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
UL Benchmarks - PCMark, 3DMark, and VRMark
This section deals with a selection of the UL Futuremark benchmarks - PCMark 10, PCMark 8, 3DMark, and VRMark. While the first two evaluate the system as a whole, 3DMark and VRMark focus on the graphics capabilities.
PCMark 10
UL's PCMark 10 evaluates computing systems for various usage scenarios (generic / essential tasks such as web browsing and starting up applications, productivity tasks such as editing spreadsheets and documents, gaming, and digital content creation). We benchmarked select PCs with the PCMark 10 Extended profile and recorded the scores for various scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU and GPU in the system, though the RAM and storage device also play a part. The power plan was set to Balanced for all the PCs while processing the PCMark 10 benchmark.
PCMark 8
We continue to present PCMark 8 benchmark results (as those have more comparison points) while our PCMark 10 scores database for systems grows in size. PCMark 8 provides various usage scenarios (home, creative and work) and offers ways to benchmark both baseline (CPU-only) as well as OpenCL accelerated (CPU + GPU) performance. We benchmarked select PCs for the OpenCL accelerated performance in all three usage scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU in the system.
3DMark
UL's 3DMark comes with a diverse set of graphics workloads that target different Direct3D feature levels. Correspondingly, the rendering resolutions are also different. We use 3DMark 2.4.4264 to get an idea of the graphics capabilities of the system. In this section, we take a look at the performance of the Intel NUC8i7BEH (Bean Canyon) across the different 3DMark workloads.
3DMark Ice Storm
This workload has three levels of varying complexity - the vanilla Ice Storm, Ice Storm Unlimited, and Ice Storm Extreme. It is a cross-platform benchmark (which means that the scores can be compared across different tablets and smartphones as well). All three use DirectX 11 (feature level 9) / OpenGL ES 2.0. While the Extreme renders at 1920 x 1080, the other two render at 1280 x 720. The graphs below present the various Ice Storm workloads' numbers for different systems that we have evaluated.
UL 3DMark - Ice Storm Workloads | |||
3DMark Cloud Gate
The Cloud Gate workload is meant for notebooks and typical home PCs, and uses DirectX 11 (feature level 10) to render frames at 1280 x 720. The graph below presents the overall score for the workload across all the systems that are being compared.
3DMark Sky Diver
The Sky Diver workload is meant for gaming notebooks and mid-range PCs, and uses DirectX 11 (feature level 11) to render frames at 1920 x 1080. The graph below presents the overall score for the workload across all the systems that are being compared.
3DMark Fire Strike Extreme
The Fire Strike benchmark has three workloads. The base version is meant for high-performance gaming PCs. Similar to Sky Diver, it uses DirectX 11 (feature level 11) to render frames at 1920 x 1080. The Ultra version targets 4K gaming system, and renders at 3840 x 2160. However, we only deal with the Extreme version in our benchmarking - It renders at 2560 x 1440, and targets multi-GPU systems and overclocked PCs. The graph below presents the overall score for the Fire Strike Extreme benchmark across all the systems that are being compared.
3DMark Time Spy
The Time Spy workload has two levels with different complexities. Both use DirectX 12 (feature level 11). However, the plain version targets high-performance gaming PCs with a 2560 x 1440 render resolution, while the Extreme version renders at 3840 x 2160 resolution. The graphs below present both numbers for all the systems that are being compared in this review.
UL 3DMark - Time Spy Workloads | |||
3DMark Night Raid
The Night Raid workload is a DirectX 12 benchmark test. It is less demanding than Time Spy, and is optimized for integrated graphics. The graph below presents the overall score in this workload for different system configurations.
The VRMark Professional Edition v1.2.1701 comes with three rooms. Each room can be run either in desktop or HMD mode, with varying minimum requirements for the same workload. The benchmark results include the average FPS achieved, and a score based on the FPS. A pass or fail indicator is also provided based on whether the average FPS exceeds the required FPS. In this section, we take a look at the performance of the Intel NUC8i7BEH (Bean Canyon) on a comparative basis across the three workloads in desktop mode.
VRMark Orange Room
The Orange Room is meant to test the effectiveness of a system for handling the requirements of the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. The recommended hardware for both VR HMDs should be able to easily achieve the desired target FPS (88.9 fps). However, in the desktop mode, the target performance is 109 fps without any frame drops. Systems benching with an average FPS lesser than that are deemed to have failed the VRMark Orange Room benchmark. The graphs below present the average FPS and score for the different systems being considered today.
UL VRMark - Orange Room | |||
VRMark Cyan Room
The Cyan Room sits between the Orange and Blue rooms in complexity. It is a DirectX 12 benchmark. Similar to the Orange room, the target metrics are 88.9 fps on HMDs and 109 fps on the desktop monitor. The graphs below present the average FPS and score for the different systems being considered today.
UL VRMark - Cyan Room | |||
VRMark Blue Room
The Blue Room is the most demanding of the three workloads. At the time of introduction of VRMark in October 2016, no publicly available system running as sold was able to pass the test. The performance of a system in this benchmark is an indicator of its VR-readiness for future generation of HMDs. Similar to the other workloads, the passing performance metrics are 88.9 fps on HMDs and 109 fps on desktop monitors. The complexity of the workload is due to the higher resolution (5012 x 2880) and additional geometry making it necessary to increase the number of Direct3D API calls. The graphs below present the average FPS and score for the different systems being considered today.
UL VRMark - Blue Room | |||
As expected, the integrated GPU is not VR-capable. However, the Thunderbolt 3 port can be used to hook up a VR-capable eGPU in an eGFX enclosure, if needed.
81 Comments
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StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
The only thing that hinders me from jumping onto one of these... Is the Intel Decelerator Graphics.AMD needs to apply some much needed competition in the NUC space I think!
notashill - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
Check out the ASRock DeskMini A300 or HP EliteDesk 705, not *quite* as small as the NUC but fairly close and use Ryzen APUs.Irata - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
The AT review of it should be due in a week or two according to Ganesh (he added this as a comment under the Intel based A310).Targon - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
Zotac offers AMD based solutions. I'd wait for the 7nm AMD chips if you can wait, since they will be better for very small machines.sor - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
Zotac is dead to me after teasing the MA551 (the only potential ryzen competitor to the NUC) for over a year and then canceling it. I’m not aware of any Zotac competitors at this level that have a modern AMD APU.I was on the verge of buying one of these NUCs but at the last moment the Asrock A300W came out, which is a much better deal. Far better graphics and cheaper.
Irata - Thursday, April 4, 2019 - link
I think it's good to remember companies who have let us down in the past when making purchase decisions.mikato - Thursday, April 4, 2019 - link
Yes, I kept waiting for that also. I didn't realize they formally cancelled it, I just never heard anything and when I searched periodically I just found other people wondering the same thing.sor - Thursday, April 4, 2019 - link
I came across this thread. I assume “Z_staff” speaks for Zotac.https://www.reddit.com/r/ZOTAC/comments/9af6by/zot...
mikato - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link
Ah. Well good to know finally I guess :/jordanclock - Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - link
They get the Hades Canyon NUC with the Vega M GH? You get a fast Intel CPU and a noticeable bump in GPU performance. Granted, you're also doubling the power usage.