Prepare for NUC-lear War
Intel’s unholy union of Core CPU with AMD graphics is here
IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN, when you can’t swing a VR headset without smacking a stack of new processors. AMD’s secondgeneration Ryzen and Intel’s second batch of Coffee Lake processors are both preparing for take-off, along with mobile Coffee Lake CPUs for laptops that promise a huge boost in performance for mobile systems. But the processor I’m most excited to poke a stick at is Intel’s Kaby Lake-G, with on-package RX Vega M graphics.
I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to create Kaby Lake-G. Intel CPU with AMD graphics sounds cool, sure, but the resistance between the two companies must have been tremendous. It’s almost a slap in the face to Intel’s whole graphics team—your stuff isn’t good enough! And then there’s the technical challenge of getting HBM2 and Vega M into the package, and having those communicate with the Core CPU. Intel calls its solution EMIB, Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge, and it does away with the need for HBM’s costly and large silicon interposer.
There are some pretty sweet-looking laptops coming out with the new chip, including the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 and HP Spectre X360. Our first full testing of the Core i7-8809G will come in the form of the new NUC8i7HVK, which I just received, and will start checking out for next month’s issue. If you love compact devices like the NUC, this latest version is shaping up to be very impressive.
Intel also put together a prototype VR vest, with the NUC on the back, Microsoft’s Mixed Reality headset with motion controllers, and a massive 300Wh battery. Yeah, it was heavy, but given a wide space to walk around, it was a truly liberating feeling for VR. Battery life for the prototype was only about two hours, and there’s plenty of room for improvement, but this is the ultimate future of VR/MR/AR.