explained that Nvidia still manufactures it and sells every unit it makes; without a stockpile of pre-AI hardware, the device is subject to the same supply chain constraints as today's smartphones and computers.

Consoles are getting pricier too

The trend is not limited to the Shield. Microsoft raised Xbox prices twice in 2025, Sony increased PlayStation 5 prices by $100 to $150, and Nintendo is set to raise the Switch 2 price this year. The PS5 Pro went from $699.99 at its 2024 launch to $899.99 today.

What it means for buyers

Stock of the Shield TV Pro has been thin for months, likely because component prices made new production too expensive. At $300, Nvidia has reason to churn out more units, but the higher price makes a niche streaming box even harder to justify for casual viewers. Unless you need the Shield's wide codec support or Plex server capability, a cheaper streamer makes more sense. The device is out of stock in Nvidia's store but available at the new price from Best Buy.