This test really highlights the 96 EU in the iGPU of the NUC 11 Pro as in some tests was about 50% more performant than the NUC 8, and twice as performant as the NUC 10 Pro as they have less powerful iGPUs. It had a third of the performance the NUC 9 Pro which has a discrete GPU. SPECviewperf 12.1 Since we had a whole system, we tested it as such. But keep in mind that the gaming performance of this system will rely heavily on the parts you choose, especially your GPU. This longer NUC can fit longer, full-size graphics cards. On Red Dead Redemption 2 (medium settings), the NUC didn't hit an ideal 60 fps at 1080p, but was close and still playable even at 4K. Customize with a full-size discrete graphics card, up to 64 gigabytes of dual-channel memory and massive storage options thanks to four M.2 slots.

To use the capture card, you plug an HDMI cord from a device (e.g., PC, server, gaming console, etc.) and then use another cord from the output of the capture card to the monitor. You can then use software to view, capture, or stream the video as it transfers from the device to the monitor; we used OBS Studio, but any software that supports capture cards should work with it as well. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. We then used iperf3 to test the bandwidth between the two systems. The results showed a transfer rate of 2.37 Gbps. Similar to its predecessor, the NUC 9 Extreme Kit, the NUC 11 Extreme Kit fits into a very small case. And while you can upgrade it in many ways similar to a desktop, the process is a bit different here. The Intel NUC 11 Extreme not only looks the part with RGB lighting but is also able to keep up with any benchmark you throw at it. With an 11th-gen Core i9 processor that features 8 cores and 16 threads as well as support for a top-of-line graphics card, this little box can rival performances of much larger towers.

Over the years, we have had the opportunity to review many different NUC systems, with the latest being the NUC 11 Compute Element (CE). That NUC has a quad-core i7 processor with 1.35 GHz, 96 EUs, Intel Iris Xe Graphics integrated GPU (IGPU), and a built-in video capture card. We found the NUC 11 CE to be a capable machine for casual gamers, high-end home theaters, and content creators. The photo below shows how much larger it is than the Pro. The one weakness we saw was in our file transfer test. NUC 11 Extreme Kit transferred almost 25GB of files at a rate of 386.43 MBps, far behind both other desktops. Intel made some interesting design choices with their wired networking and USB connectors on this NUC. For instance, while Intel has 2.5GbE NICs available at approximately the same price as 1GbE NICs, they decided to go with the 1GbE NICs. Also, they chose to use USB-A rather than non-ubiquitous USB-C ports. The ports do support 3.2 Gen 2 speeds, but we are seeing more and more accessories with USB-C cables. Intel NUC 11 Operating System Support We run the PCMark 10 benchmark to test how well systems run common office applications. Many of these applications have not been optimized to take advantage of the multi-core CPUs or GPUs that modern systems have. This is apparent in the Essentials score where the NUC 9 with its 8-core CPU only slightly beat the 4-core NUC 11. The Productivity and Digital Content Creation scores favored the NUC 9 as it could take advantage of its CPU and GPU but despite this, the NUC 11 performed extremely well with half the cores of the NUC 9 and an iGPU rather than a discrete GPU. PCMark 10

At 14.06 x 7.44 x 4.72 inches, this PC is a bit larger than its previous design, but also fits more GPUs and still fits very easily on a desk. The Corsair One a200 takes up less desk space, but is taller at 7.87 x 6.93 x 14.96 inches. Both are smaller than mid-towers like the iBuypower Element CL Pro (18.1 x 18.1 x 8.5 inches). To evaluate the device’s performance, we ran benchmarking tests on it and then compared the results to four other NUCs: NUC 8, NUC 10 , NUC 9 Pro, and NUC 11 Elk Bay. There are various configurations available for the NUC 11 Pros – the least powerful of which is powered by a dual-core Intel Core i3-1115G4 processor, and the most powerful is powered by a quad-core Intel Core i7-1185G7 processor. They come in a 112 x 117 x 37mm, or 54mm tall, case. The particular model we are reviewing in this article is the NUC 11 TNKi5 with the 37mm case and an i5-1135G7 processor. We have also reviewed other NUCs, including the NUC 7 CJYS , a low-priced system powered by an Intel Celeron J4005 processor that we ended up installing IGEL and Wyse VDI client software on and used to connect to our virtual desktops. A more powerful NUC we reviewed was the NUC 8 i7BEH, which we installed ESXi on after our initial review and we currently use as an ESXi host. Both systems have been working extremely well for their assigned roles. We also reviewed a NUC 9 Pro which had a Xeon processor and discrete GPU, and ESXi running on it. These examples highlight the flexibility and range of uses that NUCs provide.These use the 11 th Gen Intel Core G series 10nm processors. TDP Maximum is 28W, so these are midway between a full desktop and a low power use notebook processor. To evaluate the device’s performance, we ran a SPECworkstation 3 benchmarking test on it and then compared the results to other NUC systems that we have tested. The full review for the other NUC system can be found here, here and here. Noise varies from a whisper to about 35dB, but we heard it go louder on 100% load to around 50dB. Power use is quite good. Under load, it reached 400W, but most of the time, it was about half that. In cost terms, less than 20 cents an hour. The latest Intel i7-11375H (desktop) has a 5GHz Turbo. This only runs in larger form factor desktops and is an average 14% faster. The real difference no TDP constraint and 37% faster at maximum speed. Graphics – 30% faster than Intel UHD