Intel's Bean Canyon (NUC8i7BEH) Coffee Lake NUC Review - Ticking the Right Boxes
by Ganesh T S on April 3, 2019 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Intel
- NUC
- UCFF
- Thunderbolt 3
- Cannon Point
- Coffee Lake-U
HTPC Credentials - YouTube and Netflix Streaming
Our HTPC testing with respect to YouTube had been restricted to playback of a 1080p music video using the native HTML5 player in Firefox. The move to 4K, and the need to evaluate HDR support have made us choose Mystery Box's Peru 8K HDR 60FPS video as our test sample moving forward. On PCs running Windows, it is recommended that HDR streaming videos be viewed using the Microsoft Edge browser after putting the desktop in HDR mode.
The 'Stats for Nerds' debug OSD in the top left shows that the stream being played back is a VP9 Profile 2 bitstream.
Various metrics of interest such as GPU usage and at-wall power consumption were recorded for the first three minutes of the playback of the above video. The numbers are graphed below.
We find that the playback consumes about 40% of the resources of one of the two available decoders. Thanks to the stream being progressive, the video processing usage is minimal. In the steady state, the GPU consumes around 4W, while the system consumes around 30W (on an average)
The Netflix 4K HDR capability works with native Windows Store app as well as the Microsoft Edge browser. We used the Windows Store app to evaluate the playback of Season 4 Episode 4 of the Netflix Test Patterns title. The OS screenshot facilities obviously can't capture the video being played back. However, the debug OSD (reachable by Ctrl-Alt-Shift-D) can be recorded.
The (hevc,hdr,prk) entry corresponding to the Video Track in the debug OSD, along with the A/V bitrate details (192 kbps / 16 Mbps) indicate that the HDR stream is indeed being played back. Similar to the YouTube streaming case, metrics such as GPU usage and at-wall power consumption were recorded for the first five minutes of the playback of the title. The numbers are graphed below.
The HEVC Main10 stream consumes around 50% of one of the two decoders, and the at-wall power consumption in the steady state is around 23W.
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HStewart - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
I think a good NUC will be when Intel has Gen 11 graphics which is suppose to be around NVidia 1030 level but integrated on GPU.Irata - Thursday, April 4, 2019 - link
So the RX Vega 11 iGPU level then ?ab3cv - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
Any idea whether the graphics can support the Dell 49 Ultrasharp with resolution of 5120 x 1440 at 60Hz?Thanks
cacnoff - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
I have tried this monitor on both the Type-C port as well as the HDMI port and both seem to be able to drive the panel at the 5120x1440@60hz resolution just fine. I will have a second panel on thursday to see if it can drive both at the same time fine.jpap - Friday, April 5, 2019 - link
Glad it can drive at least one 512x1440@60 panel. I'm keen to hear if it can drive two simultaneously! That would be one awesome minimal desktop system. :-)ToTTenTranz - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
I for one think it's incredible that the 8559U with a 28W TDP and a GT3 Gen9 is getting practically the same or higher performance than the 6770HQ with a 45W TDP and a GT4 Gen9, considering they're both made on different variations of what's essentially the same node.PeachNCream - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
Yeah, its nice to see the TDP for performance do that sort of thing so clearly. It's also nice that you can now purchase Skull Canyon equivalent power without being forced to have the Skull Canyon name. I was always put off by the whole death and bones branding. It's too visceral and ugly in a world that has enough real life death in it. Bean Canyon sounds a lot better.Ashinjuka - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
I agree. I'm worn away by the mainstreaming of the Death Cult America but I guess that's what tends to happen when a society is imploding.Sailor23M - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
I have a Skull Canyon that I picked up on 25% sale from newegg 2 years ago and its been a solid SFF machine, Intel packages an extra normal (non-skull) lid if you rather use that one. There is a dedicated intel support page for the machine with all drivers and firmware. I have mine mounted behind my monitor for a very clean AIO look with a wireless mouse n keyboard.TheinsanegamerN - Friday, April 5, 2019 - link
The 90's called they want their moral panic back.