CPU Hades Canyon experience

[Petano]

Last week I received Hades Canyon NUC NUC8i7HVK (stronger one)
There are many reviews on the net so I will more summarize few findings (just as it came to my mind. No real order)

My use case is to have it as portable machine for business trips when I will hook it to hotel TV or use portable monitor. Also for LAN events. Until now I used Intel Compute Stick with Core M3 which was ok but powerful only for older games and often struggle with drivers.

- NUC is heavier than it looks most likely due to cooling
- Looks nice to me. Build quality is really good.
- Fan on table could somehow resonate. It happened at my office desk. Didn't happen at home. Probably really table by table. Move of NUC helped.
- LEDs can be controlled from from BIOS or by Intel software. All LEDs can be shut down including power and only ones which remain on are NICs status LEDs
- Original pre-orders are getting some free software from Intel (haven't checked it yet).
- Some retailers are having it cheaper but without software above (maybe second batch) - more close to ~900USD instead of 999 USD
- Drivers are intel brand. Works with clean install W10 1803. I haven't tried upgrade. I installed directly latest version.
- Drivers mention radeon version 17.7. I tried original from AMD and either mark these drivers as latest or doesn't recognize HW.
- It is very quiet on idle
- Fan sometimes spin up when TurboBoost fire up.
- It seems due to smaller space CPU is more difficult to cool compare to GPU and HBM which is cooled easily
- Power management honors CPU a lot. Basically CPU gets everything and GPU get rest. Can be partially fixed by increasing power limit for GPU. It is visible for example during Unigine Heaven benchmark. When CPU is not loaded it is running fine at full speed. When Prime95 (less than 8 threads) is running togeterh with Heaven benchmark FPS can drop to half.
- I fixed above by disabling TurboBoost. Power consumption during prime dropped from ~100 to 75W. Fans is not increasing speed then and NUC is more quiet. I don't need it anyway
- Overclocking of GPU is easy and possible. Memory goes to 900MHz and GPU around 1350 MHz
- However OCing GPU add 10 - 15% of FPS but power consume increase dramatically
- Roughly for every 1 MHz you should count 0,5W of increased power consuption
- With disabled TurboBoost and GPU default during gaming it consume ~120W. Benchmark + stress 160W which is perfect for me. I can then use smaller brick from my laptop
- during OC of GPU always increase power limit. GPU obviously power struggle during high CPU with TurboBoost and OCed GPU.
- I have issues with 4k over HDMI but it might be due to very old non-High speed cable. I will try with new one.

I did so far few tests in 3DMark
Default: https://www.3dmark.com/fs/15504255
Quick OC of GPU with disabled TB: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/26562027
Current state (no TB, default GPU clock, HBM 900) https://www.3dmark.com/fs/15517568
Machine is very quiet with this settings (quiet profile)

My 6 months old son is taking all my free time and I haven't had more time to test but I will share more over time.

 

[Kmpkt]

Have you played with underlying the unit? Would be really curious to see how thermals and consumption responds to undervolting each component (CPU/GPU) independently and then finally how it responds when they are undervolted in combination.

 

[Petano]

Have you played with underlying the unit? Would be really curious to see how thermals and consumption responds to undervolting each component (CPU/GPU) independently and then finally how it responds when they are undervolted in combination.

Unfortunately no undervolting at the moment. CPU has lowest offset enabled to 0, No other slider in BIOS or Intel Extreme Tuning Utility.
GPU undervolt is not enabled at all

 

[Kmpkt]

Bummer. I thought I'd heard that Vega was a pretty tidy undervolter. Would have been nice to be able to undervolt/overclock and max things out.

 

[Petano]

Can it do VR?
HTC Vive
- Yes it can. There are however occasional stutter. Still on doable level but not really smooth.
- It actually works best on stock GPU settings. Better than overclocked.
- It actually lack like 10% of power for really smooth experience. Lowering settings helps but only a bit.

Windows Mixed Reality (Acer)
- It works perfect. Asynchronous time warp or how it is called is very helpful here.
- Built-in bluetooth allowed pairing with controllers easily.
- Frontfacing connectors are really helpful.
- After all updates installed tracking of controllers works perfect. Sometimes headset looses tracking of controllers if I keep hand down for longer time or very close to headset (flashlight). 2 or 3 seconds ones are very precise even If I put controller outside of helmet view (behind back for example)
- With SteamVR games and controllers work like charm including haptic feedback. It is weaker compare to HTC Vive but I actually like it a bit more.

Games
- I tried simple games and not really demanding like Fallout 4 VR.
The Lab, Furit Ninja, Arizona Sunshine, Beat Saber (awesome, be prepared to sweat a lot :-))

 

[SmithyBoy]

Last week I received Hades Canyon NUC NUC8i7HVK (stronger one)
There are many reviews on the net so I will more summarize few findings (just as it came to my mind. No real order)

My use case is to have it as portable machine for business trips when I will hook it to hotel TV or use portable monitor. Also for LAN events. Until now I used Intel Compute Stick with Core M3 which was ok but powerful only for older games and often struggle with drivers.

- NUC is heavier than it looks most likely due to cooling
- Looks nice to me. Build quality is really good.
- Fan on table could somehow resonate. It happened at my office desk. Didn't happen at home. Probably really table by table. Move of NUC helped.
- LEDs can be controlled from from BIOS or by Intel software. All LEDs can be shut down including power and only ones which remain on are NICs status LEDs
- Original pre-orders are getting some free software from Intel (haven't checked it yet).
- Some retailers are having it cheaper but without software above (maybe second batch) - more close to ~900USD instead of 999 USD
- Drivers are intel brand. Works with clean install W10 1803. I haven't tried upgrade. I installed directly latest version.
- Drivers mention radeon version 17.7. I tried original from AMD and either mark these drivers as latest or doesn't recognize HW.
- It is very quiet on idle
- Fan sometimes spin up when TurboBoost fire up.
- It seems due to smaller space CPU is more difficult to cool compare to GPU and HBM which is cooled easily
- Power management honors CPU a lot. Basically CPU gets everything and GPU get rest. Can be partially fixed by increasing power limit for GPU. It is visible for example during Unigine Heaven benchmark. When CPU is not loaded it is running fine at full speed. When Prime95 (less than 8 threads) is running togeterh with Heaven benchmark FPS can drop to half.
- I fixed above by disabling TurboBoost. Power consumption during prime dropped from ~100 to 75W. Fans is not increasing speed then and NUC is more quiet. I don't need it anyway
- Overclocking of GPU is easy and possible. Memory goes to 900MHz and GPU around 1350 MHz
- However OCing GPU add 10 - 15% of FPS but power consume increase dramatically
- Roughly for every 1 MHz you should count 0,5W of increased power consuption
- With disabled TurboBoost and GPU default during gaming it consume ~120W. Benchmark + stress 160W which is perfect for me. I can then use smaller brick from my laptop
- during OC of GPU always increase power limit. GPU obviously power struggle during high CPU with TurboBoost and OCed GPU.
- I have issues with 4k over HDMI but it might be due to very old non-High speed cable. I will try with new one.

I did so far few tests in 3DMark
Default: https://www.3dmark.com/fs/15504255
Quick OC of GPU with disabled TB: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/26562027
Current state (no TB, default GPU clock, HBM 900) https://www.3dmark.com/fs/15517568
Machine is very quiet with this settings (quiet profile)

My 6 months old son is taking all my free time and I haven't had more time to test but I will share more over time.

Sorry how does the skull look like when the skull and the eyes are both white ?

 

[Petano]

Sorry how does the skull look like when the skull and the eyes are both white ?

Normally i have LEDs off but I attached picture.

 

[SmithyBoy]

Normally i have LEDs off but I attached picture.

Thaks for the picture mate I want to get a Hades myself , I'll probably get one too also how bad were those vibrations you talked about ?

 

[Petano]

Thaks for the picture mate I want to get a Hades myself , I'll probably get one too also how bad were those vibrations you talked about ?

Not really bothering. I actually decided I will just accept it for now and leave it as it is.