Recently, a user from Chinese tech giant Baidu revealed Intel's latest NUC mini PC, and now new rumors about its full specifications have surfaced. And from what we can see, these leaked specs show just how powerful these mini PCs will be, even when compared to standard gaming PCs.
The NUC 12 Enthusiast, codenamed "Serpent Canyon," is a sequel to the NUC 11 "Beast Canyon" that will apparently use Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake processor and newer Arc A7-series GPUs.
As leaked by FanlessTech (Opens in a new tab) and reported by Wccftech (Opens in a new tab), the Serpent Cannon will come in three types.
All three would use Intel Arc laptop GPUs rather than the Nvidia GeForce GPUs the NUC 11s were equipped with. The 16GB variant targets the Arc A770M, while the 12GB and 8GB will likely be the Arc A730M and the Arc A550M.
The NUC 12 Extreme has also appeared in the rumor mill, which unlike the Enthusiast, which is supposed to use discrete GPUs, will use full-length discrete graphics cards.
Analysis: Can Intel Compete in the GPU Market?
It makes sense for Intel to throw off the shackles of competitor Nvidia and instead use its own in-house GPU for the NUC 12, especially in China where budget GPUs are more prevalent due to the popularity of internet cafes.
However, given the difficult benchmark performance of the Arc A7s and the high starting prices of the Arc A380 desktop, there seem to be issues with Intel's debut. In fact, Intel's high-end GPU benchmarks lagged behind Nvidia's RTX 3060 in early tests, which is even worse.
There's also the fact that Intel has limited the release of its desktop Arc GPUs to China, which has caused delays in the rest of the world. And, looking at the reasoning behind this decision, it's clear that Intel just isn't ready for Arc GPUs to launch anywhere else.
“All of these issues cast a huge shadow over Intel's success in the GPU market, so we'll have to wait and see how well the tech giant does once it fully launches products that use its lineup of GPUs, such as the NUC. 12. . , in the near future."
