Intel NUC HTPC for 4K

[therealsamlouis]

Hey guys,

 

First time poster on the forum here, however I have been a long time viewer of Linus's.

 

I was hoping to get some of your opinions on the new 4K HTPC setup I have been debating recently.

I have purchased a nice and shiny new 4K TV, and am now looking to upgrade from my existing 1080p android based HTPC setup.

 

More specifically, I am looking at the Intel NUC BOXD54250WYK1 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102052&cm_re=nuc_intel_5000-_-56-102-052-_-Product) with the low power i5-4250U and Intel HD 5000 integrated graphics. From what I have read, the HD 5000 can handle 4K video with relative ease, and supports the new h.265 format. I am not concerned that it does not come with HDMI 2.0 built in, as this would only be used for 4K video, and not gaming (not like it would handle that anyways ).

 

I also know Intel's next generation NUC 2.0 units have been leaked (http://www.fanlesstech.com/2014/08/exclusive-intel-readying-nuc-20.html), offering up the new Broadwell chips with the newer 6000 series integrated graphics.

 

This is my debate.... should I go ahead with the current gen NUC with the 4K capable HD 5000, or do I wait for the NUC 2.0s to hit the market with possibly better 4K support and a similar price point?

 

Granted I am assuming from what I have read on the new NUCs, the successor to the i5-4250U will likely be the i5-5250U with the HD 6000 gpu. This makes sense as the HD 5000/6000 both appear to be the lowest end GT3 series gpu's based on the Haswell-U/Broadwell-U chips respectively.

 

However to further complicate things, it looks like the 6000 series GT3 gpu's are getting a significant TDP reduction (30W to 15W), at the cost of gpu clock speed (200MHz to 100MHz). Among a few other changes that have hit performance due to the lower TDP.

 

Here is my source for this info:

HD 5000: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2468/hd-graphics-5000.html

HD 6000: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2626/hd-graphics-6000.html

 

Assuming this is all true, this leads me to think I would be better off with the current HD 5000 for the 4K performance?

 

I should also clarify that I am trying to stay around the $300 price point for my HTPC (not including the SSD, RAM ...etc). This is why my choice is the i5-x250U based NUCs.  

 

I am interested what you guys think?

Thanks!

 

[mansoor_]

I would wait for the rumors to finalize, and for atleast a specs release, you will get a double bonus of the prices coming down on the current gen nuc and if the performance to power usage ratio gets significantly lower it will definitely be worth it. 

[Stagea]

 

I also know Intel's next generation NUC 2.0 units have been leaked (http://www.fanlesstech.com/2014/08/exclusive-intel-readying-nuc-20.html), offering up the new Broadwell chips with the newer 6000 series integrated graphics.

 

This is my debate.... should I go ahead with the current gen NUC with the 4K capable HD 5000, or do I wait for the NUC 2.0s to hit the market with possibly better 4K support and a similar price point?

 

Granted I am assuming from what I have read on the new NUCs, the successor to the i5-4250U will likely be the i5-5250U with the HD 6000 gpu. This makes sense as the HD 5000/6000 both appear to be the lowest end GT3 series gpu's based on the Haswell-U/Broadwell-U chips respectively.

 

However to further complicate things, it looks like the 6000 series GT3 gpu's are getting a significant TDP reduction (30W to 15W), at the cost of gpu clock speed (200MHz to 100MHz). Among a few other changes that have hit performance due to the lower TDP.

 

Here is my source for this info:

HD 5000: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2468/hd-graphics-5000.html

HD 6000: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2626/hd-graphics-6000.html

 

Assuming this is all true, this leads me to think I would be better off with the current HD 5000 for the 4K performance?

 

 

 

The HD 6000 has 48 EUs however, giving it about the same performance for half the power budget.

 

If you don't care about HDMI 2.0, either should work fine. I would go for Broadwell if it's available though (lower consumption and support for newer APIs).

[therealsamlouis]

Stagea - You think that the extra 8 EUs on the 6000 will about equal out the 50% drop in gpu clock speed from the 5000?

 

Hmmm, well I guess it's probably worth waiting for a bit anyways to see how the Broadwell NUCs turn out. Maybe I will buy this one at that time and save some money!

 

Thanks guys!

[steffen_anywhere]

Stagea - You think that the extra 8 EUs on the 6000 will about equal out the 50% drop in gpu clock speed from the 5000?

 

Hmmm, well I guess it's probably worth waiting for a bit anyways to see how the Broadwell NUCs turn out. Maybe I will buy this one at that time and save some money!

 

Thanks guys!

 

I honestly do not think that the HD 6000 (with 48EU, same as the current Intel Iris 5100) will be clocked at 1.2GHz, but we'll have to see how that 14nm process turns out.

[Stagea]

Stagea - You think that the extra 8 EUs on the 6000 will about equal out the 50% drop in gpu clock speed from the 5000?

 

Hmmm, well I guess it's probably worth waiting for a bit anyways to see how the Broadwell NUCs turn out. Maybe I will buy this one at that time and save some money!

 

Thanks guys!

 

I doubt that they'd go for a slower GPU for a newer model. The data is highly questionable... PCI-E x1, really? A huge decline in transistor count is also unlikely.

[therealsamlouis]

I doubt that they'd go for a slower GPU for a newer model. The data is highly questionable... PCI-E x1, really? A huge decline in transistor count is also unlikely.

 

Yeah I thought so too... I spent some time digging around on other websites and it seems that information is most likely false.

 

The spec sheet of the i5-5250U I found here - http://www.notebookcheck.com/Intel-Core-i5-5250U-Notebook-Prozessor.127306.0.html even states that the HD 6000 will have a clock speed of 300Mhz.

This would make much more sense than the drop down to 100MHz for the newer generation gpu.

 

I guess I will just have to sit back until CES 2015 when they are likely to officially unveil the next NUCs and U series broadwell chips.

[eugenius]

The first real 4k mini-htpc's are going to be the mini AMD Carrizo pc's. They state Q2 2015 launch. Broadwell doesn't have HDMI 2.0 and Intel doesn't have good reputation with getting sound out of HDMI right. The latest J1900 fanless celerons can't even do bitstreaming right - in 2014.

 

Carrizo will have HDMI 2.0, HSA and a better GPU that most probably will allow madVR. It will also have way better power consumption than previous AMD offerings which were not that bad on idle anyway.

 

On the Intel side I don't know, maybe Skylake. I would be (even more) embarrassing if Skylake will launch without HDMI 2.0.

 

Whatever NUC-like PC I'd get in 2015, I'd want it to be fanless and to have at least HDMI 2.0 and USB-C power input.

[Stagea]

The first real 4k mini-htpc's are going to be the mini AMD Carrizo pc's. They state Q2 2015 launch. Broadwell doesn't have HDMI 2.0 and Intel doesn't have good reputation with getting sound out of HDMI right. The latest J1900 fanless celerons can't even do bitstreaming right - in 2014.

 

Carrizo will have HDMI 2.0, HSA and a better GPU that most probably will allow madVR. It will also have way better power consumption than previous AMD offerings which were not that bad on idle anyway.

 

On the Intel side I don't know, maybe Skylake. I would be (even more) embarrassing if Skylake will launch without HDMI 2.0.

 

Whatever NUC-like PC I'd get in 2015, I'd want it to be fanless and to have at least HDMI 2.0 and USB-C power input.

 

Carrizo would be nice as it has native H.265 support. Broadwells and Haswells support partial acceleration of H.265/HEVC, but they still fall flat on their faces when decoding 4K/UHD res H.265 videos. Even Devil's Canyon models toil to do 4k @ 60Hz from HEVC encoded sources.