Intel NUC5i5RYK Review: A Broadwell-U UCFF PC for Enthusiasts
by Ganesh T S on February 20, 2015 8:00 AM ESTGaming 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 HD Graphics 6000 in the Core i5-5250U can provide an acceptable gaming experience. It will also be interesting to determine whether HD 6000 can provide better numbers compared to the HD 5500 in the 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
The gaming benchmarks, when considered as a showdown between the HD Graphics 5500 and HD Graphics 6000, is is a complete walkover for the former in the Core i7-5500U. Faster memory helps in salvaging a few FPS here and there, but the games are not fluid even with all settings dialed down. One aspect to be kept in mind while considering the above results is that the HD 5500 in the Core i7-5500U had accesses to DRAM running at 2133 MHz, while the HD 6000 in the NUC5i5RYK was limited to 1866 MHz.
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Jaybus - Saturday, February 21, 2015 - link
I have one of the Haswell Celeron NUCs, DN2820FYKH, and it has plenty of power for HTPC use. Also, if you want to hide it away, it comes with a VESA mount adapter to bolt to the back of the monitor. Nice if your monitor mount has the space or if your monitor isn't wall mounted.GTVic - Saturday, February 21, 2015 - link
ChromeCast gets very hot. Not sure the technology is there for a computer on a stick.Shadowmaster625 - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link
Why are there no AMD APUs on these graphs? Some nvidia tablet chip data would seem relevant also. Thinks are looking rather dire for intel.BlueBlazer - Saturday, February 21, 2015 - link
Can find those benchmarks here http://www.anandtech.com/show/8119/amd-launches-mo... for comparison. And that's AMD's current top mobile SKU although it has a rather high 35W TDP.mfenn - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link
The word should be envelope not envelop on the last page.vsilgalis - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link
I'm really disappointed that none of the NUCs have dual ethernet ports on them. I really want to use NUCs as servers for personal use, but really don't like USB ethernet dongles.dakishimesan - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link
There are several do it yourself solutions that come very close to the functionality you want:http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/Mini-IT...
https://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/embed...
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ato...
bobbozzo - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link
I've heard that Intel makes a mini-PCIe gigE card; a hole can be cut the the back of some of the NUC cases for the RJ45 port.dakishimesan - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Gigabit-Ethernet-Contro...Realtec
Brian_R170 - Friday, February 20, 2015 - link
This review states twice that the first NUCs had Sandy Bridge CPUs. This is not correct. The very first NUCs were the DC33217IYE and DC33217BY. Both of these used the Core i3-3217U, which is an Ivy Bridge CPU. Intel never offered a Sandy Bridge-based NUC.