Intel NUC13 Extreme Raptor Canyon Review: Sizzling SFF Performance Powerhouse

Setup Notes and Platform Analysis

The review sample of the NUC13RNGi9 came packaged in a fancy plastic crate, signifying its premium nature. Since the review configuration was ready for benchmarking, the package contents only included the main unit, power cord, Windows 11 installation DVD, and a USB key containing the drivers for the system. The retail packaging is bound to be quite different, as these pre-production samples are packaged to make unboxing videos attractive.

The NUC13RNGi9 sports the Intel VisualBIOS with a modern interface. It has plenty of enthusiast options to fine tune the performance. The video below presents the entire gamut of available options.

Intel is confident enough about the thermal solution to market the Raptor Canyon NUC with 'factory overclocking'. I use the term loosely here to denote that the 125W TDP processor is configured in the BIOS to operate with a PL1 of 150W. As we shall see further down in this review, the system has no trouble maintaining performance with that sustained package power.

The full specifications of the review sample are provided in the table below.

The block diagram below gives some insights into the design of the system in relation to the I/O capabilities.

The block diagram above shows the key difference in the baseboard design. In addition to the regular x16 PCIe lanes for the discrete GPU, the Compute Element and the baseboard also include an additional x4 PCIe link off the Z690 chipset. This provides the headers for front panel USB ports and SATA support. It must also be noted that the Type-C port in the front panel is serviced directly from the Compute Element, even though it is sourced off the Z690 chipset. It is actually a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20 Gbps port (and not Gen 2, as specified in the block diagram above). Other aspects are similar to the Dragon Canyon NUC - the Thunderbolt ports are from the controllers hooked up to the Z690 chipset, rather than being directly from the CPU (like in the Beast Canyon NUC).

In today's review, we compare the Raptor Canyon NUC against the previously reviewed Extreme NUCs. Some of the systems were reconfigured to accommodate a discrete GPU where the original review was done without one. We processed all the systems with our updated test suite. The table below provides a comparative look at the different system configurations.

TThe next few sections will deal with comparative benchmarks for the above systems.