08 Oct
Blog

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max Review: The New Standard

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max

Amazon Fire TV Stick Max

RRP $ 55.00

"Of course it's an iterative update, but one that makes the Fire TV Stick 4K Max the one you can get."

advantages

  • Better processor and WiFi

  • Including the new remote control

  • Still extremely cheap

disadvantage

  • Based on an outdated version of Android

The most important feature of a streaming stick is probably not listed on the side of the box. It's not how much RAM it has. It's not the size of the on-board storage. It's not if it's 4K (OK, it's about more than a little), and it's not the Wi-Fi speed or the processor. And it's not all apps that it has access to.

The main feature of the new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the price. This is what really determines where it not only fits into the Amazon Fire TV range of devices, but also its place in the overall system against its closest competitor, Roku, which has its own line of relatively inexpensive streaming sticks. Sure, the specifications determine the price. But tell us how much you want to spend and we'll tell you which streaming device is best.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K MaxPhil Nickinson / Digital Trends

And the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, while it's an iterative update (there's certainly nothing wrong with that) and though it has quite a bit to say (which we take a little problem with), is definitely the Fire TV Stick to buy.

Here's why.

The Fire TV Stick Max is mostly a Fire TV Stick 4K, only better. It's more max.

What's new in Fire TV Stick 4K Max

It's not just that Fire TV stick. It's not that Fire TV Stick 4K. This is Max who we can only assume is one step above plus but still below extremes. It's a silly suffix appended to a product that is itself mostly an iteration of an iteration. This is how these streaming sticks work. They have certain features at certain prices so you are guaranteed to make money no matter what. More on this below.

Amazon's own comparison chart does it pretty well. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max has a few more points than the Fire TV Stick 4K, which is three years old at this point. And they are not unimportant boxes.

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the first in the Amazon range with Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11ax. That means it uses the latest wireless standards if you have a Wi-Fi 6 router, or be ready when you do. You shouldn't necessarily expect warp-speed WiFi, but you have more than enough bandwidth to get the job done. Wirelessly connected to one Eero Pro 6 (conveniently another Amazon-owned product), I moved up from 250Mbps downstream, with ping times between 20ms and 25ms. In comparison, the previous generation Fire TV Stick 4K reached around 200 Mbps downstream over Wi-Fi 5, with similar pings.

For those of you who say, "Just take the ethernet adapter!" – let me hang you there. You will almost certainly want to just go ahead and use WiFi with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max Amazon's own Ethernet adapterwhich is not included in the scope of delivery anyway. This adapter – which provides both power and the wired network connection – is a 10/100 device, which means that it will hit the top on a 100Mbps connection anyway. And in my case, that means I've got about half the speed I've seen with Wi-Fi, not to mention nowhere near using my real gigabit fiber connection.

In other words, stick with the Wi-Fi 6 built into the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. It's a lot good.

Elsewhere, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max ships with the latest Alexa voice remote control, which came out in April 2021 and has been slightly redesigned with a few extra buttons and functions.

The Max also has a bit more RAM, which is important since it's an Android-based device and Android still needs all of the RAM it can get. Not that 2 gigabytes is a lot, and it's only half a gig more than the Fire TV Stick 4K. But we take what we can get. And the processor has also been updated to a quad-core Mediatek MT8696 with 1.8 GHz. If that's important to you, good for you. If you think you can notice this about the older Fire TV Stick 4K, chances are you're lying, an engineer, or running the two devices side by side. The point is, these are important and obvious updates, but certainly nothing that will change the way you watch TV on Amazon Fire TV.

In other words, it looks and acts much like the Fire TV Sticks of yore. Just a little better. If you're like us and dumb enough to have more than one Fire TV Stick lying around, it's easy to forget which one is which. I flipped back and forth between the 2018 Fire TV Stick 4K and the new Max and immediately had no idea what was plugged in without actively checking. In fact, near twins, the two are personally stuffed, with the only visible difference adding the nickname "Fire TV" to the case. The older stick only has the Amazon smile. There's really no difference on the screen.

And it now supports picture-in-picture if you need to.

Amazon Fire TV stick 4K max.The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max 2021 looks exactly like the Fire TV Stick 4K 2018 – apart from the logo. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

What else is in the Fire TV Stick 4K Max

If you currently own an Amazon Fire TV Stick, you know what to expect. You have no doubt used the new Fire TV OS user interface that was introduced in early 2021. That it is still based on Android 9 rather than something newer (Android 12 is just about to be released) is a point of contention for some, and at least a small cause for concern. But given that we're talking about Amazon here, rather than a no-name importer who just puts Android on some hardware and does it for a day, we're a little less concerned. That said, Amazon has to get into double digits sooner rather than later, and it's only a matter of time before our patience really wears off.

The other basic specs remain the same as the older Fire TV Stick 4K. It still supports 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, HDR10 + and HLG for high dynamic range and Dolby Atmos for audio. Of course, your TV and sound system must also support all of these if you want to use them.

If you want to use Alexa with your Fire TV Stick 4K Max, do so using the Alexa remote. This is unchanged because there is no microphone in the stick itself.

There's nothing new on the app side either. Amazon's Fire TV OS still has access to all of the things it had access to, like Netflix, Hulu, and Apple TV +, to name just three.

Amazon Fire TV stick 4K max.Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

Buy it to future proof it, not because it's exponentially "better".

Our opinion

If you're looking for a new Fire TV Stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is for you. Period.

I would even recommend it to the Fire TV Cube for several reasons. First, it's about half the price, which in itself should be a no-brainer. If all you need to do is have Alexa hands-free (like not having to hit the voice button on the remote first), you can get yourself a Max and a new Echo Dot and still have plenty of cash to buy your lunch. The second is that the Fire TV Cube was updated a few years ago, which means older internals. That's not a big deal with devices like this, but it can play a role over time. Newer is almost always better.

Are there alternatives?

Secure. Anything that connects to a television and displays video is an alternative. And the Fire TV Stick 4K Max's biggest competitors are the other Amazon Fire TV Sticks.

Fire TV stick
Lite		 Fire TV
floor		 Fire TV stick
4K		 Fire TV stick
4K Max
Publishing year 2020 2020 2018 2021
Retail price $ 30 $ 40 $ 40 $ 55
resolution 1080p 1080p 4K 4K
Dolby Vision no no Yes sir Yes sir
Dolby Atmos no Yes sir Yes sir Yes sir
WiFi version WiFi 5 WiFi 5 WiFi 5 WLAN 6
storage 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB
Storage 1 GB 1G 1.5 GB 2GB

Where the Fire TV Stick 4K Max fits into the larger scheme of inexpensive streaming sticks – that is, around $ 50 – really just depends on the ecosystem. Would you like Fire TV? Or do you want Roku? Or what about Chromecast with Google TV? Everyone has their merits and falls into the same price range. In general, I'd argue that Fire TV OS is the more mature and sophisticated operating system, while Roku is simple and easier to navigate. Both of them are littered with ads and other ways to spend money, and both are also heavily driving their own ad-based video-on-demand services. Amazon has IMDB TV and Roku has The Roku Channel. Choose your poison. Chromecast With Google TV is a beast of its own. If you are familiar with Android, this is where I would look.

The bigger question I have is what happens to the rest of the Fire TV Stick storage space. Amazon has told us that it has no intention of stopping selling the old Fire TV Stick 4K, which at the time of release is $ 15 cheaper than the 4K Max when it's not on sale – and you no doubt will find for less money rather than later. I'd say it's worth an extra $ 15 for future proofing Wi-Fi 6 and the newer remote that sells for $ 30 alone. Add the upgraded processor and memory and it just makes sense. You get a bigger bang for your buck. And presumably Amazon will either phase out the older Fire TV Stick 4K or maybe even rearrange the entire line. It still has the Fire TV Stick for the same $ 40 price as the older Fire TV Stick 4K, which doesn't really make sense as it hits 1080p resolution. Then there's the $ 30 Fire TV Stick Lite. That's not a huge spread, so don't be surprised if Amazon consolidates things at some point.

How long it will take?

We have no idea. It's a little piece of plastic and metal. But in general, Fire TV Sticks lasted much longer than necessary. Not that we're fans of setting money on fire, but these things are cheap. They have no moving parts, they probably don't get moved too often, and are pretty much commonplace items right now. They are impulse purchases. In the rare event that one of you fails – and you don't hear about it very often – the chances are that you could simply buy a new one without thinking too much. For everything else, there's everyone's favorite post on Troubleshooting Fire TV Stick issues.

Should you buy it?

Have you read the 1,700 words above? Yes sir. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the one we would get.

Editor's recommendations



17 Sep
Blog

Nvidia RTX 3080 Review: A New Standard For PC Gaming

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 review: a bright future for PC games

"The Nvidia RTX 3080 sets a new standard for high-end PC games."

  • Fast and smooth 4K gaming

  • Attractive new design

  • HDMI 2.1 support

  • Improved ray tracing and DLSS performance

  • Requires cumbersome adapter

  • Needs more power

The gaming world's attention is focused entirely on the upcoming console launches. I get it. Players can finally get PC-level games in the living room. Between the price and the updated internals, these new consoles are a big deal.

Nvidia won't let the consoles powered by AMD hardware steal the limelight, however.

The Nvidia RTX 3080, available starting today with the rest of the RTX 3000 series, represents the future of PC gaming. With the most significant generation leap in the history of Nvidia, the RTX 3080 wants to prove that real high-end gaming always belongs on the PC. Is this the next leap forward in PC gaming? Or have consoles finally caught up?

design

The RTX 3080 is a classy looking graphics card.

The previous generation of Nvidia GPUs, from the RTX 2060 to the RTX 2080 Ti, wanted you to know how top notch your experience was. The case and back plate were made of aluminum, and the “Nvidia GeForce” logo glowed green when switched on. The super models even added a highly reflective glass-like texture to the surface.

The RTX 3080 takes a more subtle approach. A matte, dark gray material is used. It even has a white backlight instead of green. None of this is flashy, but it is in line with the simpler direction of modern gaming equipment. It won't be noticed when sitting next to a stark white NZXT H510i case or a Razer Blade 15. Straight lines and muted colors are all the rage, and the RTX 3080 reflects that.

For something with a bit more edge, third-party cards from Asus or MSI will likely work just fine. To me, Nvidia's reference model looks great.

In addition to its looks, the RTX 3080 also has a redesigned cooling system. A fan flanks each side of the cover using a unique "push-pull" system for thermal management. One side sucks in air and another sucks it out at the back. According to Nvidia, this results in better airflow, but the RTX 3080 runs a little hotter than the RTX 2080 Ti. In the same run of 3DMark Time Spy, the RTX 3080 hit a maximum of 76 degrees Celsius, four degrees hotter than the RTX 2080 Ti. Both Still stayed away from the 80-degree mark during all of my tests.

The RTX 3080 is almost identical to the RTX 2080 Ti and the 2080 Super. In contrast to the massive RTX 3090, the 3080 only has a standard design with two slots. It could be easily pushed into a 28-liter housing that previously housed an RTX 2070 Super. It's still a great graphics card, of course, but it will fit in your rig as well as the previous generation.

Power supply and connections

While it probably fits your case, the RTX 3080 is power hungry. It requires 320 watts of dedicated power. To keep this in mind, Nvidia recommends at least a 750 watt power supply to support your entire system. That alone can mean buying a new power supply for your system. So far, 650 watts have been the standard to support cards like the RTX 2080 Super or the 2080 Ti.

And yes, the rumors are true – the RTX 3080 has a new 12-pin power connector that requires an adapter to work with your old cables. Nvidia includes the adapter in the box, but in your case it still leaves an awkward dangling dongle.

For ports, the Nvidia RTX 3080 includes three DisplayPort 1.4a, which support up to 144 Hz at 4K, as well as an HDMI 2.1 port. These are the first graphics cards to support this new HDMI standard that can display 144 Hz at 4K resolution. It is noteworthy that the next generation of televisions also includes HDMI 2.1, which for the first time enables a high refresh rate in the living room.

The USB-C port is gone. This was a feature of the RTX 20 series to support NVLink, a way to run two GPUs over SLI. Connecting multiple cards to increase the frame rate is now an exclusive feature of the RTX 3090. Support for multiple GPUs is already dwindling, and removing NVLink on the RTX 3080 is the nail in the coffin.

Architecture

The Nvidia RTX 3080, along with the 3070 and 3090, uses Nvidia's new Ampere micro-architecture. It is based on Samsung's 8nm node and downsizes the chip compared to the 12nm node used in the Turing architecture. This means more transistors and theoretically higher efficiency.

Ampere offers a massive 50% jump in CUDA cores, now up to 8,704. Nvidia's GPUs are made up of streaming multiprocessors (SM), the individual units of processing power that make up the CUDA cores.

There is one important caveat here. The Ampere micro-architecture has changed the way every CUDA core works so that each one is a little less powerful. So a 50% increase in CUDA cores does not directly increase frame rates by 50%, even though you get the 29.7 teraflops of theoretical performance. However, this is a significant increase in core count and – spoiler alert – will have an impact when we get to our performance tests.

Cuda kernels memory Storage interface Boost clock Graphics card performance
RTX 3090 10,496 24 GB GDDR6X 384-bit 1.70 GHz 350w
RTX 3080 8.704 10 GB GDDR6X 320-bit 1.71 GHz 320w
RTX 3070 5,888 8 GB GDDR6 256-bit 1.73 GHz 220w
RTX 2080 Ti 4,352 11 GB GDDR6 352-bit 1.54 GHz 250w
RTX 2080 Super 3.072 8 GB GDDR6 256-bit 1.82 GHz 250w
RTX 2070 Super 2.560 8 GB DRR6 256-bit 1.77 GHz 215w

Ampere also brings more ray tracing and tensor cores to the table, expanding the forward tilt capabilities of the RTX 3080. Later more.

Finally, the RTX 3080 has 10GB of 320-bit GDDR6X memory. That's two more GB of faster video memory, almost up to 11 GB, which is offered in the RTX 2080 Ti. This is an important specification that is beneficial for games that use large textures and large amounts of screen data. It also shows how Nvidia has moved its entire GPU line up one notch.

performance

Let's get down to business, shall we?

The performance of the RTX 3080 is impressive in almost all cases. By the time the RTX 3090 launches in a few weeks, it is sure to be the most powerful graphics card you can buy. That's not too surprising, however, as there is no real competitor to AMD.

I assumed it would beat its predecessor, the RTX 2080 Super. But the real fun was discovering how much faster it really is. The comparison with the much more expensive RTX 2080 Ti was the icing on the cake.

My test system included a CML B460 MATX motherboard, 16 GB DDR4 2933 MHz RAM, and an Intel Core i7-10700 processor. These specs are not exhausted, but they are able to support the tests I ran and generally represent what we would recommend putting together a well-balanced gaming rig today.

Until the launch of the RTX 3090, the RTX 3080 is by far the most powerful graphics card you can buy.

I started with 3DMark Time Spy, the DirectX12 benchmark, which is a level playing field for testing graphics of all kinds. Here the RTX 3080 outperformed the RTX 2080 Ti by 15%. Not a huge head start, but let's not forget the $ 500 difference in price between these two cards. This is a bigger price gap than between other cards in the deck. The performance gap between the RTX 2080 Ti and the RTX 2080 Super is also larger.

In the meantime, the RTX 3080 beats the 2080 Super by 28% with no price hike.

That lead continued when I tried a number of games, both in 1440p and 4K. The RTX 3080 doesn't force gamers to choose between high resolution and high frame rate – it's a smooth gaming experience no matter which monitor you're using.

Let's start with the most challenging title first. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a game that no system I have tested can play with native 4K values ​​at 60 frames per second (fps) and extremely high settings. However, the RTX 3080 sets a new standard with an average of 61 fps (frames per second). The RTX 2080 Ti only reaches 47 fps, while the RTX 2080 Super reaches 43 fps. I can't exaggerate how impressed I was with the RTX 3080's 23% lead over the RTX 2080 Ti (and 30% over the RTX 2080 Super).

Next, I started Battlefield V. Historically, it's one of the few games where Nvidia GPUs lagged behind AMD. But not this time. The RTX 3080 has made its biggest leap in the games I tested and now averages up to 97 fps in 4K on Ultra. Entire 4K monitors with a refresh rate of 144 Hz are still uncommon. You need one to get the most out of the RTX 3080 in this game. Here the RTX 3080 is 22% ahead of the RTX 2080 Ti (with 76 fps) and 33% ahead of the RTX 2080 Super (with 65 fps).

As expected, the RTX 3080 has the highest lead at 4K, where the GPU takes a higher load. It's still a great card for 1440p gaming, of course. Assassin's Creed Odyssey averaged 78 fps and Battlefield V 147 fps, both 17% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti.

At Fortnite, the winnings weren't quite as high, mostly because the RTX 2080 Ti was already playing well. It was the only game where the RTX 2080 Ti actually outperformed the RTX 3080 in lower resolutions (like 1080p). In 4K, the RTX 3080 averaged 78 fps at epic settings, 17% more than the RTX 2080 Ti, and 29% better than the RTX 2080 Super.

Finally, let's look at a lighter tariff. Civilization VI is a game ideally suited for 4K, offering a wider view of the map and more detail for your expanding empire. Civilization VI averaged 168 fps for Ultra, compared to 141 fps for the RTX 2080 Ti and 117 fps for the RTX 2080 Super.

With all of these games, you won't see that much gain at 1080p or lower settings. In Battlefield V with 1080p Ultra settings, for example, the RTX 3080 was only a few fps ahead of the RTX 2080 Ti. This also applies to Fortnite and Civilization VI, where you are gradually losing some of the RTX 3080's value. Unless you plan on upgrading your monitor for a higher resolution or refresh rate, the RTX 3080 is not worth your time. You'd better save some money and wait for the RTX 3070 or the inevitable RTX 3060.

Content creation

Outside of gaming, a powerful GPU like the RTX 3080 can greatly speed up content creation like video rendering or 3D modeling. Although much of the heavy lifting of these tasks is done by the CPU, a powerful GPU can improve render times.

I started with Adobe Premiere Pro where I loaded a project with a two minute 4K video clip. With the RTX 3080, exporting the clip to ProRes 422 took 2 minutes and 27 seconds. This is 11% faster than the RTX 2080 Super in the same video export and only 5% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti.

Ray tracing and DLSS

The RTX 2080 Ti, launched with almost zero titles, supports ray tracing or DLSS. That was extremely disappointing. However, developer support for real-time ray tracing has grown slowly but steadily, and two years later, many new AAA games are supporting Nvidia's RTX capabilities in one form or another. Implementing a la carte is still frustrating as many games opt for more limited (and less strenuous) RTX features.

Still, RTX is much stronger today than it used to be. It's a good time to launch some new high-performance GPUs that take both ray tracing and DLSS to the next level.

I tested one of the first games to incorporate RTX functionality: Battlefield V. Fortunately, I've found that the RTX 3080's ray tracing capabilities have improved over the RTX 2080 Ti.

In the Tirailleur mission, the RTX 2080 Ti allows for some brilliant reflections in the puddles of water near the start of the level, which can slow the frame rate down to an average of 33 fps. Once DLSS was turned on, this was increased to 45 fps. This was in 4K with settings on Ultra.

The real implementation of real-time ray tracing is still a challenge for even the most powerful graphics cards.

With the RTX 3080, those numbers look a little more promising. This new card processes the same scene with the same settings at 55 fps and jumps up to 69 fps with DLSS. There's room to grow, but at least in Battlefield V, ray tracing isn't entirely useless.

I also tested the new ray tracing features in Fortnite. The shadows, reflections, and global lighting are beautiful. Reflections on the water are flawless and even the shadows on the back of your character look incredibly realistic.

But even with the RTX 3080, these RTX functions are still a performance bottleneck. It averaged 53 fps in 1440p in Ultra, with all RTX functions maxed. But in 4K? The game was only played at 23 fps.

Of course, the game also offers a number of DLSS settings (quality, balance, or performance) that increase the frame rate through upsampling. The Performance setting adds noticeable blurring to distant textures, while the Quality setting only brings back up to 27 fps. In the end, the combination of DLSS and ray tracing is still enough for a performance hit that most people will prefer to leave out. That's a shame because the ray tracing is great.

Our opinion

The RTX 20 series has been criticized for being ray tracing and A.I. as raw achievement. The RTX 3080 shows how seriously Nvidia took this criticism. The performance levels open up new possibilities for gamers and no longer force them to choose between high resolutions and high frame rates. Nvidia achieved this raw performance boost without sacrificing its heavy investments in features like ray tracing and DLSS, as it was determined to keep the PC at the forefront of the conversation in next-gen games.

The RTX 3080 will never be Nvidia's most popular card at $ 699, but as an industry leader and flagship model, it's the best PC gaming can offer.

Are there alternatives?

The next alternatives are also offered by Nvidia: RTX 3090 and RTX 3070. The 3090 is the most expensive (and most powerful) graphics card Nvidia has ever made, and it probably doesn't fit into your average PC case. At $ 499, the RTX 3070 is cheaper and, according to Nvidia, also more powerful than the RTX 2080 Ti. The RTX 3090 will be available on September 24, while the RTX 3070 will be available in October.

Rumor has it that AMD's upcoming RX 6000 graphics will include a high-end GPU that could definitely challenge Nvidia's top-notch graphics cards. As of now, however, AMD's offerings are limited to the RX 5700XT.

How long it will take?

The Nvidia RTX 3080 should last at least five years. The graphics cards most used by Steam gamers are still cards from the Nvidia 10 series, which were first launched in 2016. Nvidia grants a generous three-year warranty on its Founders Edition GPUs that covers hardware defects and errors.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The Nvidia RTX 3080 sets a new standard for first-class, incredibly fast PC games.

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