Intel NUC NUC6i5SYK Skylake Mini PC Review
NUC6i5SYK Gaming Performance
Intel says that the Intel NUC KIT NUC6i5SYK doesn’t need an add-in graphics card for amazing 3D graphics performance, so we put those claims to the test! We used Intel Graphics Driver version 15.40.22.4424 for Windows 10 to do our testing with. These drivers just came out on April 22, 2016 and are the latest graphics drivers for the 6th Generation Intel Core i5 processor series.
Battlefield 4
Battlefield 4 is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and published by Electronic Arts. It is a sequel to 2011’s Battlefield 3 and was released on October 29, 2013 in North America. Battlefield 4’s single-player Campaign takes place in 2020, six years after the events of its predecessor. Tensions between Russia and the United States have been running at a record high. On top of this, China is also on the brink of war, as Admiral Chang, the main antagonist, plans to overthrow China’s current government; and, if successful, the Russians will have full support from the Chinese, bringing China into a war with the United States.
This game title uses the Frostbite 3 game engine and looks great. We tested Battlefield 4 with the medium graphics quality preset . We used FRAPS to benchmark with these settings on the Shanghai level. All tests were done with the DirectX 11 API.
Benchmark Results: Battlefield 4 with medium image quality settings ran pretty well on the NUC6i5SYK. The average FPS was found to be 30 with dips down to 25 FPS and some topping out at 40 FPS. Lowering down to low image quality settings helped remove stutters in the heavy battle scenes, but the game was playable on medium.
Fallout 4
Fallout 4 is an open world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Fallout 4 is set in a post-apocalyptic Boston in the year 2287, 210 years after a devastating nuclear war, in which the player character emerges from an underground bunker known as a Vault. Gameplay is similar to Fallout 3. The title is the fifth major installment in the Fallout series and was released worldwide on November 10th, 2015.
Fallout 4 was benchmarked with low image quality settings. V-Sync can’t be disabled in the games options, so we edited the necessary INI files and disabled vsync in the driver software as well. We used FRAPS to benchmark Fallout 4 after you emerge from the vault and are in The Commonwealth.
Benchmark Results: We had troubled launching Fallout 4 on the NUC6i5SYK and if we could get it to launch we were getting below 10 FPS with low image quality settings and series driver issues. This game title was found to be unplayable.
Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Battlefront is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games based on the Star Wars films. Players take the role of soldiers in either of two opposing armies in different time periods of the Star Wars universe. Star Wars: Battlefront is built on the Frostbite 3 engine. Thief is the fourth title in the Thief series, developed by Digital Illusions CE and published by EA DICE/Disney Interactive on November 17, 2015.
We ran Star Wars: Battlefront with the image quality settings set at low and VSYNC was disabled. We used FRAPS to benchmark with these settings on Battle on Tatooine.
1080P Benchmark Results: The NUC6i5SYK averaged 28.04 FPS in Star Wars: Battlefront with a low of 22 FPS and a max of 36 FPS. Performance wasn’t exactly stellar, but we were able to play the game with low image quality settings if we could get it to launch right.
Star Wars: Battlefront might have come out six months ago, but Intel still has some driver issues that need to be worked out!
The Intel NUC KIT NUC6i5SYK isn’t the best choice for ‘Your Gaming Solution’ from what our use saw. The dual-core system had pretty long load times and we ran into graphical issues on multiple game titles. You can do very light 1080P gaming on some older game titles, but the driver support just isn’t there for some of the latest games.