Slap in a M.2 PCI SSD, maybe 8gb x 2 DIMMs, and you are off to the races. And it scratches stusser’s oddball itch for external GPUs with the Thunderbolt 3 support.
I think I might bite on this box, the NUC part, anyway – the high end internal Skylake GPU “Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 (Skylake-H GT4+4e with 128MB eDRAM)” might be “good enough” for all but the latest games at 720p and midrange settings. I guess nothing with this particular GPU has shipped yet? I can’t find benchmarks. Intel compares it to the GTX 750, Radeon R7 250X.
Intel says the GT4e is “up to 50% faster” than the GT3e (iris pro 6200), and the 6200 is 15% slower than a 750ti. So if you take them at their word and it really is 50% faster as opposed to “up to”, the GT4e should handily beat the 750ti, by 28%. And we all know the 750Ti is generally capable of 1080p gaming in modern console ports at medium settings and 30fps. So it seems likely that the GT4e might actually be a reasonable gaming GPU. Not enthusiast-level by any means, but something approximating a GTX950 or 960M. It will certainly play modern games at 720p no problem.
I don’t really see the point of an eGPU with a non-laptop, as much of the cool factor is plugging in an ultrabook and playing latest games in 4k or whatever, but I guess that’s an option too.
At $850 fully configured (Windows is $15, get a win8 license at kinguin and upgrade it) value is a problem, unless you really care about the form-factor and don’t want to pick up an alienware alpha or build your own HTPC with a GTX950 or whatever. IMO, even at its advanced age the alienware alpha is probably a better choice, it’s been as cheap as $300 and is commonly available at $400. That’s a haswell i3 versus a skylake quadcore i7, but that doesn’t matter much for gaming at this level.
I do applaud intel’s innovation in this space-- very cool stuff. Price isn’t there, though.
Yeah price is a problem, since we already know CPU barely matters to modern gaming, and we’re paying for a “high end” skylake i7 in a tiny chassis.
I just like the box – I doubt you could get the fanciest intel internal GPU on anything other than the “high end” i7 unfortunately. Not like Intel is ever gonna say “hey, let’s put our best Iris Pro 580 GPU on a cheap dual-core, four thread Core i3!” Even though it would make a more agreeable, balanced gaming machine for less money… not gonna happen.
But then if you care about price at all you’re not going for a micro-mini NUC, since small = expensive to some degree, still.
Well it comes down to whether intel actually wants to sell this product or if it’s a marketing “halo” push. My guess is the latter, because it’s not priced competitively. Damn sexy though.
This is intels most powerful on chip GPU ever which is why it is so intriguing to me. I want to see how far this goes, since this is the first thing on die that can legit compete with real midrange video cards.
That is A Big Deal.
Granted it is in a weird expensive package at the moment, but baby steps. Think 5 years out.
I do wish I could get the fanciest on-die GPU with a midrange Core i3… but since that Ain’t Never Gonna Happen, I guess my closet wish here is that I could buy a socketed CPU that had this stuff on it!
I just bought: Intel Skull Canyon NUC6i7KYK kit with 6th gen. Intel Core i7 processor, M.2 SSD Compatible, Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Max 32GB with Intel Iris Pro graphics, Thunderbolt 3, No OS, Windows 10 Compatible via http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102166
Release date 5/12/2016
I think I might try this as my new HTPC, since I can put in a 512gb SSD for relatively cheap, then use an external 2TB 2.5" USB 3.0 enclosure for big media… I am really fascinated by how fast the built-in video might be on this thing and I GOTS TA KNOW
What are you using that much space for in these things? Does your HTPC do recordings? Or do you host Plex right on the device itself?
While these things look cool, I think a clunker cheap-but-powerful laptop would be better value in most cases even if you never use the screen. Too bad cowboom no longer exists… used to be able to get scratched to hell laptops without AC adapters that nonetheless worked perfectly with nice CPUs and 960m discrete GPUs for 400-500.
I think I will just punt and go with a fast M.2 boot (probalbly 950 pro, 512mb) and then for extra storage, external USB 3.0 2TB 2.5" HDDs, very similar to what I have now, just external vs internal. Lots of storage is needed for a media box. Will be a bit ultra-cable-y (sigh) but, it’s mostly hidden in the cabinet anyway.
I have an i5 NUC. It was for XBMC and Steam Streaming. Once my QNAP NAS integrated XBMC/PLEX, I more or less kicked it to the curb. I’d say Steam streaming over gigabit is going to be a better experience than the Iris Pro, but honestly, I rarely gamed on it. My son and I play a few console games on the PS4, but anything PC I play on my desktop PC anyway. This may have to do w/ having kids and not wanting to game in the living room and fight over shared space. The appeal of the NUC was there, but there are way better media players than a PC, and any cheap lightweight box can handle Steam in-home streaming.
Yeah but for Steam streaming, making sure my office PC is turned on (not sleeping), logged in, NOT at the lock screen, etc is irritating. I’d rather have more games be completely available on the box itself.
Steam streaming works great, don’t get me wrong, but it is kind of a hassle when you don’t have a machine dedicated to streaming 24/7 that never logs off.
I totally agree. I also (now) know I’m not remotely content with either A) An oversized, full-on GTX 980 Ti box sitting under the TV or B) An integrated graphic solution (even the best ever Intel integrated gfx solution) that’s vastly sub-par to the 980 Ti running on a G-Sync display w/ my main rig. I wasn’t content w/ a 660ti when I played around w/ an HTPC setup.
That’s why I settled for a PS4 for gaming/streaming + NAS w/ XBMC solution and pretty much abandoned PC gaming on the TV for now.
Still, I’m curious to read your eventual blog entry on how it fares, and what you chose as an HTPC front end, etc.
