Intel NUC5i7RYH Broadwell-U Iris NUC Review
by Ganesh T S on April 20, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Intel
- HTPC
- NUC
- Broadwell-U
Gaming Benchmarks
Intel's integrated GPUs don't have a big name in the gaming community. Once in a while, Intel throws in a surprise. In the Haswell family, CPUs with Iris Pro graphics gave a pleasant surprise to casual gamers. In this section, we will identify whether the Intel Iris Graphics 6100 in the Core i7-5557U can provide an acceptable gaming experience. It will also be interesting to find out how it compares against the HD 6000 in the Core i5-5250U and the HD 5500 inthe Core i7-5500U (BRIX s).
For the purpose of benchmarking, we chose four different games (Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and DiRT Showdown) at three different quality levels. As someone focusing on HTPCs and multimedia aspects, I rarely get to process gaming benchmarks, even while evaluating GPUs. One of the aspects that I feared was spending lot of time in installing the same games again and again on different PCs under the review scanner. The solution was to go the Steam route. Unfortunately, Steam also likes to keep the game files updated. A quick online search revealed that Steam could make use of an external drive for storing the game executables and downloadable content. With the Steam drive on-the-go use-case being read-heavy, the Corsair Flash Voyager GS USB 3.0 128GB Flash Drive (with read speeds of up to 275 MBps) was ideal for use as a portable Steam drive.
Sleeping Dogs
Tomb Raider
Bioshock Infinite
DiRT Showdown
At lower quality levels, the HD 5500 in the Core i7-5500U can sometimes provide marginally better frame rates, but the Iris Graphics 6100 trumps other UCFF PCs in almost all other situations. The only exception is the Core i7-4770R-equipped BRIX Pro that is also equipped with Iris Pro Graphics. Despite belonging to the previous generation, the higher TDP (65W vs. 28W) allows for better GPU performance.However, at the 20W and lower TDP-point / acoustic profile / chassis size, it goes without saying that Iris Graphics 6100 possesses the best gaming credentials.
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jameskatt - Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - link
Yikes! This Intel's NUCs are expensive. $300 I'd bite. $900 no way.extide - Thursday, April 23, 2015 - link
On the last page you lambash this unit for having mini-HDMI, yet in the photo's it appears to have full-size HDMI. I see mini displayport there though, did you mean to say mini displayport instead of mini-hdmi?DG4RiA - Sunday, April 26, 2015 - link
In the Power Consumption and Thermal Performance section, did I read the graph correctly in that the CPU will throttle down to around 1.5 GHz when the GPU is loaded ? That's like half the speed. Where I'm this i7 NUC cost nearly $200 more than the i5 NUC, what's the point if it will only run at the i5 speed when it really matter.I've been undecided between buying this i7 NUC and the Brix Pro 4770R. I prefer the Brix Pro performance but the overheating and high failure rate of the Brix Pro in the long run has kept me away from buying it. But this NUC can reach 105 degrees anyway. Anyone here own Brix Pro 4770R willing to comment ?
massib80 - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
I love my NUC! I'm using very successfully as a Plex Media Server :)Here if you are interested: http://www.nas-ho.me/?p=61
raymov - Thursday, April 30, 2015 - link
What is the height in mm with the lid & rubber feet removed?I am trying to figure out if it will fit within 1 rack unit?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_unit = 1.75 inches (44.45 mm)
Ethos Evoss - Saturday, May 2, 2015 - link
shame u anandtech didnt make price vs preformance comparsion