The Intel NUC6i5SYK Skylake UCFF PC Review
by Ganesh T S on March 11, 2016 8:00 AM ESTPerformance Metrics - I
The Intel NUC6i5SYK was evaluated using our standard test suite for low power desktops / industrial PCs. Not all benchmarks were processed on all the machines due to updates in our testing procedures. Therefore, the list of PCs in each graph might not be the same.
Futuremark PCMark 8
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. The benchmark numbers show that it is a toss-up between the Broadwell-U Iris Core i7-5557U in the NUC5i7RYH and the Core i5-6260U in the NUC6i5SYK. The former is a 28W TDP part and can sustain higher clocks. Despite that, the performance of the two are comparable for day-to-day usage activities (such as web browsing and spreadsheet editing), as tested by PCMark 8.
Miscellaneous Futuremark Benchmarks
The Futuremark GPU benchmarks present a different story. The advancements in the Skylake GPU enable the Skylake NUC to easily outscore every other mini-PC that has been evaluated before.
3D Rendering - CINEBENCH R15
We have moved on from R11.5 to R15 for 3D rendering evaluation. CINEBENCH R15 provides three benchmark modes - OpenGL, single threaded and multi-threaded. Evaluation of select PCs in all three modes provided us the following results. In the single threaded case, the higher clocks and TDP ratings help the NUC5i7RYH (based on the 28W TDP Core i7-5557U), ECS LIVA One (based on the 35W TDP Core i3-6100T) and the GIGABYTE GB-BXi7H-5500 (based on the Core i7-5500U - usual TDP of 15W configured upwards to 28W) to outscore the Skylake NUC (based on the 15W TDP Core i5-6260U).
However, in the OpenGL case, the Skylake GPU with eDRAM enables the NUC6i5SYK to have a comfortable lead over other UCFF PCs.
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Glock24 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Performance is decent, but the risk of bricking it is too high when updating the BIOS. Maybe the updated competing products will do better.yuhong - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
The problems occur only with SK Hynix DDR4 chips using an older BIOS. Avoid these sticks and you should be fine.Zingam - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
Why is there a risk of bricking the NUC when attempting such trivial operation?yuhong - Sunday, March 13, 2016 - link
Because the processor was hanging while doing the BIOS flash operation due to a DRAM timing issue.CajunArson - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
You say "Iris Graphics" and then you say that these parts have eDRAM but that's not always true.Intel has numerous models that have "Iris Graphics" with the largest (GT3) IGP configuration but do not include the eDRAM. Instead, Iris *Pro* Graphics has been used to designate the use of eDRAM. Do you have confirmation from Intel that this has changed or does the article need correction?
CajunArson - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
As a followup:Here's the ARK page for that i5 chip: http://ark.intel.com/products/91160/Intel-Core-i5-...
Note "Iris Graphics 540"
Now here's the page for the i7-5775C, which we know actually has the eDRAM in it: http://ark.intel.com/products/88040/Intel-Core-i7-...
Note it lists "Iris Pro Graphics 6200"
Ian Cutress - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
Intel graphics comes as HD, Iris and Iris Pro.For Skylake, both Iris and Iris Pro use eDRAM:
HD covers all 2+2 and 4+2 configurations (GT1 and GT2),
Iris is 2+3e (GT3e) with 64MB of eDRAM and
Iris Pro is 4+4e (GT4e) with 128MB of eDRAM.
From our Skylake microarchitecture piece:
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/9582/9%20-%20Scal...
Obligatory Wiki link, where AnandTech is the source using Intel slides:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_HD_and_Iris_Gr...
I'm more than happy to be proved wrong, if there's a GT3 without eDRAM.
CajunArson - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
OK, it looks like Intel has changed its naming conventions for Skylake.For example, both of those Broadwell NUCs have "Iris" 6100 GPUs, but they lack the eDRAM.
It looks like Intel is pushing eDRAM into more models now, which is a good thing.
firewall597 - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
"My bad" are the words you are looking for.dsumanik - Friday, March 11, 2016 - link
lol @ nerd fights, i vote you both lose