A pre-production engineering pattern of Intel’s eighth era Hades Canyon NUC Mini PC (Next Unit of Computing) has made it into the arms of Korean {hardware} web site, Playwares. This Vega-powered mini PC appears to be able to some fairly unimaginable 1080p efficiency regardless of its tiny measurement, and is anticipated to launch someday later this month – probably at GDC.
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This miniscule VR-ready PC runs at a TDP of 100W and is powered by Intel’s Kaby Lake G i7 8809G, a four-core, eight-thread processor working at 3.1 base clock and 4.2 increase clock with 24CUs of AMD’s Vega M GPU. Unlike AMD’s lately launched Raven Ridge desktop APUs which depend on the system reminiscence, this chip comes with 4GB of the tremendous high-bandwidth HBM2 reminiscence on the identical BGA package deal.
The NUC itself options the same old compatibility for normal sized part’s you’d discover on a full-sized PC, so these will differ from system to system. As you may count on, the engineering pattern comes with some fairly highly effective elements, together with a Samsung 960 Pro 1TB M.2 SSD, and 16GB of 2133MHz reminiscence. The OC scores bump the reminiscence pace as much as 2,666MHz, and the Vega GPU as much as 1,300MHz, from the earlier max increase of 1,190Mhz.
For a complete mini PC that might slot in a contained in the field your graphics card got here in, the Hades Canyon NUC certain packs a punch. Rise of the Tomb Raider manages a median of 53fps on the Ultra preset, and 59fps when overclocked. Rainbow Six: Siege reaches a whopping 96fps and 106fps whereas overclocked, even with the Ultra preset enabled. For the thousands and thousands of gamers on Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, the Hades Canyon NUC manages 65fps on common, and 70fps OC, whereas utilising a customized preset comparable “to many gamers’ realistic custom options”.
In 3DMark Firestrike, the NUC manages a rating of 10,147. For comparability, the Asus GL702ZC, powered by a Ryzen 1700 and RX 480 4GB, scored 10,063 in our benchmarking for a similar run.
We gave the Hades Canyon NUC a take a look at drive again at CES in January, and we have been pleasantly stunned as to the VR capabilities of the flagship Kaby Lake G chip. A fast recreation of Echo Arena was sufficient proof that testing out VR in entrance of many individuals is a horrible expertise, but additionally that the Hades Canyon NUC was greater than able to dwelling as much as the VR-ready tag on this title.
Interestingly, whereas temps have been considerably excessive round below load – as you may count on from such a small form-factor construct – Playwares report that they seen very restricted and inconsistent thermal throttling, even when the CPU package deal reached fiery temperatures of 110°C.
We additionally received some hands-on expertise with the NUC itself, and don’t let it idiot you. Despite that small footprint, the tech packed into that tiny chassis is significantly weighty in the way in which that’s actually satisfying… you understand what I imply, proper?
All in all, the NUC powered by the Vega M GH graphics gives greater than sufficient graphical grunt to get the job executed at 1080p. Unfortunately, this hefty, tech-filled mini PC will doubtless include a fairly hefty price ticket to match, and also you’ll doubtless need to equipment it out with costly reminiscence and storage, too.
We lastly have some critical small form-factor 1080p gaming potential both near launch or already out within the wild – with Intel’s high-range Kaby Lake G matched by the lately launched AMD Raven Ridge APUs on the low- and mid-range. Potentially, we are going to see AMD’s Vega M as standalone merchandise within the combine too, however we’re but to listen to extra on this GPUs since Lisa Su spoke about them at CES in January.
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