Taking advantage of its latest high-performance low-power microarchitecture, Intel updated its line of NUC mini-PCs.
Of the new NUC devices released, the NUC6i4SYH features the most performance, but it may not be the fastest NUC on the market. Instead, NUC6i4SYH will trade blows with Intel’s NUC5i7RYH, which might be faster overall.
The NUC6i4SYH is centered on an Intel 6th Gen (Skylake) Core i5-6260U processor with two CPU cores and a max turbo clock speed of 2.8 GHz. The NUC5i7RYH has a 5th Gen (Broadwell) Core i7-5557U with two CPU cores as well and a considerably higher turbo clock speed off 3.4 GHz. In this area, the older NUC with the Core i7 is probably faster because of the higher clock speed. The improved platform and architecture on the Skylake system will help to make up for this difference in clock speed though.
On the GPU side of the equation, however, the NUC6i4SYH should be faster. Both systems use a form of Intel’s Iris graphics, but they have the same core count, and the Skylake based system benefit from performance enhancements in the GPU architecture. The Skylake iGPU also benefits from the use of DDR4 memory.
Although it shouldn’t impact performance, the NUC6i4SYH uses considerably less power and has a TDP rating of just 15 W. This enabled Intel to reduce the overall size of the NUC, reducing the height by 16.7 mm compared to the NUC5i7RYH.
As for the lower-end NUC6i3SYH, which uses an Intel 6th Gen (Skylake) Core i3-6100U, it should be faster than the previous Core i3 NUCs released by Intel. The fastest Broadwell Core i3 NUC was limited to 2.1 GHz, but the Core i3-6100U runs at 2.3 GHz and has the various architectural improvements related to Skylake to increase performance even more. Although both the Broadwell and Skylake Core i3 NUCs have a TDP of 15 W, Intel was still able to reduce the size of the Skylake NUC by 16.7 mm compared to the older model.
| Intel Skylake NUCs (Broadwell listed for comparison only) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NUC | NUC6i3SYK | NUC6i3SYH | NUC6i5SYK | NUC6i5SYH | NUC5i7RYH |
| CPU | Intel 6th Gen Skylake Core i3-6100U - 2.3 GHz Dual-Core, 3 MB Cache, 15 W TDP | Intel 6th Gen Skylake Core i3-6100U - 2.3 GHz Dual-Core, 3 MB Cache, 15 W TDP | Intel 6th Gen Skylake Core i5-6260U - 1.9 GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo) Dual-Core, 4 MB Cache, 15 W TDP | Intel 6th Gen Skylake Core i5-6260U - 1.9 GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo) Dual-Core, 4 MB Cache, 15 W TDP | Intel 5th Gen Broadwell Core i7-5557U - 3.1 GHz (3.4 GHz Turbo) Dual-Core, 4 MB Cache, 28 W TDP |
| Memory | Dual-Channel DDR4 SO-DIMMs, 1.2 V, 1866 MHz, 32 GB Max | Dual-Channel DDR4 SO-DIMMs, 1.2 V, 1866 MHz, 32 GB Max | Dual-Channel DDR4 SO-DIMMs, 1.2 V, 2133 MHz, 32 GB Max | Dual-Channel DDR4 SO-DIMMs, 1.2 V, 2133 MHz, 32 GB Max | Dual-Channel DDR3 SO-DIMMs, 1.35 V, 1333/1600 MHz, 16 GB Max |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 520 | Intel HD Graphics 520 | Intel Iris Graphics 540 | Intel Iris Graphics 540 | Intel Iris Graphics 6100 |
| Storage | Internal M.2 SSDSDXC Slot | Internal M.2 SSDInternal SATA-III 2.5”SDXC Slot | Internal M.2 SSDSDXC Slot | Internal M.2 SSDInternal SATA-III 2.5”SDXC Slot | Internal M.2 SSDInternal SATA-III 2.5 |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 115 mm x 111 mm x 32 mm | 115 mm x 111 mm x 32 mm | 115 mm x 111 mm x 32 mm | 115 mm x 111 mm x 32 mm | 115 mm x 111 mm x 48.7 mm |
There is currently no word on pricing or availability.
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